A new report from the global microfinance body CGAP predicts that, with the right market conditions, mobile banking could reach large numbers of poor people who are outside the formal financial system.   » Continue Reading

In an article titled 'Innovation: The Growth Accelerator' in the latest issue of BAI Banking Strategies, McKinsey's Zubin Taraporevala and Marla M. Capozzi explore innovation in retail banking - saying that the banking industry is "ripe for innovation" and noting that "the vast majority of industry breakthroughs have come from attackers, not incumbents." They share results from a survey of 300 financial services executives that identified three major challenges inhibiting innovation - in particular, "limited use of customer insights and external idea networks" - along with six characteristics and capabilities of high-performing innovators.

In an editorial yesterday titled The Fed Aims at Credit Cards, the New York Times responded to the Fed's announcement on Friday about rule changes to address what it called "unfair practices" by credit card issuers and retail bank overdraft fees. The editorial called the proposed rules a "modest step forward" and quoted Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York (author of her own "Credit Cardholder's Bill of Rights" legislation) saying "there are abusive, abusive, abusive practices going on now."

The US government's economic stimulus checks will start arriving shortly in 130 million US households (the only way to actually get one is to have filed a US federal tax return for 2007). See the Economic Stimulus Payments Information Center at the IRS web site for details on the program.   » Continue Reading

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