Who have thought that Christmas time would bring news other than how much money we all spent on boxing day? Well there's two news pieces that are worth posting about. Here's the first.
Have you ever heard of a chap called Vernon Hill? No, not the lucky fellow who's married to Tess Daly. Vernon Hill, you know, he's that banking tycoon from the states?
You'd be forgiven for not hearing about him. I hadn't either until the middle of this month.
Vernon Hill is an entrepreneur who has made his name through setting up a number of banking institutions. Not all have been huge, but all have been successful. He took Commerce Bank on when it only had 1 branch, and sold it years later to Canada's TD Bank when it had....470 branches. That's some success!
His is success is based on his differing approach to banking. He is famous for creating retail banking that relies on service rather than interest rates to attract customer.
His wikipedia entry say this is a "New Style" - I'd disagree, this is more old style (certainly in the UK anyway), back to the days when bank staff knew you by your first name and personal banking, was in fact, 'personal'.
It's just been announced that FSA has granted Mr Hill's new banking venture, called Metro Bank, a banking license. making metro Bank the first UK banking start up in over 100 years.
You can read more about it on FT.com - the piece that really stands out for me (as a Gadget and Dog lover) is "They will also have gadgets to entertain children and will encourage customers to bring in their dogs."
I hope they let us BIG kids to play with the gadgets too!
I think this is an interesting development in UK banking. It's clear that 2010 is going to be a year of more friendly, customer centric banks and banking facilities being created. Tesco Bank will do this, following the "Every Little Helps" mantra.
With the growth of social media, and consumer conversation being so prevalent, and indeed encouraged, online. Larger banking brands, that are seen to be stuffy, will really need to work hard to grow positive public perception.
Make no mistake, the online battle ground for this will be Social Media.
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