The Bankwatch

RBC have had their student blog up for a few months now, and thought I would check back in.

About RBC p2p - Everything students need to know about money

Ever notice that bank commercials tend to have a lot of grey haired people waxing poetic about retirement? Or suits conferring with more suits about leveraging assets?

This isn’t for those people.

The posts are smart and well written. Its difficult to know how much review occurs before posting but the result is a good collection of posts varying from speaker reviews, cultural events, to basic budgetting.

The main quibble I have is the dreaded “you are leaving this site” message. It appears the lawyers won that one, but all in all a good effort.

You are now leaving this Web site.

You will be entering a third party Web site, which is not owned or
operated by Royal Bank of Canada. Although we carefully select the Web
links we place on our Web sites, the content, products and information
contained on third party Web sites are not owned or controlled by Royal
Bank of Canada. Therefore, we make no representations about, do not
endorse, and are not responsible or liable for damages relating to the
third party, its products or services, its Web site, its privacy
policies or practices, or the content of the third party Web site.

Do you wish to continue?

The blogs get a few comments, some of which are internal, and that will take time to build up momentum. Coverage in google blogsearch is evident, but gets diluted by the RBC acronym having multiple uses.

Relevance to Bankwatch:
They key for RBC has to be in their learning from use of the tools, watching comments, and listening to others speak about their blog.

The usually impenetrable RBC gets into a dispute over future loss potential with Citi analysts.

TheStar.com | Business | RBC disputes critical Citi assessment

Citi Investment Research analyst Shannon Cowherd lowered her rating on the stock from “hold/high risk” to “sell/high risk” and cut her price target from to C$40 from C$47.

“The downgrade is driven by our conservative estimate of a $5 billion potential credit-related writedown and a $2-billion increase to the provision for credit losses,” Cowherd wrote in a report to clients.

Nice interactive map showing the worldwide impacts.

FT.com / In depth - Mapping the credit crunch

The FT’s exclusive interactive map charts how and when many of the financial groups affected by the crisis in the US subprime mortgage markets and the consequent turmoil in credit markets worldwide either made a killing or lost their shirts.

 Old stats here but the Canadian usage of Firefox is significantly higher than elsewhere - further evidence of the geekiness of Canada.

The most popular browsers on the web are:

1. Microsoft IE   85.45 %

2. Mozilla Firefox  11.51 %

3. Apple Safari  1.75 %

4. Netscape  0.26 %

5. Opera  0.77 %

The most popular browsers in the USA are:

1. Microsoft IE  80.73 %

2. Mozilla Firefox  14.07 %

3. Apple Safari  3.55 %

4. Netscape  0.76 %

5. Opera  0.77 %

The most popular browsers in Canada are:

1. Microsoft IE  78.52 %

2. Mozilla Firefox  16.98 %

3. Apple Safari  2.05 %

4. Netscape  0.68 %

5. Opera  1.67 %

The most popular browsers in the UK are:

1. Microsoft IE  93.37 %

2.Mozilla Firefox  4.94 %

3. Apple Safari  0.99 %

4. Netscape  0.23 %

5. Opera  0.39 %

Source: Mozilla Firefox global usage share is still growing

 Some interesting stats from eMarketer on North American Internet and broadband penetration.  These numbers seem lower than I had thought, but they follow usual eMarketer approach of summarising and aggregating other research, and it seems credible.

Executive Summary: Some 58% of Canada’s population is online, which is only slightly behind the US penetration rate of 63%. Broadband growth has exceeded that of the US, with 59% of households connected via a high-speed Internet connection at the end of this year compared with 44% of US households.

Source: eMarketer.com - Canada Online

The penetration is predicted to level off at close to 70%.

What is more interesting is the Internet penetration levels at different age brackets.  This is the best predictor of future Internet usage, and expectation, with close to 80% in the Gen Y category.

 Courtesy of Payments News, an Interac (payment association) survey that shows most Canadians do not use their debit cards safely.  Here is some sound advice from the association to bank customers who use debit.

• Use your hand or body to shield your PIN when you are conducting transactions at an Automated Banking Machine (ABM) or at the checkout. # Keep your banking card in sight when conducting transactions at the checkout.
• Check your banking statements regularly and contact your financial institution immediately if you detect any unusual activity, e.g. purchases you did not make or missing charges.
• If your debit card is lost, stolen or retained by an ABM, notify your financial institution immediately.
• Memorize your PIN. Only you should know your PIN. If you suspect that someone knows your PIN, even a friend or family member, change it immediately.
• When selecting your PIN, never use obvious information, such as, your telephone number, date of birth, address or Social Insurance Number. These numbers are often stored in the same place as your banking card enabling criminals to easily guess your PIN.

Source: Payments News: Survey Shows Canadians Not Shielding Their Debit Card PIN Regularly - October 19, 2006

As reported at Canadian Banks and Insurance next week is third quarter earnings time, with focus amongst other things, on margins, Enron, and Wealth management growth.

Canadian Banks & Insurance: Bank Profits Seen Up; Domestic Margins Key

Bank of Montreal, Toronto-Dominion and Royal report quarterly results the week of Aug. 21.

Analysts expect per-share earnings, before items, of C$1.20 for BMO, C$1.16 for TD and 85 Canadian cents for Royal, according to Reuters Estimates.

Bank of Nova Scotia , National Bank of Canada and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce will follow in the week of Aug. 28.

The mean analyst estimates are 87 Canadian cents a share for Scotiabank, C$1.24 for National, and C$1.60 for CIBC, according to Reuters Estimates.

Symcor who are owned by, and manage cheque clearing for some Canadian banks, (Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Montreal & Toronto Dominion Bank) are moving ahead in preparation for cheque imaging, and clearing, known in Canada as TECP.

Finextra: Symcor licenses Carreker Image Inspector

“In preparation for Truncation and Electronic Check Presentment (TECP), Canada’s equivalent to Check 21, one of our top priorities is to have a solution in place that mitigates our risk exposure, protects our customer’s privacy, and ensures document integrity — by not only analyzing an image for quality, but also for usability both in our current and future image exchange environment,” said Wayne Martin, Symcor’s senior vice president, Technology Services. “Carreker’s Image Inspector will allow us to meet these objectives and further improve efficiencies as we capitalize on imaging technology.”

Image Inspector uses Carreker’s advanced image recognition technology and sophisticated detection routines to analyze and flag low quality items for repair. The product is designed to ensure the integrity of check and payment document images and verify their readability for financial institutions. It analyzes these images to determine if they are of good quality and that key information such as the payee name, legal amount, courtesy amount, and signature are present and readable. Image Inspector can also identify missing images and conditions where the MICR in the image does not match the item transaction data.

Technorati Tags: symcor, cheque+imaging, check+image, TECP, check+21

Dexit apparently has been involved in the RFP for TfL expansion of Oyster that didn’t materialise.  However it seems that they have gained some potential UK contacts as a result.

Card Technology, The Smart Card News Source

Campbell says Dexit’s participation in the TfL bid has opened up some possibilities for future business. “Through that process, we made a number of contacts in the UK market, and some of those people we’re still in discussions with about projects in the UK,” he says. Dexit, which has about 50,000 registered users and 450 participating merchants in the greater Toronto area, is also exploring ways to introduce its service across Canada, Campbell says.

Working in conjunction with Bell Canada, Dexit’s major partner and the country’s largest telephone company, Campbell says the firm has sought to add large retailers to its acceptance network in preparation for a nationwide launch. “We’ve not aggressively expanded the service in the last year or so,” he says. “It’s our view that the focus needs to be on securing major merchants because then they’re a catalyst for other major merchants and small and medium-sized merchants,” he says. (2006-05-08

Technorati Tags: payments, dexit

In a study, designed to provide banks, payment processors and retailers with a road map for the next decade to help plan their payments business strategies, its indicated payments will double worldwide by 2010, but the details are more interesting.

Finextra: Global electronic payment volumes to double by 2010

The annual number of electronic payment transactions, currently at approximately 210 billion worldwide, are expected to double by the end of the decade, according to research released by ACI Worldwide.

The individual markets of different growth profiles:

The Eastern Europe and Asia/Pacific regions are forecast to lead the world in electronic payment transaction growth, predicted at 21.6% and 19.2% respectively, for the period of 2004 to 2009.Other regions including the Middle East, are forecast to increase 15.9% and NAFTA (North American Free Trade Alliance) expected to grow 12.3%.

During the five-year period from 2004 to 2009, forecast volumes are expected to double across the world, with China and India doubling more quickly at a rate of every three and four years, respectively. 

Relevance to Bankwatch: Background for development of payments strategy.ACIStudy.pdf

Technorati Tags: payments bankwatch_relevance_strategy