Easy FinanceA complete Up-to-date source for business news, finance news

July 16, 2011 –  LONDON – Europe’s banks would be 80 billion euros short of capital under a tough test of their health, more than 30 times the amount demanded in an official test, according to a leading analyst.

Eight small banks on Friday failed a test of how 90 European lenders would withstand a two-year recession and were told to raise 2.5 billion euros.

Twenty top banks would fail a more severe test based on the data they supplied in the official test, with lenders in Britain, France and Germany all falling short, said Kian Abouhossein, an analyst at JPMorgan, in a note on Saturday.

The official tests were criticized for not applying a haircut on sovereign bond holdings in the banking book and having too low a pass mark.

“EBA stress test II is yet again an opportunity missed for EU member states encouraging banks to raise equity as Basel 3 ratios remain low,” Abouhossein said.

Europe’s banks would need 41 billion euros to keep their core capital ratio above 7 percent, rather than the 5 percent pass mark used in the official test, according to Reuters calculations.

JPMorgan said the shortcomings meant the results were of limited value, although the test provided far greater data and transparency than has been available in the past, allowing analysts to run an “acid test” for 27 banks using stricter criteria including haircuts on sovereign banking book exposures and a 7 percent pass mark.

The banks tested would show an 80 billion euro capital deficit, including 25 billion euros for UK banks, 20 billion euros for French banks, 14 billion for German banks, 9 billion for Italian banks, 4 billion in Spain, 4 billion euros for Portuguese banks and 4.5 billion in Austria, Abouhossein said.

Telling myself no is getting to be old hat. Sure, there are definitely things I would love to have, but I’m becoming more comfortable with the thought that I can’t have everything my heart desires.

I’m even pretty good at limiting myself with purchases for the baby. Correction, I’m pretty good at buying NOTHING for the baby. Hmm. Perhaps I need to at least work on getting a bed for the poor little dude.

But I have a fatal flaw…

I want my husband to have absolutely everything and I’m realizing this could be a problem.

We received notice from his school that he is eligible to participate in the graduation ceremony next month. He’ll have two classes to take in the summer, but since they don’t have a winter ceremony, summer graduates walk early.

Ever since we received the notice, we have been receiving a barrage of e-mails, letters, and phone calls from the school and outside vendors to buy everything under the sun for the graduate.

$200 invitations? Yes! We NEED those. They have the OFFICIAL school seal! He DESERVES it. $500 lifetime membership to the alumni association? Of course he needs that! How else will we get tickets to games?!? $299 diploma holder? It’s important! $175 cap and gown

Read more…

In the run up to JUMP 2011, the challenge of gathering and using data across all channels remains a key issue for marketers.

Last year, social and mobile were the new kids on the block and now it’s fair to say they are now serious contenders for fully established marketing channels.  

Although these new channels present new challenges, when it comes to data gathering and gleaning intelligence to manage a customer’s journey, they are ultimately just new channels that need to be treated in much the same way as the existing channels.

All of the evidence points to customers wanting to experience multichannel interactions with brands at a time and place of their choice. Earlier this year, we undertook some research to get a deeper understanding of this and asked consumers via an online survey how they preferred to be contacted. 

Not surprisingly, email was the most favoured channel for communication across the board, with 86% preferring it for offers, 80% for product and service updates, 76% for feedback and 60% for customer service.

Mobile stood out as potentially the most intrusive channel, with 95% saying they find it intrusive for push messages. And when it comes to reaching out to new customers, nearly half thought email was appropriate, 43% liked direct mail and 17% social media.

Read more…

In South Korea, a supermarket chain is experimenting with a new system that lets commuters shop from subway stations with the cellphones.

The biggest problem with ordering groceries for delivery has always been that looking at a selection of food online is very different from browsing the aisles at your local megamart. Homeplus, a South Korean grocery chain, has placed wall length billboards with photorealistic images of supermarket shelves on the wall of subway stations. Although virutal the displays were exactly the same as actual stores, from the display to the merchandise.

Shoppers use their cellphones scan the QR code of each product they want, and the products will be delivered to their doors.

Video after the jump.

Once again Payment Protection Insurance claims are being raised in the news. People everywhere are claiming back thousands and thousands in mis-sold PPI. Have you put your PPI claim in yet?

Barclays bank recently announced that they feel they are responsible for some of the mis-selling that has caused problems for millions of people in the UK over the last 15-20 years. Barclays are being honest about the situation and this should benefit their customer image, they have kindly set aside 1 billion pounds in anticipated Payment Protection Insurance claims. Unlike the Lloyds banking group who seem to enjoy making it difficult to complete a claim from start to finish, LBG (Lloyds banking group) have announced that they estimate around 20% of all payment protection insurance claims will be rejected within the first couple of weeks due to having ‘no PPI’.

Not many people can understand why Lloyds is taking the difficult route with their clients, when it would make life easier for people if they just paid them their PPI premiums back and brushed the whole incident under the carpet. Sur

Read more…