State of the Market

[SueEllen]

Someone was suggesting that it was a fact forgotten by BA during the latest meltdown .

I guess it comes from the top, as Willie Walsh is known to have a disdain / lack of appreciation of his IT people.

Well IT is simple isn't it.

And we shouldn't spend money on it.

[MrMarkyMark]

Well IT is simple isn't it.

And we shouldn't spend money on it.

British Airways is close to striking an agreement for Capita to run its call centres as the airline attempts to improve its customer relations after its disastrous IT meltdown last month.

Under the agreement, Capita, an outsourcing group that has had its own public relations disasters in the past with its management of London’s congestion charge and NHS administration, would take over the almost 10m calls a year made to BA staff in Newcastle upon Tyne and Manchester.

https://www.theguardian.com/business...-cancellations

[BrilloPad]

There are a number of small firms a long way outside of London who understand the value of IT to the financial services industry. They are going to disrupt the FS market in a major way. If you thought Uber disrupted taxis or Airbnb disrupted hotels, it's nothing compared to what's coming.

Inneresting comment. Would you care the name one?

Banks tend to have a monopoly of FS and its hard to break into. They offshore, nearshore etcetc.

[MrMarkyMark]

Inneresting comment. Would you care the name one?

Banks tend to have a monopoly of FS and its hard to break into. They offshore, nearshore etcetc.

I guess he's referring to Fintech companies

[Cirrus]

I guess he's referring to Fintech companies

Fintech is an interesting term. It's a bit like someone coming up with Provisionspace to describe Lidl and Aldi, as if that makes them somehow totally different to Tesco. All Financial Services companies are intensely 'tech'. I've yet to see anything from these Fintech outfits that is in anyway new although they may have snazzier front ends. I was at Barclaycard when they were implementing AI (neural networks) - twenty years ago. All the banks do that now. PSD2 is not just a bunch of bright young programmers and other people who wear their top two buttons undone. I was interviewed for such a role at Santander more than a year ago.

These companies come up with ideas which - like so many - will work but won't work enough to make any money. I had a contract with what would have been a Fintech company if the term had been invented. The plus point was it was just down the road and I got to go to Australia. The downside was the business model was screwed (and the management anarchic) so it was intensely stressful and dysfunctional.

So: Fintech, AI, big data (who has seen that make any money?) - these all create work but I wonder whether it's the type of work you really want.

[uk contractor]

There are a number of small firms a long way outside of London who understand the value of IT to the financial services industry. They are going to disrupt the FS market in a major way. If you thought Uber disrupted taxis or Airbnb disrupted hotels, it's nothing compared to what's coming.

Doubt it somehow do you know how hard it is for established recruitment agents to even make FS sector PSL's nowadays! No way regardless of cost savings FS will go for small firms unless they have a long track record and strong reliability. Passing compliance due diligence tests alone (which are basic entry level requirements) will be tough. Near term is all about offshoring, onshoring, tier2 imports & virtualisation to contain rising staff costs.

[eek]

Fintech is an interesting term. It's a bit like someone coming up with Provisionspace to describe Lidl and Aldi, as if that makes them somehow totally different to Tesco. All Financial Services companies are intensely 'tech'. I've yet to see anything from these Fintech outfits that is in anyway new although they may have snazzier front ends. I was at Barclaycard when they were implementing AI (neural networks) - twenty years ago. All the banks do that now. PSD2 is not just a bunch of bright young programmers and other people who wear their top two buttons undone. I was interviewed for such a role at Santander more than a year ago.

These companies come up with ideas which - like so many - will work but won't work enough to make any money. I had a contract with what would have been a Fintech company if the term had been invented. The plus point was it was just down the road and I got to go to Australia. The downside was the business model was screwed (and the management anarchic) so it was intensely stressful and dysfunctional.

So: Fintech, AI, big data (who has seen that make any money?) - these all create work but I wonder whether it's the type of work you really want.

Round here probably both me and AtW (although we both control the data we collect so know what we want to do with it). Random datasets are usually worthless before you start processing them....

[BlasterBates]

big data (who has seen that make any money?)

Basically big data is the advertising industry i.e. Google, Facebook, Yahoo etc

[PermMCCon]

Fintech is an interesting term. It's a bit like someone coming up with Provisionspace to describe Lidl and Aldi, as if that makes them somehow totally different to Tesco. All Financial Services companies are intensely 'tech'. I've yet to see anything from these Fintech outfits that is in anyway new although they may have snazzier front ends. I was at Barclaycard when they were implementing AI (neural networks) - twenty years ago. All the banks do that now. PSD2 is not just a bunch of bright young programmers and other people who wear their top two buttons undone. I was interviewed for such a role at Santander more than a year ago.

These companies come up with ideas which - like so many - will work but won't work enough to make any money. I had a contract with what would have been a Fintech company if the term had been invented. The plus point was it was just down the road and I got to go to Australia. The downside was the business model was screwed (and the management anarchic) so it was intensely stressful and dysfunctional.

So: Fintech, AI, big data (who has seen that make any money?) - these all create work but I wonder whether it's the type of work you really want.

I totally agree with you. Everyone LOVES going on about how FS will suddenly have the same issues as Black Cab taxis vs Uber... but they forget that breaking into FS is extremely hard (in general) and for good reason - if you are going to be offering people the opportunity to obtain mortgages and loans, then Governments and Central Banks worldwide will thrown a fair few thick rule books at you. Even handing out credit cards like they were smarties is not as simple as people think and carry a number of costs / complexities.

It really isn't as easy as we all like to make out. Do you remember Egg? Oh yes, they were going to revolutionise the market. But I don't see them much nowadays. Metro Bank? Totally different to the others... but not taken over the high street quite yet. And so on.

Its not impossible, but neither is it as simple as everyone likes to make it. Sure there's more and more of us doing most banking on our mobiles and internet, but that's good news for the banks who are thinking "ok, lets close some more branches and use that cash on a bit of tech"

Its that last bit that the banks are struggling with - tech strategy and trying to work out customer behaviour in the years to come (and lets face it, this is also dependent on demographics)

[eek]

This https://medium.com/@sethmiller_59231...e-38b843bd4fe0 on what is going to happen to oil tells you why financial services aren't going to be impacted by startups - hint the cost savings / benefits aren't there