Keeping your hands clean of dirty money

Posted on Dec 03 2012 by

The government has now completed its plans to make the UK’s anti-money laundering (AML) regime more effective and proportionate. With the proposed changes expected to save larger professional services firms around £3 million a year, enhanced due diligence is clearly worth it.

Given modern businesses are working in an accelerated culture and increasingly virtual world, it is vital they are confident that they have the right measures in place to cut the risk of money laundering.

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Showdown! Online Marketing versus Direct Mail

Posted on Nov 30 2012 by

The cost savings of online marketing over direct mail may not be as big as you think.

Acquisition budgets have been migrating online for a number of years now. Double digit year on year growth, relatively cheap media and real time optimisation have made the transition somewhat inevitable. Certainly I was one of those quick to prophesise the demise of offline channels like direct mail.

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US online gaming reaches point of no return

Posted on Nov 29 2012 by

Despite recent coverage of the US elections virtually eclipsing the issue of online gaming, moves towards it were quietly progressing behind the scenes.

Nevada, closely followed by Delaware, have now approved the nation’s first interactive gambling licenses, while in August the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of New York determined that Hold ‘em Poker was not actually ‘gambling’, instead ruling it a game of skill and expertise.

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Pension fraud soars during the depths of a downturn

Posted on Nov 29 2012 by

The financial services sector currently shoulders the £3.5 billion lion’s share of the UK’s annual £75 billion estimated fraud losses.

Mortgages, currents accounts, loans and savings are all vulnerable – but evidence suggests pensions are equally at risk.

While there are no precise figures for Britain’s pensions industry as a whole, annual public sector pension fraud alone is estimated to cost nearly £17 million by the National Fraud Authority.

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The clock’s ticking as new Euro rules expose businesses to €20 billion payment bill

Posted on Nov 29 2012 by

European businesses risk losing billions of Euros as a result of failure to tackle simple payment errors according to a new Experian report.

The switch to a single SEPA payment system – designed to simplify and streamline processing operations for domestic and international payments – will expose out-of-date account data and other errors that were previously overcome through a patchwork of locally implemented fixes.

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Microsoft adopts Experian’s SEPA payments services

Posted on Nov 29 2012 by

Microsoft has opted for Experian’s Bank Wizard Global to handle accurate and timely commission payments to Microsoft Corp.’s international network of re-sellers and supply vendors.

Under new Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) rules, the use of the International Bank Account Number (IBAN) to uniquely identify the bank and account of payment beneficiaries will soon become mandatory for all internatonal and domestic euro payments.

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Will Britain’s biggest online shopping day leave the virtual tills jingling all the way?

Posted on Nov 29 2012 by

Just in case you’ve been in a cave for the past two months, the festive shopping season is now almost here with the UK’s first big seasonal spike in online shopping fast approaching. So-called Cyber Monday traditionally falls on the first Monday of December.

And this year’s online landmark lands on December3.

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Experian strikes new three-year data and analytics deal with Hitachi Capital UK

Posted on Nov 29 2012 by

Experian has announced a renewal of its strategic partnership with Hitachi Capital UK, continuing to provide a range of acquisition credit risk, customer management, affordability and ID verification products.

Hitachi Capital UK operates extensively in the retail finance sector and has opted to extend its use of Experian’s Detect and Hunter fraud prevention services, improving its control of credit and fraud risk and the efficiency of its application processing.

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Is there a fundamental issue with market segmentations?

Posted on Nov 29 2012 by

Make sure your segmentation is actionable.

Having worked in the customer insight world for much longer than I care to remember I am still amazed by a recurring and underlying issue when it comes to planning market segmentation projects.

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Are lenders becoming too lenient?

Posted on Nov 23 2012 by

In the hope of strengthening customer relationships before the next market boom, many lenders have taken a proactive approach to dealing with customers struggling under the backlash of the recession, offering leniency on payment terms and allowing payment holidays.

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