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You have to hand it to first direct. At a time when many financial institutions are still umming and ahhing over social media, they have dived head first into the deep end.

The bank recently relaunched its customer website, www.firstdirect.com. It used its crowdsourcing venture, firstdirectLab, to gather the thoughts and opinions of the public on how the site could be improved. And post-launch, it has invited people to say how they have done on the design, layout and general feel.

So far, the new look site has received less than stellar customer reviews. At the last count, 849 people had left comments and there was an average rating of two stars (out of five). Feedback has included: 'This seems a backward step for FD. The site appears to have been design by an eleven year old!' and 'Horrid!! I can't see anything useful...hate black and white (have probs with sharp contrast - dyslexia eye condition (very common)...HATE IT!'

If I were a first direct customer, I would be thinking, it's great that these guys value my input and provide such good customer service. On the other hand, I can picture agitated members of senior management saying: "Gah! Why are we making it so easy for them to slag us off?" Ultimately, though, this makes the bank look transparent and streets ahead of its rivals. If it has to take a few hits along the way, then so be it. To quote Natalie Cowen, head of brand at first direct: "We wanted to create a space for our customers to take online banking beyond a purely transactional relationship and create more of a first direct community, in short, creating 'online banking with chemistry'."

Let's just hope this doesn't turn out to be a bold experiment halted after management get cold feet. 

The year of the contactless card?

A NatWest leaflet arrives in the post. "It's time for a change. Don't let cash slow you down," it says. The leaflet folds out into a snazzy contactless promo. There's no need for cash and it takes less than a second to pay (erm, hang on a minute, are you sure about that?)

The contactless camp are making much of the fact that, thanks to the sterling work of Visa, the London Olympics will be a cash free event. And on the back of that, contactless will finally take off in the UK and be embraced by retailers and consumers. Certainly, it has been given a boost by Transport for London's announcement that users of London's buses will be able to touch and pay in time for the start of the Games. The system will also this year be rolled out to the tube, Docklands Light Railway and overground network.

But let's face facts, in the context of the global cards and payments industry, the London Olympics is little more than a blip. It's a small sporting occasion being held in east London. One that will hopefully generate some good PR, but ultimately a niche event which will matter little in the grand scheme of things.

The NatWest leaflet also tells me that I can use my card to get instant coffee and fast food. McDonald's is one of the few retailers to have truly embraced contactless. Last year, it rolled the system out in all of its 1,200 UK stores. I'm reliably informed that it currently accounts for around 50 per cent of transactions in this country. Which sounds about right. Not enough retailers are getting onboard and many of those with terminals installed don't seem that interested. We've all been in an EAT or Pret and seen a queue of people waiting to pay with cash or debit/credit cards, whilst the contactless terminal sits there ignored and unloved. Or in the case of an EAT regularly frequented by your's truly, upside down and broken.

The banks should also shoulder some of the blame. Barclays/Barclaycard has lead the way in this area – almost all its credit and debit cards are now contactless – but others have been less keen. However, after a slow start I think the banks are now doing a good job in promoting this technology to their customers and in working with other parties to get it into the mainstream. Royal Bank of Scotland, for instance, is looking to increase the number of contactless debit and credit cards in issue during 2012, with an initial focus on London and the south east (hence the NatWest leaflet). 

The prospects for contactless have improved markedly in the last year but there is still some way to go before the 'no need for cash' boast becomes a reality. The Olympics will come and go but the same old issues will remain - poor user experiences, lack of consumer awareness, retailer apathy and the fact that many people still like and trust cash. In all likelihood, it will take the arrival of NFC-based mobile payments to make the contactless dream fly. 

Quora, what is it good for?

It arrived in a blaze of hype but it hasn't really happened for Quora, has it?

It had great pedigree (set up by former Facebook employees) and in 2010 received $11 million in funding from Benchmark Capital, valuing the start-up at $86 million. But as time went on it became clear that it wasn't any better than competing sites. A redesign last year underwhelmed. And I think the emergence of Google+ could be the death of it.

During my time as Editor of FStech's sister title, Retail Systems, I set up a presence for the title on Quora as I liked the idea of a Q&A social media site created, edited and organised by its community of users. Unfortunately, the layout was clunky, making it difficult to find information and ask the right questions and those running the site ruled with an iron fist. After putting my name as Retail Systems, I received a terse message, informing me that commercial entities were not allowed and ordering me to use my actual name. I struggled to attract followers and eventually lost interest, focusing my attention on Twitter instead.

Anyone else have a similar experience or do you think there is life in Quora yet?

What's that coming over the hill, is it a monster?

So, the proposed Misys/Temenos merger...If it were to go ahead, it would create a banking software behemoth, one of the leading companies in the financial services software industry or, if you will, a fintech monster.

But will it happen? The UK banking software outfit does appear to be edging closer to a merger with its Swiss rival, with the latter issuing a statement yesterday saying the two had reached agreement on several important items (more of that at the above link). But that hasn't stopped industry tongues from wagging, with speculation that Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) could come back to Misys with an improved offer. You'll remember that last August, Misys failed to reach a deal to be taken over by FIS. The US group walked away after its bid was said to be too low, but what price a last minute return to the fray?

Place your bets please...

The road for EMV in the US...

Guest blog post by Guy Weber, risk manager, SIX Card Solutions

The debate over whether the United States will move to chip and PIN security continues to rage on, even in 2012. Ever since Europe adopted EMV technology back in the early noughties, pressure has been applied on the US to join its European counterparts and take up chip and PIN to help eradicate the ongoing problem of counterfeit fraud and enhance international card acceptance. While many organisations have made attempts to sway the US in favour of chip and PIN, it was Visa’s announcement last summer of its three-step plan to encourage the US to invest in EMV technology that sent a flurry of excitement through the payments industry. This is because it was the first time a major player in the cards industry had provided a clear route to EMV migration.

Although promising, a lot of confusion remains around Visa’s roadmap and exactly how the card scheme is proposing to implement EMV in the US. In an effort to clarify some questions, Stephanie Ericksen, head of authentication products at Visa, recently provided some guidance around the issue and highlighted that a transition to EMV in the US would not necessarily mean a move to chip and PIN. She has suggested that online authorisation could be a more practical and cost-effective solution while there has been speculation that should the US implement a card fraud strategy, it would opt for the next generation of payment security technology in a mobile solution. This is perhaps why Visa has set out a programme to drive the adoption of dual-interface chip technology and compel merchants to invest in terminals that support both contact and contactless chip acceptance, including mobile NFC.

These alternative implementations for EMV technology are still better than the age-old ‘magstripe’, and would certainly help reduce skimming incidents. However, if the US were to skip chip and PIN altogether, the fragmented nature of card protection would remain and do little to encourage interoperability and wider card acceptance around the world. chip and PIN has been tried and tested in Europe and as a result, the European Central Bank (ECB) in October recommended that from 2012 onwards, all newly issued cards in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) should be issued, by default, as 'chip-only' cards. As such, it looks set to stay in Europe for a good while longer.

With these disparities, it is clear there needs to be broader and more far reaching regulation, as well as an industry agreement, on how to move forward with this issue. The reality is that until a common standard is introduced around cardholder verification, criminals will continue to exploit gaps and regional differences in card acceptance, and the cards and payments industry will ultimately lose out.

What a load of rubbish!

The first batch of a network of recycle bins has been delivered within the Square Mile. Renew, the company behind the 25 bins, which have screens attached to them, says the daily audience will grow from 750,000 at launch to over three million by the Olympics.

It has been awarded a 21 year tender by the City of London to tackle the problem of free papers littering the streets. The ‘pods’ also broadcast news on two screens, pulled from the likes of The Economist, Time Out, London Stock Exchange and ESPN. A further 75 are due to be introduced in time for the Olympics.

It’s certainly an interesting idea, although I foresee a few issues. Apparently it’s £30K a pod. Yikes! That’s a lot for what is essentially a bin. Plus, content on the sides of bins is nothing new and hasn’t exactly been a roaring success in the past. I’ve seen one of the pods and they do look snazzy but it was freezing and I didn’t stick around to look at the news on display. And as someone who can’t abide all these freebie rags we get in London, why not just stamp them out? It would be a cheaper alternative to bins which cost 30 grand a pop. Just a thought…

Sir Fred the Shred no more

The business community can be its own worse enemy at times, can't it? Whilst politicians, the media and the vast majority of people in this country have welcomed the move, figures from the business world have condemned the decision to strip Fred Goodwin of his knighthood.

The Institute of Directors (IoD) has warned of politicians creating "anti-business hysteria." Whilst former Labour Trade Minister and ex-Confederation of British Industry head Lord Digby Jones said there was "the faint whiff of the lynch mob on the village green" about the move.

The argument is that Fred the Shred has not been convicted of crime and traditionally only convicted criminals or people struck off professional bodies have had knighthoods taken away. Ultimately, however, he was given the title for services to banking. Considering his role in creating the biggest financial recession in modern times, it's the right thing to strip him of the knighthood. Of course, others should shoulder the blame as well but the man is the epitome of everything that went wrong with banking. To quote a Cabinet Office spokesman: "The scale and severity of the impact of his actions as CEO of RBS made this an exceptional case."

The public is shifting to the left (admittedly, you wouldn't guess it from the polls but put that down to the lame duck leader of the opposition that is Ed Miliband). All across the country people are feeling the squeeze and, in many cases, facing genuine hardship. Which makes it all the more ridiculous that the business community should see fit to talk of lynch mobs and scapegoats.