Plan to end cheques under fire

It's not often that I find myself agreeing with our elected officials. Politics is just show business for ugly people, as someone once quipped. But today I make an exception. A Treasury Select Committee has warned banks not to attempt to abandon cheques or deter customers from using them. It has also taken a swipe at the Payments Council and suggested that it be brought under regulatory control.

Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the committee, comments: "The Payments Council is a industry-dominated body with no effective public accountability. It should not have unfettered power to take decisions on matters such as the future of cheques, that are of vital importance to millions of people. Banks have given customers the impression the abolition of cheques was a foregone conclusion. This type of behaviour is unacceptable."

Hear hear!

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Quick shout out for the FStech Twitter page which is updated on a daily basis (news updates, retweets, amusing anecdotes etc etc). A veritable fountain of useful information (if I say so myself!)

You can follow us here.

Stupid, crazy and annoying

Yet more evidence of the power of social media. Disgruntled HSBC customers have been pouring onto Twitter to vent spleen about new handheld devices called 'secure keys' - these have been sent to its four million online bank customers.

HSBC says that the devices provide static and changing security information, ultimately making banking online a lot more secure. But customers have complained about the hassle of setting one up, the inconvenience of carrying it around with them and also that logging into their accounts now takes longer. On Twitter the device has been called ‘stupid’, ‘crazy’ and ‘annoying’, with some claiming they are now switching to other banks.

Twitter has spoken. IMHO, the extra layer of security should be welcomed but is this really the best way to go about it? The calculator does seem like a rather clunky device, out of place in the fast moving world of online banking.

Cash vs cards

A new Barclays/Barclaycard survey says that people prefer plastic. Do we? Their research finds that one in eight shoppers no longer carry cash and half believe coins and notes will become obsolete in the future. So seven in eight still carry cash then?

The findings of that survey are in contrast to research commissioned by retail and banking technology company, Wincor Nixdorf. Their results, published last week, showed that over two thirds of shoppers in the UK believe cash is still king. Of the consumers questioned on behalf of Wincor Nixdorf, 58 per cent save cards purely for large transactions and almost a third felt more in control of their finances when paying by cash.

Nearer the mark, I would say.

Let's go crowdsourcing now...

Well done to first direct for coming up with what must be the banking sector's best yet attempt at crowdsourcing.

first direct Lab will be updated every month with product designs, service innovations and website concepts. Users will have the chance to critique the content with feedback going to the product or service teams before release. At launch, the content will include concepts for a website re-design, a consultation on the use of QR codes and an early version of a mortgage comparison smartphone app. 

You can find the site here. Excellent job!

Payments conference update

Shameless plug time...The website has been launched for the FStech/Retail Systems Payments Conference, which will take place on Thursday, 10 November at The IoD Hub, London.

Speakers/panellists will include: Carl-Olav Scheible, UK MD, PayPal; Jeremy King, European Director, PCI-SSC; and Philip Hellyer, Enterprise Architecture Group, BestBuy Europe and Carphone Warehouse Group. The conference will be chaired by Vendorcom’s Paul Rodgers and will examine the latest cards and payments developments which are demanding a huge amount of attention in the retailer and financial sector communities. Paul will also take a look at the future of cards and payments. I know he has some really interesting views on that so miss it at your peril! There will also be discussion panels covering NFC/mobile payments and cash vs cards.

Further info here.

Common sense prevails as cheques given reprieve

Fantastic to hear that the Payments Council has scrapped plans to phase out cheques by 2018. The plans had met with a backlash from the likes of charities and politicians, leading the Treasury Select Committee to reopen its probe.

Richard North, chairman of the Payments Council, has said: "It's in the DNA of the Payments Council to consult and listen to all those people who actually make payments and use cheques."

Hmmm, well better late than never, I guess. Of course, there has been a marked decline in cheque usage as chip and PIN has soared, but many people still rely on them and the 2018 deadline always smacked of the banks (aggrieved at how much it costs to process cheques) forcing something through with little or no regard for their customers, most notably those in the charity sector and small businesses. To quote Simon Morrison, director of marketing and communications at the Institute of Fundraising: "We are delighted that the Payment Council has disposed with the proposed end date for cheques. This will make a world of difference to a lot of our members, especially as some charities currently receive up to 80 per cent of their funding by cheques. For a large cohort of donors cheques are a preferred method of donation."