George Osborne & the Bank of England have a dilemma in that whenever they release funds into the system (intending that it will eventually benefit SME’s, as the engine of the economy) there is a gravitational type pull that sees it eventually in the hands of corporates or banks, strengthening their reserves. Here’s the idea: Read more about Credit Easing – how to get it direct to SME’s[…]

A ‘sell-out’ event at Milton Keynes Chamber for the ‘Business Owners are from Mars and Bankers are from ?’ presentation. Many of the banks will train their managers to understand and deal more effectively with business customers. They have the resources to do that and it helps manage risk. There are not to my knowledge Read more about Good to deliver another ‘Understanding your Bank Manager’ session (to Milton Keynes Chamber)[…]

Incentive schemes are a minefield – how do you get them right? In general people will do what they are paid to do – and the same applies with any bonus structure – the most critical thing is ‘the measures’ I was lucky enough to do some work with an expert on incentive schemes a Read more about Steven Hester – is it the bonus or the measures?[…]

A good meeting this week with some top people from Metro – triggered by the appointment of the energetic Chris Brindley to run the quickly growing branch network. Metro have positioned themselves as innovative for customer service and responsive in the personal banking sector. They have however been head-hunting some quality business and commercial bankers Read more about Metro Bank ‘raising their bar’ on commercial banking[…]