$2 banknote sheets - The Engadget Show

Steve Wozniak prints his own pads of $2 bills... and spends them. He'll sell you a sheet with 4 bills for $5. Joshua Topolsky investigates this interesting bit of commerce on The Engadget Show.

For those who don’t know, Steve "Woz" Wozniak is a US computer engineer who co-founded Apple Computer together with Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne.

Enjoy!

My kind of bank

BNP Paribas has opened its concept 'laboratory' branch in Paris to test new technologies and a "new approach to banking relationships".

How would you like a bank that;

• Offers a self-service section where customers can transact cash and cheque transactions from 7am to 11pm, every day of the week?
• Where iPads are welcome in the 'banking boutique' area where customers can browse the banks products and services?
• Where clients can access economic and financial information as well as the main stock market prices in both French and English? 
• That provides a separate lounge area with free Internet surfing via smartphone or iPad?
• And ... has a play area for the kids where they can draw on a tiled wall or just watch TV?

Plus all of this is in pretty chic surroundings too. This is definitely the sort of bank I would like to do my business at. It certainly propels banking into a luxurious new world.

Watch this video and enjoy.

British trader jailed for leading £14m Ponzi scheme

A British trader has been jailed for eight years for his role in a £14 million Ponzi scheme. Terry Freeman, 63, former head of GFX Capital Markets, was convicted at Southwark Crown Court after his fraud of more than 300 investors earned him the title ‘Mini Madoff’.

The ex-trader pleaded guilty to a number of charges including fraudulent trading and acting as a director of a company while bankrupt.

He was found to have used the money of his investors to fund a lavish lifestyle which included cars, jewellery and an executive box at Tottenham Hotspur’s football ground.

Judge Christopher Hardy described the case as one of the “most serious ... of this type I've had to deal with in this court".

“You were not dealing with big institutions, but ordinary hard-working men and women and their families who trusted you to invest their hard-earned life savings, pensions and inheritance and the like, and for them in reality all is likely to have been lost," he told the trader.

The behaviour of the convicted fraudster was uncovered when he went to the authorities to complain of being threatened by angry investors.

Two pension switching firms fined by the Financial Services Authority

The UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) has levied fines totaling £143,500 on two firms which failed to check the suitability of the pension switching advice they gave their customers.

Perspective Financial Management (PFM), based in Milton Keynes, was fined £49,000, while Cricket Hill Financial Planning Ltd (Cricket Hill), in Barnsley, was fined £70,000, along with the firm’s director Jeremy Sheard who will pay £24,500. His colleague Mark Kelsey, responsible for compliance, was issued with a public censure.

Cricket Hill

Cricket Hill had significant problems with its advice and sales processes. Its advisers were routinely recommending customers switch their pensions to a pension fund risk management service, without sufficiently researching alternative products. The firm could not demonstrate the suitability of this advice, particularly as most of its customers were unsophisticated financially and had small pension pots.

Cricket Hill and Sheard also failed to identify and manage conflicts of interest adequately. Sheard, for example, owned shares in the risk management service which his firm was advising most customers to use and this was not disclosed. However, no payments, or dividends to shareholders, were made by the risk management service firm to Cricket Hill or its directors and employees.

PFM

An investigation by the FSA found shortcomings in the way that PFM monitored its pension switching advice, resulting in customers’ receiving unsuitable advice. PFM failed to collect or record important information such as details of customers’ existing pension plan, needs and objectives.

The FSA found evidence of unsuitable pension advice in five out of the nine cases reviewed. PFM made unsuitable recommendations to customers to switch pensions when the new pension was almost identical to their existing scheme, meaning customers incurred unnecessary costs. The investigation also revealed that customers could not make informed decisions about whether to switch pensions as PFM provided inadequate information on the cost of services associated with the new pension such as discretionary fund management.

The FSA also found that PFM failed to put in place any system or procedure to ensure it only recommended Unregulated Collective Investment Schemes (UCIS) to customers who met specific, statutory, exemptions such as customers who were high net worth or sophisticated investors.

Margaret Cole, managing director of the FSA’s enforcement and financial crime division:

“Pension switching is a complex area, and any adviser recommending a change of provider must be able to demonstrate that this advice is suitable.

“Firms that fail to do this put customers at risk of being worse off due to exit penalties applied to their existing pension and higher charges on the new pension.

“The FSA considers the failings at PFM and Cricket Hill to be serious, and will not hesitate to take action where we find evidence of bad practice relating to pension advice.”

Both firms cooperated with the FSA’s investigations. In addition to the fines, the FSA has appointed a skilled person to carry out past business reviews of relevant pension switching cases at both firms.

Work starts on new Ghanaian National Switch

Installation work has begun on the new National Switch in Ghana which will enhance current operations by adding additional features.

The General Manager in charge of Project at Ghana Interbank Payment Settlement Systems Limited (GhIPSS), the body responsible for implementing the National Electronic Payments System, Mr Archie Hesse, explained that the roll out of the project would be in phases with the first phase expected to be completed by September, which would lead to a significant change in the payment system.

GhIPSS which was established by the Central Bank to build a solid national payment system has, as part of its objectives, to establish a national switch that would ensure total interoperability among the banks and also be able to connect all other switches, used by the telecommunications companies and foreign payment switches.

However, to achieve this objective, GhIPSS needs to expand the current national switch into a much extended one capable of supporting the full range of transactions.

According to Mr Hesse, when the first phase of the project is completed, the universal banks, the rural banks as well as the savings and loans companies would be able to operate mutually.

This means that all Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards can work in any ATM machine. This implies that bank customers would be able to use their traditional or e-zwich ATM card at any ATM in Ghana.

Currently, only cards affiliated to Visa enjoy this service in Ghana, but soon all ATMs would accept all cards.

Mr Hesse said gradually Ghana was catching up with the most sophisticated payment systems in the world, adding that the installation of the new national switch would begin with a few banks on a pilot basis, until all banks were brought on board.

Mr Hesse said the second phase would link the national switch to the platform of the telecommunications companies that were providing mobile money services. When the telecommunication companies are connected to the national switch, their customers can use any of the mobile money services even if they are not subscribers to that network. This would be possible because the mobile money platforms can interact through the national switch.

He said the second phase of the project would link the national switch to other international switches such as Visa and MasterCard.

Mr Hesse added that soon it would be possible for people to use their traditional ATM cards to make payments in shops that had Point of Sale devices, a service currently available to a few cards such as Visa, MasterCard, and the e-zwich.

The national switch, dubbed the e-zwich, is currently able to support the use of the biometric smart card also called the e-zwich. The switch also supports the Payment Distribution system, the electronic cheque clearing system as well as the Automated Clearing House.

Electronic payment growing in Zimbabwe

Volumes and values of electronic transactions in Zimbabwe increased by 11 percent and 44 percent respectively between January and November last year.

Official statistics show that 2.8 million card transactions amounting to US$304 million were executed between in Zimbabwe during this period. Of this amount, ATMs constituted 84 percent, while Point of Sale (POS) agencies represented 16 percent.

Experts contend that the growth in ATMs value of transactions can be attributed mainly to the sharing of infrastructure by all commercial banks, which has brought convenience to the transacting public.

But the POS numbers remain limited, thereby constraining the widespread use of cards.

In this regard, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has called upon banks and other relevant stakeholders to deliberately invest in POS infrastructure so as to promote the use of cards as an electronic payment mechanism.

"Consistent with these developments, the central bank approved the establishment of mobile phone banking initiatives.

"This is consistent with our goal to promote electronic payments and financial inclusion.

"We remain resolute in urging the financial services sector and other stakeholders in the market to explore ways of furthering the utilization of these communication tools as channels for retail payments on a large scale across banks, borders and networks," the central bank has said.

CABS (Zimbabwe's largest building society) launched a mobile banking service which will largely function to facilitate cash transactions for rural-based businesses across the country.

In terms of operational structures for the mobile banking system, the bank indicated that it would create at least 300 POS agencies across the maize-growing belt of Zimbabwe.

Meanwhile, during the same period, a cumulative total of mobile and internet transactions amounting to 457,513 and valued at US$193.13 million were processed. Of these internet transactions accounted for 99 percent, while mobile payments were 1 percent of the same amount.

Mobile phone penetration in Africa has escalated and Zimbabwe is no exception with a subscriber base estimated to be over five million, which has created an opportunity for banks and other industry players to leverage on developments in the information and communication technology sector.

According to the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe, the country's “teledensity” has improved to levels around 60 percent to date up from the 9 percent recorded in 2009.

However, local financial institutions are yet to take advantage of the increased mobile penetration rate to reduce cash transactions as evidenced by the low rate of mobile payments.

Bank of Tanzania joins mobile payment supervision

The unexpected strong growth of mobile payment services in Africa due to limited access to formal banking services has led the Bank of Tanzania and the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority to join forces and provide joint supervision of mobile money services in the country.

Many other central banks in Africa are expected to assume a supervisory role of money transfer services to ensure they are secure for customers.

Africa is experiencing an explosion in mobile money transfer services as banks and mobile providers compete for customers who would otherwise not have a bank account. The service provides an avenue for linking bank account holders to those without accounts, according to a new report by the Bank of Tanzania.

The Bank of Tanzania estimates that 9.2 million subscribers are registered for mobile payment services in Tanzania alone. Unlike Zambia, which has only two service provider providing mobile transaction, Tanzania has Vodacom, Airtel, Zantel and Tigo offering such services.

In Zambia, regional mobile operator MTN has partnered with Standard Chartered Bank to roll out mobile banking services in the country using an Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) platform.

"The roll-out will provide the bank's customers on the MTN network with access to mobile phone top-up throughout the world," said Standard Chartered bank managing director Mizinga Melu.

In addition to allowing both rural and urban users to have access to financial services without having bank accounts, the services have also minimized the risks of moving around with cash. However, the question of security and how subscribers can be assured that their money will not be siphoned from accounts has not sufficiently been addressed. Some people are still skeptical about the security of mobile commerce.

Many Africans, however, are now using mobile financial services to buy good, pay utility bills, buy mobile airtime as well as receive funds from abroad. Generally, most Africans do not have bank accounts and customers typically have to travel long distances to access traditional bank facilities.

Bank payments delayed in Finland

Payments through Finnish banks were late this past Tuesday as a result of a European payment system malfunction. The Federation of Finnish Financial Services says that all the delayed payments had reached their destinations by Tuesday afternoon.

The disruption affected payments in the Single European Payments Area, which form a large proportion of all bank payments. According to Development Manager Anne Nisén from the Federation of Finnish Financial Services, about 30-40 percent of all payments have been delayed.

A disruption appeared in the European payment system overnight, preventing SEPA-payments from transferring normally. Payments did not reach customers’ bank accounts in the morning as is normal. The problem was later fixed.

The Finnish Consumers’ Association has demanded compensation from banks over the payment delays. It notes that when salaries and pensions do not appear in accounts as agreed, other payments are also delayed.

The association says Tuesday’s delay was the sixth this year. From the consumers’ viewpoint, it is irrelevant which system is blamed, the Association notes.

New international remittance service launched in Ghana

MTN Ghana and the Belgian carrier BICS are set to launch international remittances services. MTN Ghana will use “HomeSend”, a mobile centric remittance hub operated by BICS and powered by its technology partner eServGlobal. The new service will enable Ghanaians living in the UK and Belgium to send funds directly to their relatives’ mobile money accounts in Ghana. MTN Ghana had 760,000 mobile money registered accounts in mid-2010.