E-mail to be ditched in favour of social media?

According to a Business Live report, some companies are likely to ditch e-mails in favour of social networking sites to forge closer ties with customers and partners, which quotes the IBM CEO study of 1 700 chief executives from 64 countries. 23 May 2012 15:57

Mobile banking opportunities in Africa

[Dr KF Lai] Mobile-savvy consumers want to do more for their phones and this presents opportunities for Africa's banks and their merchant partners. 17 Mar 2011 10:06

Mobile: 'world-first' virtual payment card launches in Kenya

NAIROBI, KENYA: Airtel Africa, Standard Chartered Bank and MasterCard have rolled out what is claimed to be the world's first virtual payment card on a mobile phone. 15 Sep 2011 09:37

COMESA Summit ends, new chair appointed

[Gregory Gondwe] The 15th COMESA (Common Market for East and Southern Africa) Summit of Heads of State and Governments came to an end on Saturday 15 October 2011 with the announcement of the newly appointed chairman of COMESA, Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika. 17 Oct 2011 12:19

Imara wins big at Africa Fund Manager Performance Awards

Imara, the pan-Africa financial services group was honoured two of the top investment accolades at the inaugural Africa Fund Manager Performance Awards, which took place on Tuesday 11 October 2011 at Mount Nelson Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa. The awards aims to recognise and celebrate investors whose funds have excelled and outperformed their peers across the sub-Saharan fund management markets. 13 Oct 2011 12:52

Western Union offers no-fee money transfers to Japan

ENGLEWOOD, US: Western Union Company, a leader in global payment services, in cooperation with its agents, has activated a limited-time "No Transfer Fee"* program for money-transfers sent to Japan from participating agent locations around the world. 18 Mar 2011 07:16

Fees could alienate online bill pay users

CHICAGO, US: Online banking continues to grow in popularity, and according to Mintel, 79% of consumers visit their banks' online website on a daily or weekly basis. However, it seems that loyalty to online banking would vanish if the service wasn't complimentary, as just less than 80% of consumers would stop using their banks online bill pay services if their financial institutions charged a monthly fee. 24 Feb 2011 08:22

Financial services CEOs look to emerging markets to feed growth aspirations

LONDON, UK: Financial services companies need to look far beyond their domestic markets if they are to achieve their ambitious growth aspirations. This is according to the 14th annual PwC Global CEO Survey, which shows CEOs of financial services companies believe emerging markets are more important than developed markets to their organisation's future. 16 Feb 2011 11:21

Deloitte Consumer Spending Index continues steady decline in January

NEW YORK, US: The Deloitte Consumer Spending Index (the Index) continued to decline in January, hitting its lowest level since August 2009. The Index attempts to track consumer cash flow as an indicator of future consumer spending. 15 Feb 2011 10:43

Anti-corruption Act scuppers deals

NEW YORK, US: According to results of Deloitte's annual Look Before You Leap survey of corporate executives, investment bankers, private equity executives and hedge fund managers, 63% of respondents reported that the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and anti-corruption issues caused their companies to renegotiate or pull out of planned business relationships, mergers or acquisitions over the last three years. 8 Feb 2011 11:48

Private sector deals send positive signal to financial services sector despite falling values

LONDON, UK: While deal values in the financial services sector dropped off in the final quarter of last year, PwC experts believe that this decline will not change the positive trend of increasing mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity. 4 Feb 2011 06:09

Stalemate on lending: Consumers scale back borrowing; banks keep capital

LONDON, UK: Figures released recently by the British Bankers' Association (BBA) showed that demand for unsecured credit continues to wane, with net lending falling by £2 billion (about R22 billion) last year as households scale back their debt. 31 Jan 2011 09:21

2010 US online property insurance report

RESTON, US: comScore, Inc. has released its 2010 Online Property Insurance Report, based on behavioural data from comScore's 1 million person US panel and a survey of more than 2 000 US Internet users aimed at understanding attitudes and intentions with regard to conducting insurance transactions online. 24 Nov 2010 07:28