BarCampBank Paris: 80+ Crowd Shapes the Future of Banking [COVERAGE]

As mentioned in a previous article, I was in Paris on Saturday to participate to the 7th edition of the BarCampBank Paris.  The event was extremely well attended with over 80 energized participants, all willing to engage in (occasionally heated) conversations on the broad topic of innovation in banking.
 
A big thank you to the organizers for putting together such a successful 'un-conference': Christophe Ducamp (la Maison Ducamp), Kristell Le Nadan (Pole Finance Innovation), Emmanuel Papadacci (Credit Agricole) and Nicolas Debock (XAnge).  I hope I am not forgetting anyone.
  
Now, I invite you to check my coverage of the event which includes about 60 pictures and video interviews.

Rabobank Bets on Students to Successfully Leverage Gamification in Banking. Would you? [CONTEST]

Gamification has been one of the trendiest buzz words in 2011, and it will surely remain hot in 2012.

Interestingly, it seems like financial institutions see gamification as the holy grail, the long awaited ultimate tool which will help them improve people's damaged perception of a banking industry and engage with people despite its untangible products that nobody wants but everybody needs...

Two weeks ago, the Netherlands' Rabobank, in the top 30 largest financial institutions in the world and one of the most engaging banks in Europe, launched the Rabobank Gamification Challenge.

Visible Banking Covers BarCampBank Paris: Big Data, Innovation, Mobile

I am not sure how familiar you are with the very concept of "unconference" and the "BarCamp" movement?  In the last few years, a group of passionate banking innovators organized a number of similar events all over the world, events focused on the finance industry, the "BarCampBanks".   
As far as I am concerned, I had the opportunity to attend three BarCampBanks: BarCampBank London #1 and #2, BarCampBank Madrid #2.
 
Last week, Christophe Ducamp, one of the main organizers of the BarCampBank Paris #7, invited me to participate in Paris on Saturday 28 January.  And thanks to Emmanuel Papadacci for his contribution. ;)
 
If you are working in financial services in the area of innovation, digital, mobile or payments I strongly recommend you attend this event, for at least two good reasons:

Was 'a Day' on Facebook and Twitter Worth Vanguard's CEO Time?

Last Friday, I posted an article about an interesting social media experiment involving the CEO from Vanguard's Head of Social Media John Buhl.  In a nutshell, the investment firm's CEO Bill McNabb "took over" Vanguard's main facebook page and twitter account.  
 
So, how much activity did this initiative generate?  And more importantly, was it worth Bill's time?

BBVA Compass Champions Employee-Driven Communications in Banking

I am delighted to announce that next week we will celebrate the 5th anniversary of Visible Banking.  If you are a regular reader of the Visible Banking blog, you will know that if I have been the only contributor on this blog, last year I started to very occassionally invite a few hand-picked friends and trusted contacts to post insightful guest articles.
   
I am thrilled to publish a guest post from William Trout - SVP & Director Internal Communications at BBVA Compass.  William and I have been in contact for quite some time now.  Another social media advocate, a Visible Banking interviewee Jose Antonio Gallego - Head of Social Media at BBVA connected us.  Muchas gracias JA.

Canada's Sun Life Financial is Recruiting its Social Media Director via Linkedin

Last week, I spotted a tweet pointing to this job description on linkedin.  Sun Life Financial, a leading financial services specialized in life insurance, is looking for its Director, Social Media.

The CEO of a $1.6 Trillion Investment Management Firm Answers Questions on Twitter and Facebook

Earlier this week, Vanguard's social media team teased their facebook and twitter communities with this post:
 
"On Monday, January 23, we'll be hosting a special event on our Facebook page that we think you'll enjoy! Any thoughts on what it could be?".  
 
It received over 20 user comments and a couple of facebook users correctly guessed...

Commonwealth Bank of Australia Proudly Announces Facebook Milestones. But Wait, They're Just Getting Started.

Last night, and a few days after I congratulated the bank for its 100,000 likes, I received an email from Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) with an official press release announcing the 1st anniversary of their facebook page: 
"Since launching its Facebook page, the Bank has been working hard on developing and implementing a solid strategy to not only keep current fans engaged through interactive content, but create an environment for the community to unite, share suggestions, seek advice and receive active real-time responses directly from the Bank’s dedicated customer service team."

20 Stats on the Top Free Android Apps from Retail Banks [MOBILE BANKING]

Because there is an alternative to iOS and the almighty combo iPhone / iPad, my team has started to track the activity from the financial services industry on Google's Android Market.
 
Soon, we will officially launch our Visible Banking Android Watch series, in addition to our popular Visible Banking Twitter Watch Series (over 1,650 accounts in 73 countries) and Visible Banking Facebook Watch series (over 1,300 pages and apps in 75 countries).

In the meantime, we would like to share with you a few insights on the highest profile mobile banking apps for Android provided by the retail banking industry.

Russia's PSBank Aims to Set New Standard for Banks on Facebook

Back in Q1 2011, my team started to track how financial institutions are leveraging facebook.  Now, we track over 1,300 pages and apps in 77 countries as part of our Visible Banking Facebook Watch series.
   
The usual suspects when you think of innovation on Facebook in banking and financial services are the likes of American Express or Chase.  I personally love the level of engagement on CIMB Malaysia's page or the crowdsourcing apps from Danske Bank or Nykredit and I salute the effort in social customer care of Interbank Peru.
 
But innovation on facebook doesn't necessarily come from the US or the booming APAC and LATAM regions.  As usual, even -or shall I say especially- in banking, it is driven by people, and defined by a vision.