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Charis Palmer
Publisher, journalist & financial services strategist
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8 Studies Demonstrating the Power of Simplicity | PsyBlog
The majority of people say Hnegripitrom sounds more dangerous. It turns out that the word 'Magnalroxate' is easier to think about than 'Hnegripitrom', probably because it's more pronounceable, and people equate simplicity with safety (actually both words are made up). This is one example of psychological research on meta-cognition: thoughts about other thoughts. Whether or not something is easy to think about—cognitive fluency—is one important type of meta-cognition, with all sorts of benefits accruing to things that are easily processed. Here are 8 of my favourite studies on cognitive fluency, showing just how much can be explained by the feeling that something is easy to think about (or otherwise).Citi has quietly rolled out the option for customers who request it via the bank's Web site, using the tag-line: "The back of your phone just became its coolest feature". The Citi payment tags, supplied by Oberthur Technologies, enable customers to make payments of up to $50 at the point of sale at MasterCard PayPass readers.
Citi rolls out contactless payments stickers
JPMorgan Chase hires PayPal's Stephenson to expand mobile and Ne
Stephenson - previously SVP, strategy, partnerships, analytics and new ventures at PayPal - will lead the bank's company-wide strategy for mobile devices and Internet payments. Chase already serves 28 million consumers online and nearly 3.3 million mobile banking customers - a number it claims is growing by more than 600,000 each month. Jay Mandelbaum, head, strategy and development, JPMorgan Chase, says: "We know how important technology has become in serving our customers well, and Jack has the experience, expertise and vision to help us do even more for them."
Partial float of Kiwibank makes sense - business | Stuff.co.nz
OPINION: The government's failure to create and execute coherent economic policy is vividly demonstrated by John Key's decision to keep Kiwibank 100% government-owned as long as he is prime minister. If he wanted to join the dots, he would understand that the government could retain majority ownership of Kiwibank while helping it to maximise its economic benefit to the country via a partial stockmarket float. Kiwibank deserves the chance. Since it opened for business in March 2002 it has competed successfully against the big four Australian-owned banks to take 8% of bank customers, 4.5% of mortgages and credit cards and 3% of the small business market. Its customer satisfaction has tracked at 80-85% in Roy Morgan polls over the past eight years, handily ahead of the 70-80% range of the big four. Around 30% of the public say that Kiwibank would be their choice if they changed their main bank, and a similar percentage say it would be their first choice of mortgage provider.
Zopa Announces Record Month, Originates £3.81 Million in New Loa
Zopa, a peer-to-peer lending company that operates in the United Kingdom, Italy, and Japan, announced that they have originated £3.81 million in new peer-to-peer loans during the month of January and are on pace to originate over £50 million in new loans during 2010. On the company’s blog, Zopa said that, “In January, we disbursed £3.81 million to our borrowers, making it our biggest month ever. We’re pretty chuffed with this, so thanks to all our members for making it possible.