Ron Delnevo's Blog

You may be aware that there are on going  discussions in Brussels about Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC). If you don’t know what that is, I suggest you do not read more, for fear of being dreadfully bored! Anyway, moving on, in early 2018, the Economic and Financial Committee of the European Union decided that it wanted to see more transparency in relation to DCC offers, on A....

I have been warning UK retailers for years that they badly need cash as an alternative to cards. One reason, of course, is that card schemes go down.  In recent months, we have had several serious failures, including at Visa Europe. Without cash, both retail sales and customer service standards would have collapsed. If you think that the IT underpinning card schemes will ever be 100....

Which? has issued a report that claims the Big 5 Banks in the UK are closing their branches at the rate of 60 a month. If this is true, it will not be the run-rate of closures for long. Barclays,HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, RBS Group and Santander have only around 5000 branches left between them. A 60 per month closure rate implies they will all be gone in around 8 years. Of course, all ba....

If you want to know how banking has changed, read on. In the early 1990's, a business associate and I, working together on a new venture, arranged to meet the manager at the branch of the Bank of Ireland near Victoria Station in London. The manager met us cordially and listened intently to our business proposition. Within half an hour, we left with our £25,000 unsecured loan agreed.....

Last week, the UK government launched a consultation entitled "cash and digital payments in the new economy". You can read the whole, very sad, document here  [link] The tone of this document is decidedly anti-cash. Essentially, the clear implication is that only the poor and criminals "need" to use ca....

I will never forget the occasion. My appearance before the Treasury Select Committee (TSC) in February 2005. The TSC was "investigating" cash machine charges. The Chair, John McFall, had taken a particular interest in this subject, perhaps enjoying the media profile it gave him. Being Labour Member of Parliament for West Dunbartonshire didn't normally make the incumbent a star of stage and screen....

The LINK UK ATM Network announced a few months ago that it planned to reduce ATM interchange by 20% over 4 years. This move stunned many observers because LINK interchange is calculated each year using a transparent cost-recovery formula, which was approved by UK Regulatory Authorities well over a decade ago. The essence of the argument put forward by the LINK Board to justify the massive arbitr....

LINK ATM Network are proposing an arbitrary cut of 20% in ATM interchange fees, phased over a four year period. This is quite simply a recipe for the beginning of the end of convenient access to cash in the UK.  Let me very clear; NO level of arbitrary cut is acceptable, for the irrefutable reason that the first such cut will open the flood gates to further cuts, ultimately leading to all UK ....

Sir Mark Boleat, Chairman of LINK Scheme Holdings Limited ( AKA LINK ATM Network) has informed us, through the media, that it is NOT the Industry Directors at  LINK who are pressing for LINK interchange to be arbitrarily cut by 20%. That, of course, begs the question; what ARE the Industry Directors, from a foreign bank and government-owned RBS, doing?  We await an answer to that questi....

If you live in the UK and don't already know that the LINK UK ATM Network is trying to arbitrarily slash interchange by 20%, you should not read on, because this issue, though vital to the future of the UK Public and economy, is clearly of no interest to you. If you are still with me, you must realise the seriousness of the situation. Despite the fact that the Bank of England recently announced ....