Rebirth of England.

Chapter 625 Internet Banking
"According to the information we received from Scotland Yard, the neighborhood where Ms. Harriman lives is an upscale neighborhood. A total of 18 thefts have occurred in the past year..."

Nigel Inkster pushed up his glasses and said to Barron:

"On the same night that the theft occurred at Ms. Harriman's home, two other families in the neighborhood also reported thefts, and they were not at home at the time..."

"anything else?"

"We also received photos of Ms. Harriman's home after the burglary and the on-site investigation from the police station. Through our expert analysis, we can conclude that the places that have been turned over are more likely to contain valuables. The burglar should not have the intention to deliberately look for other items...such as photos, documents or videotapes."

Joe Harriman's house was robbed and the matter was handled by Scotland Yard. However, Barron did not have much hope in their work efficiency and ability to solve the case. Therefore, he directly used his connections to obtain relevant information on the case and handed it over to his intelligence team for analysis.

Just as Nigel said, Joe Harriman lives in an upscale community where the security is relatively good. But at the same time, such communities are easy targets for thieves because they are inhabited by high-income people.

This can be seen from the fact that the community where Joe Harriman lives reported 18 thefts in one year. This ratio is not too much or too little in London...

At the same time, on the night when Joe Harriman's home was robbed, two other houses in her community were also robbed, and no one was living in their homes that night - does this mean that what Joe Harriman encountered was indeed a random theft, or that the other party "robbed" two more houses in order to cover up their tracks? More evidence is needed to support this.

But it is obvious that from Nigel's current analysis, considering all aspects of the situation, the possibility that Joe Harriman encountered a random theft this time is still greater than a purposeful infiltration to look for certain items.

In any case, when encountering such a situation, we still need to increase the protection for Joe Harriman.

After all, her current career in politics seems to be quite promising, and she will provide support to Barron in the future.

……

"We plan to try online banking in the UK first, and then start promoting it in North America and Asia..."

Paul Sprint, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank, told Barron's.

Previously, Paul Sprint worked at Standard Chartered Bank and was an assistant to the former president and CEO Davis. After Standard Chartered Bank acquired Merrill Lynch and formed Standard Chartered-Merrill Lynch, Davis became the president of Standard Chartered-Merrill Lynch and Paul Sprint became the CEO of Standard Chartered Bank.

In fact, as early as 1995, the world's first online bank, Security First Network Bank (SFNB), was born.

Afterwards, Internet finance represented by online banking developed rapidly.

By 2000, online finance covered all retail banking operations in the United States except cash and some investment banking operations.

By introducing Internet technology, financial services have broken through the limitations of time and space, reduced information management and transaction costs, greatly improved service levels and efficiency, and made services more personalized. Barron naturally understands the development potential of online banking in the future, and with the popularization of the Internet, especially the development of mobile Internet, it can be said that bank customers can complete almost all banking services through the Internet, which can greatly reduce the cost of opening bank branches and will be more accepted by young people.

Moreover, with the development of the Internet, many bank branches will be closed in the next decade or so due to a large decrease in customers and high maintenance costs.

In this case, Standard Chartered Bank might as well vigorously develop Internet banking. This will not only accelerate its development in regions with more complete network facilities such as the United States and Europe and increase market share, but also increase various services through the Internet.

As for cash services in some remote areas or areas with a small number of users, Standard Chartered Bank can still reduce its spending on rent and labor costs by adding ATMs.

Currently, Standard Chartered Bank has established an online banking department through the acquisition of ING Direct, a recently established Internet direct bank under the Dutch National Machinery Industry Corporation (ING). It will then conduct a trial operation in the UK first.

After gaining sufficient experience in online banking operations, they will begin to promote their online banking business in continental Europe and North America starting next year.

It can be said that online banking will be the project that Standard Chartered Bank will focus on developing in the future, and therefore it will be directly focused on by CEO Paul Sprint.

Barron also praised the measures he promoted.

As the newly appointed CEO of Standard Chartered Bank, Paul Sprinter attached great importance to this meeting with Barron. After all, he knew that the Duke in front of him would determine whether he could stay in this position.

After completing a series of debt-to-equity swaps, Barron once again controlled an absolute proportion of Standard Chartered Merrill Lynch's shares, and the board of directors of Standard Chartered Merrill Lynch was firmly controlled by him.

"Your Highness, after the government launched the mortgage relief plan, and we sold some of our accumulated properties in exchange for funds, our business in the UK has stabilized, deposit users have begun to recover, and our mortgage business can still continue. Of course, the mortgage conditions have been adjusted to ensure the safety of the funds we release..."

When Standard Chartered Bank first acquired Northern Rock Bank, it was faced with a very difficult situation - they had very few depositors left, and real estate mortgage loans were facing a "wave of defaults", which made many real estate mortgage loans previously issued by Northern Rock Bank impossible to recover - all that could be recovered were properties with shrunk value.

However, the "suggestions" made to the government by many British banks, including Standard Chartered Bank, were eventually adopted. At the end of last month, the British government finally launched an emergency mortgage rescue plan with a total amount of 1000 billion pounds to provide assistance to families who are unable to repay their mortgages due to accidents.

Although the families that can be included in the relief plan all have good conditions, their income has been temporarily greatly reduced due to the impact of the subprime mortgage crisis. They only account for a part of the mortgage users who are facing mortgage defaults. The relief provided by the government also has corresponding requirements, and the interest that banks can get from it needs to be discounted.

But after all, this plan can still stabilize the continuous supply of a considerable number of mortgage users and allow banks to recover part of their funds. Therefore, it is also very good news for those banks that have suffered losses from home mortgage loans.

In addition, Standard Chartered Bank sold 100 billion euros of repossessed mortgaged properties belonging to Northern Rock Bank to Cavendish Asset Management. Although these properties are sold at the current market price, which is significantly lower than the original valuation, it can at least enable Standard Chartered Bank's business in the UK to obtain valuable working capital, greatly improve its operating conditions, and reduce a large amount of short-term high-interest debt.

(End of this chapter)