Financial Services (105)
Cash for plastic
Lebanon’s First National Bank have recently introduced the world’s first loan specifically aimed at financing cosmetic surgery. Customers can borrow anything between $1,000-$5,000 providing applicants are in employment and under 64 years of age.
Why it matters
Select financial services brands appear to be taking personal banking to another level with the introduction of increasingly non-traditional loans for everything from infertility treatment to gastric bypasses and plastic surgery. By working to acknowledge and satiate consumers' desires, could this be a way for banks to reconnect with their estranged customers or will it drive them further away?
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Owing to reports that nearly one in nine employees in London’s banking, finance and insurance sector is gay, Credit Suisse has identified a niche in an otherwise congested market and implemented a bespoke banking service targeted specifically at the City's homosexuals. The service is provided by gay advisors and includes not just traditional banking offerings but also components tailored to such events as adoption and civil partnership.
O2 together with NatWest are launching a chip and pin card for children as young as 13. While the Load and Go card will not allow any overdrafts, it allows children to shop online at outlets that take Visa and withdraw cash from ATMs. Parents can then receive transaction details.
