BANKRUPT: Why Banking is Broken. How it can be Transformed. [Paperback]

Carol Realini (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 16, 2012

Rising fees. Rampant foreclosures. Americans (and much of the rest of the world) are angry and fed up with banks. In this explosive book, Carol Realini reveals what afflicts today's biggest banks and how they can transform using disruptive innovation to reconnect with their customers. Today's vast superbanks are organizations that seem to operate by their own rules and trample their Main Street customers. BANKRUPT reveals what afflicts today's biggest banks, and shows how they nickel-and-dime the average customer even as they hold trillions of dollars in assets and government bailout funds. It's not about creating nostalgia for a golden age that is long past. It's about how today's banks can transform themselves to redefine banking. It's a call for leadership that lives by the motto "Do the right thing." To chart a path to the future, Realini draws upon her extensive personal experience in India, and reveals the amazing revolution in grassroots banking that is taking place right now. BANKRUPT is an optimistic book. It uses the crisis we are experiencing as a way to look forward to a very different kind of future for banking - one that will benefit both the banks and their millions of customers.

Product Details

• Paperback: 178 pages
• Publisher: Searching Finance Ltd (April 16, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1907720529
• ISBN-13: 978-1907720529
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.4 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,344,922 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Important Topic, critical time April 16, 2012

By Joe F Tumminaro

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Americans have lost trust in banks and this book gave me a deeper understanding of the issues. It was an easy read and understandable even though I am not a banker. I also like the discussion about the future being different. Some books about problems leave me defeated. This book left me hopeful and engaged.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful and compelling! April 18, 2012

By Charles Reader

Format:Paperback

America needs to stop being narcissistic and self-absorbed. Revolutions are happening beyond our borders, and we need to recognize that we can learn from what others are doing (shocking but true!). Carol Realini not only strips bare the corruption of our banking industry, but she reveals practical, large-scale solutions that are happening now in India and (of all places!) Kenya. The US risks being leapfrogged and left to wonder what happened to our self-proclaimed superiority. This book is a bombshell and a wake-up call, and anyone who has a bank account needs to read it. It's not too late to change, but only if we are willing to listen and learn.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fantastic Expose on the Follies and Potential Future of the Banking Industry May 9, 2013

By R. Gutierrez

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I read Carol Realini's BANKRupt and was both fascinated and "mightily" impressed. Much of her observations of the banking industry and its need for change are observations I share and others have shared over the years. I was particularly interested in her comments with regard to the payment industry and its evolving infrastructure bypassing the legacy systems of banks due to the large banks' intransigence and continued focus on profit over efficiency and some banks disregard for "forward thinking" and inclusiveness. The large banks current approach will not provide the banks sufficient profit margins given the encroachment by alternative providers of payments and other financial service providers. I was particularly interested in the solutions offered in BANKRupt such as the "Bank Superhighway" and need for regulatory streamlining and oversight. It appears some government agencies are engaged in working with banks, emerging third party providers and non-bank financial services providers, to encourage "collaboration" to achieve some of what is recommended. The need for a governmental organization or other influential 3rd party organization or individual to influence or "mandate" change is necessary without reluctance to impede upon banks and fearing the perception of impacting bank profits negatively and being looked upon as following a "socialist" dogma. Their goal could be and should be to develop a "utility" set of standard API's and connectivity to be mandated in order to create the opportunity for banks to utilize and provide products and services for all levels of society, consumers and business alike. Carol's ideas are sound and some organization, governmental or other, should "own" the strategy and figure out how to modify our banking infrastructure and business models to provide benefit to most parties involved. The challenge is not to figure out the solution for the mechanics of the processes, but "who" and "how" to make it happen. The primary challenge is the "who".