Simplicity ➜ Disruption ➜ Hanky-Panky

Personalized search results? Just give me the standard ones. Serendipity will guide me from there. The other day it led from simplicity to disruption to hanky-panky.

To start with, American Banker reported that Betterment, a site offering investment simplicity, had signed up 4000 customers. Never heard of it.

Betterment launched a year ago at TechCrunch Disrupt with seed money from Bessemer and other angel investors. The start-up hopes to make an investment account as natural an offshoot of a bank account as money market funds became for an earlier generation.. The founders have worked hard to deliver their message clearly and simply. Take a look.

TechCrunch Disrupt? Never heard of it, either. With a couple of clicks I learned that this year's gathering ended yesterday. TechCrunch Disrupt draws developers of apps, web sites and other digital startups, all with visions of IPOs dancing in their heads. Several ideas involve personal finance. ( If brick-and-mortar banks are headed for extinction, can credit cards be far behind? See the NY Times: Payment Method Bypasses the Wallet.)

A TechCrunch link led me to Business Insider, Henry Blodget's news-and-gossip site. BI's banker hanky-panky currently features Sir Fred Goodwin, ex-CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland.. Goodwin obtained a superinjunction barring the media from revealing his alleged affair with an RBS staffer. Like the French, the British like to keep such indiscretions quiet. Except in Parliament. There, members can talk about anything. And once they say it, the press can write about it.

The U.K. is the land of No Sex Please, We're British.What really disturbs them is the financing. How could Sir Fred, head of a bank that required a major government bailout, squander funds on promotions for his paramour?

Bankers below CEO level also should consider the financing of their hanky-panky. According to a survey, male bankers spend an average of $500-$600 per sexual rendezvous.