October 1, 2012
Fear not, this is not a recap of the recent John Terry case. This is about competing in the global economy. It is about our local economy in Switzerland and specifically how we compete. Although the story takes place in the financial markets, the issue here is a national one and not specific to the […]
September 24, 2012
The UBS rogue trader case, featuring its alleged perpetrator, Kweku Adoboli, was in court this last week. Reading some of the many reports highlighted to me the importance of some of the controls we have in banks and the need to fully understand them. A date can make all the difference; timing, as the expression […]
September 19, 2012
Market data was the subject of last week’s post. This week, we take a took at transaction information; the stuff that is associated with every trade that a bank books. Trade lifecycle. That expression will be familiar to those who work in financial services. It starts with book trade and ends with settle trade. Along […]
September 10, 2012
Last week, we took a look at stuff you pay for and your clients don’t use. This week, a subtle variation. Paying for stuff that you don’t use properly. When you negotiate to buy something, you will be starting from the notion that you need whatever good or service you are looking at. There is […]
September 5, 2012
Banks need to cut their costs. This is actually always true, however in late Summer 2012 the need is acute as bankers fight with low interest rates, low volumes and low revenues. Banks are though not really efficient at the best of times and in the worst of times, that really hurts. Banks send their […]
August 27, 2012
Banks are pretty low in the publics estimation. Of late, Sod’s law has applied in spades. What can go wrong has gone wrong; Nasdaq and the Facebook problem, RBS and their domestic banking problems. On top of that, banks have made a big mess of many basic things they should be getting right; rigging LIBOR, […]
August 21, 2012
Money and banking. The two go together. Banking is a schizophrenic business. There is some truth to the notion that people in banking earn a lot mroe money than people in other professions. There is a also plenty of truth to the observation that if you are in banking, there are plenty who earn more […]
August 14, 2012
After all the fun of London 2012, we are now in what in journalism is often referred to as “silly season”. The holiday month of August, where real news is in short supply. A light hearted look at some banking stories seems appropriate. It is often said that there are three types of money: getting […]
August 8, 2012
Standard Chartered. They are the whipping boy du jour suffering at what I term “long hand of American imperialism”. This week they stand accused of all sorts of wrongdoing connected to Iran. Before them Credit Suisse, Lloyds, ABN and Barclays have been pressured in to handing over fistfuls of green backs to Uncle Sam for […]
July 31, 2012
Suicide, or at least attempted suicide, is the inspiration for this week’s Blog post. Iowa in the mid-West of the USA is a long way from the financial capitals of the world, but a local tragedy provides a lesson for everybody who works in financial services. The Story PFGBest aka Pergrine is a small brokerage […]