February 16, 2016
The “Aha moment”. That moment of total clarity and understanding. I am an Ops centric guy, so I think about controls over Nostro banks and custodians. A recent encounter, made me realise that banks have the same problems controlling IT vendors who are providing outsourced services. This week’s thoughts build on a previous post about […]
February 8, 2016
Hype. There is plenty of it around Blockchain. Nothing I do, or say, will make it go away, but perhaps I can help drive a realistic perspective on. These five lessons are the result of some conversations in London last week and some research. I hope they help others’ understanding of the shifting sands. If […]
February 1, 2016
The prompt for this week’s post is a story about fees charged by State Street, the major custodian: “State Street overbilled customers $200m over 18 years”. Institutions pay many fees to their banks and their custodians. Fees are not an easy thing to reconcile. There is nothing as simple as a SWIFT MT950 cash reconciliation: […]
January 19, 2016
This week’s post is inspired by an article in the Times: “Too posh to pay: now suppliers attack Waitrose”. Old story, new song. This is about payments and when bills get paid. The villain is Waitrose, which is a grocery chain and part of the well known John Lewis Group. They are taking 3x longer to […]
January 12, 2016
The year is off and running. Blockchain and the potential for massive back-office savings is at the front of both mind and mouth. I offer the thoughts here with no desire “to be right”. Rather, I am suggesting that these are the areas in the FS industry which need focus and understanding. Without this, progress […]
January 5, 2016
Two news items from opposite sides of the Atlantic have inspired this first post of 2016. The kickback is nothing new, nor is it something confined to banks. The latest cases show just how banks try to gain the upper hand in the game of cat & mouse both with regulations and clients. The dictionary […]