February 18, 2013
Slightly different format this week. What do you think? Last week, I was asked about SSI’s in the FX business. Who should do what? Understandable issue as an account may not initially trade FX or might do certain currencies later. I tried to make a general theory for this. Feedback on the following is very […]
February 5, 2013
When things go wrong, there is often a tendency to say something was a one off or an event so unlikely it could not have been foreseen. Quite often, that hides the truth. At its core, banking is not that difficult or that different from other businesses. Reading the recent write-up of the mess caused […]
January 28, 2013
In August l2012, a software glitch at the US brokerage house led to the firm losing control of their orders and making such huge losses that the firm had to be taken over. What went wrong and could it have been prevented? Knight got themselves into trouble when the software controlling their order book and […]
January 20, 2013
This week’s post is inspired by a feedback on last week’s post, as well as some recent conversations with industry contacts. In response to last week’s post on why good decisions are not made, I was offered some further and very useful theory: in large Banking organisations, there is often a strange culture mix to […]
January 14, 2013
This week’s post is inspired by a couple of recent events. A discussion last week with a group of banks about operational improvements and the challenge that Operations has of getting funds to invest in change that will reduce costs, as well as reports in today’s Times, of London, not New York that is, about […]
January 7, 2013
Being good at something means getting the job done right and getting it done on time. In my first interview with an Investment Bank, I was asked about working long hours and weekends. “Look, I don’t know anything about this business and I am sure there might be reasons why sometimes, long hours and weekends […]