Trends in Financial Services

A community to discuss the future of financial services and any other interesting trends, strategies, ideas, views.

Retired Member 

System Adequacy Identified as Major OTC Operational Issue

65 per cent of firms reference adequacy of existing system as major OTC operational issue As the dust settles on the central counterparty debate the spotlight returns to the internal issue of operational readiness of the middle and back office to process the continued increase in OTC volumes. In research published this week by CityIQ a survey...

01 April 2009 /sibos

John Cant Managing Director at MPI Europe Ltd

Mine detecting bees

Whether it is certain bonuses in financial sector, or league tables and performance stars in the public sector, there have been numerous recent illustrations of the harm that poorly set business targets can cause. It seems deceptively easy in theory to use targets and rewards to drive desired behaviour. Take the mine detecting bees for example. No...

31 March 2009 /regulation /wholesale

Elton Cane Digital product delivery at News Corp Australia

Trust me, I'm an expert ...

It' s a line we seem to fall for far too easily, and this is something that scientists say has contributed to the current financial crisis. Studies suggest that the normal mechanisms people use to evaluate risk and reward are not being used when you have an expert telling you what to do. This is backed up by anecdotal evidence that has emerged abo...

24 March 2009 /wholesale

Retired Member 

Deflation? Cobblers

I suspect that many people are like me in not believing we are in a deflationary situation. It is complete cobblers and should not be influencing economic policy. The principal reason why the RPI is dropping into negative territory is that interest rates have been destroyed in recent months. This allegedly reduces the cost of living, which is rub...

24 March 2009 /retail

Retired Member 

Is Spain plus Brazil more effective than India?

Spain’s star is on the rise in the outsourcing world. Too long in the shadow of India and Eastern Europe as near and offshore solution, Spain is becoming the thinking company’s destination of choice. This is supported by Forrester’s recent research (Spotlight on Spain) which suggests that companies should take another look at Spanish providers. It’...

17 March 2009

Retired Member 

Card Cheques and Auto Limit Increases

Interesting development on the credit card front. Once more, the Government is trying to make out that the financial services industry is at fault for pushing credit on people. Whilst I subscribe to the view that there needs to be shackles on mortgage salary multipliers and LTV ratios (because that is heavily price-inflationary), I am less certain...

17 March 2009 /regulation

Retired Member 

OTC automation: Not a bridge too far

Improving post-trade processing capabilities is imperative when more than 50 per cent of a client’s workload can be spent dealing with terminations, novations and amendments – let alone getting in place the basics for trade confirmation and payment processing. While OTC derivatives volumes are not as explosive as earlier last year they are still ...

11 March 2009 /sibos

Retired Member 

Do Some Real Good With 75 Billion

If the Government is going to spray £75 billion quids' worth of petrol on the embers of the economy, they could at least do it in a way that stands the best chance of achieving something. Here's an idea. Offer people the chance to sell a stake of up to 50% or £75k, in their house, whichever is the smaller. This can only go towards reducing their ...

06 March 2009 /regulation /retail

John Cant Managing Director at MPI Europe Ltd

Regulation: learn how to walk again, before you try to run

There have been calls this month from the European Union for the creation of a pan-European regulatory body to help solve the current financial crisis and prevent future issues. This is a deceptively easy thing to call for in the current climate, but it neither makes it easy to implement, nor indeed is there much evidence that it would be any more...

06 March 2009 /regulation /wholesale

Retired Member 

Calling Dr. House...

Do you watch House, the US medical drama series? In it, the team, ably led by the wonderfully acerbic Hugh Laurie as the eponymous head doctor in the Department of Diagnostic Medicine, solve puzzling medical cases through a range of medical tests, brainstorms and lateral thinking. We need an equivalent person, and department, to help us get out o...

05 March 2009 /regulation /retail