Trends in Financial Services

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

Elton Cane Digital product delivery at News Corp Australia

Investment bank bonus structures are an operational risk

This is one of the interesting topics that came up for debate at a risk event I attended yesterday organised by the CASS Business School in London and the Capco Institute. The recent sub-prime and liquidity crisis has prompted many commentators to look at the role of investment banking remuneration and management structures in building what Fortune...

09 April 2008 /wholesale

Retired Member 

Financial Innovation and Global Security

It is no secret that there is a highly symbiotic relationship between economic affairs and national security. One is hugely influential on the other. In today’s hyper-dependent global economy this is perhaps truer than ever, and it would seem that opportunities for (and threats to) financial services can be readily identified by monitoring this re...

08 April 2008

Retired Member 

Buy Side OTC operational improvements : A Project for 2008?

Research just out from Tabb estimating that banks will spend $70 million on automating OTC derivatives processing this year is welcome, yet it’s still a fraction of what really needs to be spent. Even if many of the big sell-side firms have invested heavily, there remain so many counterparties who have yet to even recognise that it is relevant to...

03 April 2008 /sibos

Retired Member 

All in a days work

Last week’s letter from the Operations Management Group to Timothy Geithner, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, was both thought provoking and inspiring – so how did it manage to slip under the radar of almost all of the mainstream financial services media? Not only was it pleasing to see that the resounding goal of the Group was t...

03 April 2008

Retired Member 

Lawsuit Risk Management

The story around Societe Generals ‘lost’ billions seemingly took another twist today with the news that Jerome Kerviel plans to launch court proceedings against his former employer to contest his sacking for gross misconduct. According to his lawyers, the environment in which Mr Kerviel worked failed to enforce a limit on traders and encouraged the...

03 April 2008

Retired Member 

Relax, just do it

The US has enjoyed a somewhat obsessive relationship with regulation since corporate scandals such as Enron, and more recently Amaranth, have created an over-protectionist environment for investors. The proposed relaxation of regulation in the US has been a topic for some discussion over the past year but the opening up of the US securities framewo...

03 April 2008

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

PCI compliance fails to prevent Hannaford hacking

The Hannaford card security breach is a worrying development for the payment card industry. The exploit - which would appear to be an inside job - exposes weaknesses in the PCI compliance standards explicitly and expensively promoted by the card companies as a solution to restoring consumer confidence in payment card security. Unlike TJX, Hannafor...

31 March 2008 /security /payments

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

First contact for contactless payments

Sandwich chain EAT has become the first UK retailer to go live with an integrated contactless point of sale terminal. The upgraded Chip and PIN terminal has been installed at EAT’s Moorgate branch and enables the retailer to select the method of payment that customers want to use – either cash, Chip and PIN or contactless. Over the coming weeks, ...

26 March 2008 /retail

Retired Member 

Who's in your Wallet?

We face a real and present threat to our national security. This threat originates from both domestic and foreign sources. As an increasing number of countries move to adopt secure credit card transaction technology, eastern European cartels are turning their attention to the relatively unprotected US card transaction system. However more sinister...

18 March 2008 /payments /retail

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

In banking it pays to be disloyal

We know it costs more money to recruit a new customer than to cross-sell to an existing customer. We know also that a satisfied customer is a happy customer and good for some free word-of-mouth marketing to new prospects. So why is it that financial services companies continue to cheat and penalise their most loyal customers at any and every availa...

17 March 2008 /retail