Trends in Financial Services

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

Retired Member 

Banks are at risk if we dont keep up mortgages repayments

So we have seen some high profile casualties in the subprime triggered credit crunch from both the corporation and personnel perspective and I am sure we will see further cases in the coming weeks and months as more banks write off ever increasing amounts related to their mortgage business and as the true size of these write offs become clear as h...

22 November 2007 /regulation

Retired Member 

Step in the right direction!!

Latest report from McKinsey “ The New Power Brokers: How Oil, Asia, Hedge Funds, and Private Equity - Are Shaping Global Capital Markets”, presents interesting insights into future of capital markets and also changes in source of capital, intermediaries and users of capital. According to the report, hedge fund assets under management have tripled ...

22 November 2007 /retail

Retired Member 

One throat to choke

Isn't it better to have one throat to choke? The explosions of the personal computer saw two hardware and operating system vendor models emerge. The first was the IBM compatible or “PC” camp where hardware vendors could produce components to standards and other vendors package these bits into a saleable product. With any luck the operating system ...

15 November 2007 /payments

Retired Member 

Dubai's Shopping Spree Continues

DIFC has added another arrow to its strategic quiver: SmartStream. The acquisition underscores once again the explosive buildup of financial infrastructure going on in the Middle East. With the continued weak dollar and high oil prices, it would seem that it is just a matter of time before DIFC or another regional financial institution makes a pl...

13 November 2007

Alan Goodrich Regional Sales Manager at ERI

Smarter Than A Ten Year Old?

Sorry, this is not a blog discussing the new TV series, but it hopefully will hold your attention at least as long as the programme makers hope their latest show will. Much is being written and discussed about innovation in financial services with, it seems, organisations employing an increasing number of people with the remit to innovate. Any of y...

07 November 2007 /payments /regulation

Retired Member 

What About Personal Risk Management?

In 2003, Yale University professor Dr. Robert Shiller ("Irrational Exuberance") published his widely heralded tome, "The New Financial Order: Risk in the 21st Century." In it Shiller lays out his ideas for "radical financial innovation," and, specifically, the development of financial products and services which pro...

03 November 2007

Alan Goodrich Regional Sales Manager at ERI

The Distribution Dilemma

Hmmm... I wondered whether it was worth blogging about anything other than MiFID this week... but then decided that perhaps someone might want to read about something else..? Anyway, I finished my previous blog on the funds distribution topic with Tim Keaney’s (co-CEO at BNY Mellon Asset Servicing) statement at SIBOS that “more than 80% of the tra...

01 November 2007 /sibos

Alan Goodrich Regional Sales Manager at ERI

How Fickle We Are With Funds

No, I’m not suggesting we are careless or eclectic with our money! Or, are we sometimes – in a way..? I was part of the packed audience in Room 210 at one of the opening sessions, on the Monday morning of SIBOS this year, entitled: The 21st century funds industry: What are the critical success factors? The assembled panel of experts was worthy of t...

26 October 2007 /sibos

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Making innovation pay

McKinsey assessed the IT strategies of ten leading global corporations to understand how they invest in innovation while running their core IT operations efficiently. The consultancy found that they typically define their IT investments across three criteria - as low risk (“stay in the race” projects to improve basic services), medium risk (“win t...

25 October 2007 /retail /wholesale

Retired Member 

Greenspan's Age Of Turbulence - must read!

I was stuck abroad last weekend and picked up Alan Greenspan's "Age of turbulence" to kill some time. I read the book cover to cover in one go (well actually two sessions to allow for dinner and drink) and want to endorse this book to anyone out there with the faintest interest in economics, US financial policy and business in general. “...

24 October 2007 /wholesale