44 Results
Stanley Epstein Associate at Citadel Advantage Group
There has been news in recent weeks in the press that the banks continue to wield undue influence, aimed at protecting their powers. This time the news comes from Kenya and it's all about M-PESA. For the uninitiated M-PESA is a micro-payments and banking system based on the mobile phone. The service is aimed at mobile users who do not have a bank...
15 January 2009 /payments /retail
Today I went to my bank to draw MY money from MY account. Even doing this without the assistance of a surly bank teller costs me money in transaction fees. I do the work, on the bank's equipment on my own account and I have to pay for the privilege. Anyhow even after having accepted this type of abuse over many years and grown used to it, I was in...
15 January 2009 /retail
As a committed operational risk professional, I cannot help but stare in amazement amidst all the financial ruin and desolation that surrounds us. There has been a lot of hand-wringing and pronouncements about credit risk, liquidity problems, lack of trust and the like. However to my mind these are all smoke. And this smoke conceals the fundamenta...
29 December 2008 /regulation Innovation in Financial Services
As a committed operational risk professional, I cannot help but stare in amazement amidst all the financial ruin and desolation that surrounds us. The hand wringing and the weeping about credit risk, liquidity problems, lack of trust and the like are all smoke. And this smoke conceals the true cause, in my view, of all the current problems. It al...
16 November 2008 /regulation
Executive compensation is in the headlines again. And guess where? Nowhere else but than about executives at the failed Lehman Brothers. I see that the failed investment bank's CEO, Richard Fuld, has been giving evidence to U.S. congressional investigators on executive pay at the firm. And the amounts that are being bandied about are (as usual) sh...
10 October 2008 Innovation in Financial Services
A key element in the development of any tangible product is the risk analysis that is (or should be) included in the design stage. If I build this object/product as specified, how safe is it going to be? Will it harm my customers? Does it open me up to legal actions? Does it comply with local (and international) consumer and environmental regulati...
08 October 2008 /regulation Operational Risk Management
It is absolutely frightening, watching how the rumours and the panic spreads. It's really scary following the daily press and being jolted into reality each morning by the blazing headlines as the tide of fear moves from country to country - Ireland, Germany, Italy, Iceland ..... And the names of the banks that are now involved! Where and who next...
08 October 2008 /regulation
If you really want to boost the EU's economic fortunes, improve its competitiveness and facilitate its progressive adaptation to the digital age then you need less regulation, not more. And the best regulation is often no regulation at all. Innovation needs space to breathe and to flourish, and to do that it should be as unfettered as possible. T...
04 September 2008 /payments Innovation in Financial Services
If the Misys data are correct we are sitting atop a volcano that is just about to blow! Firstly forty one percent of failed cross-border transactions is appalling! This means that almost every second cross-border transaction is not passing muster. This also raises two very clear and critical issues - transparency and operational risk. On the trans...
04 September 2008 /payments /regulation Operational Risk Management
Good for the FSA for warning the investment banks on staff cuts in middle and back office functions . Clearly from the banks side, it is the usual story. Back and middle office staff are expendable. They are simply an added cost βburdenβ that has to be cut as soon as margins are squeezed. Imagine ripping out half your carβs engine simply because t...
30 August 2008
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