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Bear in the China Shop

Not to miss the ‘invest in China’ boat, yesterday, Bear Stearns and Citic Securities announced a co-investment partnership agreement. If everything is approved by the regulators, which it likely will be, Bear, the darling of the CDO market, will invest US$1B in the Chinese brokerage, which will convert to a 2% stake over 6 years with the option t...

Asia Financial Services

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Retired Member 

Investments in the Risk Management software sector

The most significant private equity investment in the financial technology sector these past few months was definitely Advent International's (a TA Associates competitor and spin-off) acquisition of a majority stake in Paris-based portfolio and risk management software provider Sophis last July. Sophis provides two main solutions: RISQUE (for sell...

/regulation Private Equity Investing in Financial Technology

Retired Member

Retired Member 

Private Equity Investing in Financial Technology

Hello All, I work as an investment professional for TA Associates, one of the world's largest global private equity firms with over $10 billion under management and the leading investor in the financial technology sector. Recent investments of ours include: SmartStream Technologies (trade reconciliation software), OpenLink Software (trading and ri...

Retired Member

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World Bank Strategy Means Dealflow

World Bank president Robert Zoellick has told the Financial Times that the bank plans to solicit private sector contributions to the International Development Association. This is the tip of the strategic iceberg, the first of what will likely be several important moves by Mr. Zoellick to encourage and increase private sector investment in intern...

Retired Member

Retired Member 

Flirty Brits blow 3 billion a year texting

You're lovely, fancy a date? According to price comparison service uSwitch, a poll of 2000 adults reveals that the Brits send 235 million flirty text messages a month. We're a romantic lot. That equates to 3 billion quid a year. It's not clear whether this has seasonal variations - Valentines, office Xmas party season etc but it's a huge amount. ...

Whatever...

Retired Member

Retired Member 

The need to make BFSI more 'web accessible'

A few days ago, The Register reported that a California court had allowed a class action case to proceed against retail giant Target. This set me thinking - how long before the websites (&, other, presences) of the BFSI (banking, financial services, insurance) sector are put under the scanner? Web accessibility is not a new topic - the gover...

Retired Member

Retired Member 

China: Stock Dormancy

For the past few weeks, most of the major news in China has centred on the Communist Party Congress. This is an pretty important event in China that happens once every 5 years and usually results in a number of far-reaching policy and people changes throughout the country and government. What has slipped under the radar during all the coverage ...

Asia Financial Services

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Retired Member 

Ukeleles - an unstoppable musical force

Back in June I mentioned the Great ukelele shortage - well it seems the growth in popularity of the instrument continues apace according to this in the Guardian. It's now taking over from the humble recorder as instrument of choice in schools. So Fintech community types - what do you play? I heard Sex Panther had one.

Whatever...

Retired Member

Retired Member 

African Financial Reform: A Strategic Opportunity

China's policy of extending loans to impoverished nations in Africa as a means to secure natural resources contracts has drawn considerable scrutiny. In November, 2006, Beijing pledged $5 billion in preferential loans and buyers credits, and most recently at a June meeting of the African Development Bank, unveiled a $20 billion loan package. China...

Retired Member

Retired Member 

Leopard to ship on October 26th

The Apple store disappeared earlier today with a "back soon" notice on it. When it reappeared, I spied you can now order Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard for shipping by October 26th. Various Mac rumour sites had been touting this as a likely date for some time - but it's nice to know it's confirmed as nearly here. There appear to be 300 new feat...

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