From the country confidence department.  India and Indians relish in the chaotic democracy they proclaim to exhibit but many events including those noted by their auditor general suggest the chaos could be real and worse. Confidence shaken in Indian government | ft.com India lost up to $210bn in revenue by selling coalfields too cheaply, according to a leaked draft report by the state auditor on Thursday. The sale of the coal development blocks appears to have rewarded a handful of politically connected companies over the greater interest of India’s 1.2bn people, raising questions about the fairness of economic liberalisation. Only … Continue reading What to make of India (20% of world population)

It’s a sad state of affairs to see the once proud and risk averse Lloyds Bank having trouble with a financial minnow as one of the last decent opportunities to sell its branch network.  Lloyds to miss branch sale deadline | ft.com A particular sticking point has been the discussions between the Co-op and the financial regulator, which is yet to be convinced the mutual has the appropriate governance and systems in place to run a much bigger banking business. Relevance to Bankwatch: The enforced sale of branches serves to highlight the reality that a capital intensive branch network located … Continue reading Its an uphill battle to sell existing branches

Enough said.  Technology at some level requires hardware implementation.    Fibre optics to connect Japan to the UK – via the Arctic Meanwhile, a 15,600-kilometre link via the Canadian Arctic, to be built byArctic Fibre of Toronto, Canada, will cut the present round-trip time, or "latency", between London and Tokyo from 230 milliseconds to 168 milliseconds, claims company president Doug Cunningham (see map). Reduced transmission time will be a boon for high-frequency traders who will gain crucial milliseconds on each automated trade. Continue reading The value of 62 milliseconds

This hyperbolic language that accompanies Apple reminds me of the dot com era.  Back then if you had a brand it could accomplish anything.  We know more now.  Great brand but stick to your knitting.  You do not want to go in front of the “Barney Frank” type interrogation that banking entry will require you to endure.  This is not a balance sheet issue.  Its  a much deeper regulatory, and oversight issue which cannot easily be consolidated with typical business processes.  Don’t even get me started.  I love Apple.  Stick to technology. What is the next industry Apple can disrupt? … Continue reading Its too easy to suggest Apple should be a bank

I had to check the author of this piece in the mainstream FT talking about wireless payments.  It turns out it was not Dave Birch, so maybe payments are making some small progress with the FT picking it up. Finance: More flash than cash | ft.com Last year, Lucas Scheybal challenged himself to live for two weeks in New York handling no cash or payment cards – instead using only a futuristic watch with a wireless chip. It turned out to be easy. With a swipe of the device across a special reader, he was able to buy coffee at … Continue reading Successful cashless payments test in New York but proliferation of payment methods hinders progress

Simultaneously with Greece, St Kitts with a similar debt overhang, negotiated a restructuring (finance parlance for a debt reduction) of 50% reduction.  This was all done quietly and after a few months negotiation.  The financial crisis has far reaching consequences, yet the consequences are somehow more obvious with such small countries than with large. A proper debt restructuring | ft.com Basseterre, St Kitts: The Government of St Kitts and Nevis announced  today that the exchange offer launched on 27 February 2012 has received the overwhelming support of its creditors. … … The  New Discount Bonds, which are to be partially … Continue reading St Kitts sets the model for debt restructuring

It is not official whether the AIJ debacle is a ponzi scheme (using new investor capital to create above market income returns to existing investors) but with talk of both pooling of investor capital along with massive amounts missing, this does seem to have Madoff style ponzi written all over it. The loss at AIJ is staggering at close to $2.6 billion. Japan probes asset managers after AIJ loss Money Fund in Japan Told to Halt Operations And some smart commentary from CFA AIJ Investment Advisors: Made (off) in Japan Continue reading More on the topic of financial regulation | AIJ Investment Advisors lessons learned

This is an interesting post from an Austrian VC Oliver Holle.  The parallel between his view of European VC investing compared to that of the Silicon Valley ‘Go big or go Home’, and that of the Austrian financial history such as Hayek is fascinating. Hail the hidden champions: Why fringe markets may beat Silicon Valley (at least for investors) These are companies like Sipwise, Gaminside or Grin.com, our most recent investment; not too fancy, and surely no Pinterest, but great growth, great teams and great financials. I would argue that these three are far better investments than the vast majority … Continue reading ‘Hail the Hidden Champions’ | Speedinvest

Every once in a while I have to get back to the value that is yet to be proven for internet marketing.  When I say yet to be proven I am thinking here of the promise to get beyond sub 0.5% conversion rates usually seen in traditional marketing.  This is the promise that is held out for the Twitter and FaceBook models that somehow they have transcended the value which traditional interruptive marketing brings.  (For my thoughts on Groupon) Mathew Ingram writes a succinct summary of the problem on GigaOm: Both are seeing their share of the ad market grow, … Continue reading Some thoughts on internet marketing and the challenge facing FaceBook and Twitter