Increasingly it appears the financial world toppled on the edge of global crisis last Wednesday on a scale that has not been seen since September 2008 when Lehman Brothers went down. European banks in bonds plea to ECB | ft.com Worried bankers from 47 European groups urged the ECB to become a “buyer of last resort” of eurozone government bonds to steady markets. There was speculation that the central bank could be preparing a €600bn ($762bn) loan facility for one-year loans at 1 per cent to help more than 1,000 banks in their funding. What was most interesting this week … Continue reading What happened in the markets this week is quite rational

This request from the American Banking Association.              WASHINGTON – Celebrating a combined history of 125 years of excellence in executive education, Stonier and the National School of Banking are launching a major search for more than 21,000 graduates.   The American Bankers Association’s Stonier National Graduate School of Banking is planning a special reunion for alumni and other leaders of the financial services industry at a special two-day event to mark the occasion, June12-13, 2010 in Philadelphia.             Most of the schools’ graduates hold (or did hold) the title of vice president or senior vice president, while one in five … Continue reading Major search underway for graduates of Stonier National Graduate School of Banking

Within the world that we (most readers of this blog)  live in, the words "’financial innovation’ means new online banking services or adding pfm capability to banking services online.  Its all about online. The major lesson for me from the credit/banking crisis is what financial innovation actually means to the financial community.  Gillian deals with it in this excellent piece.  Financial innovation to the rest of the world means creation of derivatives. Mathematicians must get out of their ivory towers | ft.com Gillian Tett No longer. In the three years since the financial crisis exploded, financial mathematics has come in … Continue reading How bankers took mathematics and misused it

I have long predicted that innovation within financial services will come from one or two innovative banks but more likely from new entrants.   This morning a note in linkedin from a friend, Scott Wilson, highlighted his new Canadian company with a model that caught my attention. The typical small business is time starved, suffers cash flow peaks and valleys, and is at the mercy of the larger economy and business cycles.   Bank lending for small business is identical to lending for large businesses, just on a smaller scale.  The rigidity of payment plans in bank products plus the paperwork to … Continue reading Bluecap enters with a novel financing model for Canadian small business

On this blog I have mused for some time about the future of branches and the ascendance of online banking in their place.  I have been proven wrong so far as rumours of the branch demise are proving false.  However there continue to be be periodic clues and hints of a different future.  Nationwide are eliminating cash withdrawals for cash cards only. Nationwide to restrict small cash counter withdrawals | BBC Nationwide Building Society is to stop some customers taking out less than £100 over the counter at its branches. From 7 June customers with cash cards who want smaller … Continue reading Nationwide are eliminating cash withdrawals for cash cards only.

From the “we haven’t really learned anything” department, banks continue to work within the rules they are given and make month end adjustments to their balance sheets with considerable impact to the real risk level, by understating debt in reports. Wall Street banks accused of window dressing debt | The Times Leading Wall Street investment banks have been accused of understating debt levels used to finance security trades by an average of 42 per cent at the end of each financial quarter for the past five quarters. … While the practice of “window dressing”, or using cosmetic devices to make … Continue reading Risk assessment of banks’ continues to be harder than it needs to be

I look forward to John Mauldin’s weekly emails.  He is pragmatic and fact based in his analysis.  This particular quote today caught my attention as one that summarises the Obama/ Brown (US/ UK) fixation with new debt that addresses an immediate problem yet creates a future one that is much larger.  The world of privatizing the gains and socializing the risks must become a thing of the past. And This Thing About Leverage The problem of too big to fail is ultimately one of leverage. If a small bank fails, no one really notices. If a giant bank fails and … Continue reading “The world of privatizing the gains and socializing the risks must become a thing of the past” | Mauldin

Small but important change (imho) to your own laptop that will eliminate lots of potential problems from viruses.  90 percent of Windows 7 flaws fixed by removing admin rights After tabulating all the vulnerabilities published in Microsoft’s 2009 Security Bulletins, it turns out 90 percent of the vulnerabilities can be mitigated by configuring users to operate without administrator rights, according to a report by BeyondTrust. As for the published Windows 7 vulnerabilities through March 2010, 57 percent are no longer applicable after removing administrator rights. By comparison, Windows 2000 is at 53 percent, Windows XP is at 62 percent, Windows … Continue reading Change to your Windows 7 set up that will make your life easier/ safer