Our biggest stories of the week are ...
Santander's systems irritate once more
The news yesterday
that Santander has messed up the conversion of Alliance &
Leicester’s core systems to their Partenon platform is really
disappointing, particularly as they messed up badly when they tried
to migrate Abbey’s core systems to Partenon three years ago.
After the PSD and SEPA, has anything changed?
Last year, we performed a major survey in anticipation of the
implementation of the PSD and SEPA Direct Debits, to see how the world
viewed these areas.This year, we're doing it again. Click here to take survey.
The origins of today's global exchanges
Trading goes back to Ancient Sumeria, but today's trading on the
world's stock markets can probably be attributed to a particular place
in London. OK, as a Brit I would say that but, as I walk around London,
I'm constantly seeing signs of how today's world of finance originated.
Dear Mr. Hurd, how to avoid being an asshole
For much of my professional life I’ve worked for large American
corporations. It wasn’t until last weekend that I realised why
these corporations were so dysfunctional. The realisation came about
because of Mark Hurd’s resignation as CEO of Hewlett Packard ...
Blowing the lid off private banking secrecy
During the past week, the US Magazine Global Post published an amazing
series of articles about the insider truth of being a private banker
with UBS in Switzerland. The series charts the operations of
Bradley Birkenfeld, who had access to secret account information that
law enforcement officers can only dream of. He also explained how
the bank maintains its secrecy using plain old Rolex cards.
Ten reasons why there won’t be a double dip
Sorry about that. Really depressed meself with all that doom and gloom
about double
dip recessions
and, for regular blog readers, you know that I like to take both
extremes in an argument so here for 10 reasons why the double dip won’t happen ...
How does a credit rating agency work?
The Financial Services Club Ireland starts their new season on
Thursday 2nd September 2010 and Scotland meets on 23rd September with
the same theme: How does a credit rating agency work? with Roberto Rivero, Head of Market Development Rating Services for Standard & Poor's. If you would like to attend, please register for the Irish meeting on 2nd September by clicking here, or the Scotland meeting on 23rd September by clicking here.
The major general news stories of the week include ...
RBS business customers react to being sold - The Telegraph
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has provoked the ire of some of the 2m retail and business customers being sold in a £1.65bn deal to Santander
BarCap to slash jobs in cost-cuts - Financial Times
News of the cuts is likely to alarm the City as well as Wall Street, where BarCap has a sizeable presence following its acquisition of the US operations of Lehman Brothers at the height of the financial crisis
HSBC to extend Saturday working and cut sick leave - The Telegraph
HSBC has come under fire from the Unite union after it announced plans to alter the contracts of bank managers to enable more flexible branch opening hours.
Payback time - BBC
What's behind the UK's big bank profits?
Goldman Sachs under investigation by US and UK watchdogs - The Telegraph
Investment bank Goldman Sachs is the subject of investigations by
regulators on both sides of the Atlantic over the timing of disclosures
to fraud charges against it.
FSA exodus adds to concern over City regulation - Financial Times
Staff resignations double at the regulator in face of abolition as private sector recruitment attract managers and frontline supervisors
Eric Daniels on HBOS: "We did the country a great service..." - The Telegraph
Lloyds' quiet American tells Damian Reece why a purchase that cost
the bank billions will turn out to be a 'very, very good deal'
Banks' reports speak volumes - Financial Times
This week for the first time since the end of 2007, all four of the high street behemoths reported profits. Look at in a certain way, however, the upbeat picture changes quickly
Nuns accuse banks in $5m lawsuit - The Telegraph
Germany's Deutsche Bank and US investment bank Morgan Stanley are facing a $5m lawsuit led by a group of Irish nuns.
China tackles banks' '£213bn hidden loans' - The Telegraph
Chinese banks could be hiding off-balance sheet loans worth about
2,300bn renminbi (£213bn), according to the country's authorities.
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Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...
