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The Long Now of Finance, Part Two

Following on from yesterday’s blog about 10,000 year thinking, how does this relate to or work in finance? The idea is to fund long-term projects. The sort of massive projects that no-one knows how to fund. The sort of project that governments shy away from as politicians only have four-year lives and thinking past the…

Maeslant

The Long Now of Finance

So I finally got to attend a free lunch! This was the launch of the largest event focused upon using long-term thinking in finance that I’ve ever seen, and sponsored by many organisations including the Financial Services Club. Around 400 folks gathered to hear the wise words of legendary thinkers and speakers, including my good…

400people

Technoverload

Warning: this is a rage against the machine So the iPad comes out. Guess what?  Just as I bought an iPod, the iPod Touch came out. Now, just as I buy the iPod Touch, the iPad comes out. It’s annoying 'cos I want one, but I just bought one.  The wrong one.  The old one….

Ipad

Why would a bank change their core system?

I was asked a question about why a bank would change their core system the other day. There are lots of reasons why a bank would change their core system. Here’s my top five: Legacy constraints: this is the most obvious one, but it does not create a reason for changing a core system in…

Cisco

David vs Brick Wall: How Banks are Sticking to Customers

Mint’s blog, a must-read for all bankers if you want to know what consumers top of mind priorities are, sent a post out yesterday titled: “David & Goliath: How Customers are Sticking it to the Big Banks”. It immediately caught my attention because the Huffington Post in the USA has been promoting the idea of…

Big Four Market Share

How far can investment firms innovate?

I’m continually impressed and amazed by the speed of change in the technology of the investment markets. For example, last year was all talk about low latency and lit versus dark pools. This year, it’s all about private cloud-based services based upon colocation and proximity services. Next year, it will be all about real-time liquidity…

EU Trading

Halifax’s marketing is the worst I’ve ever seen …

Every time the new Halifax ad comes on the box, I cringe … Now I’ve blogged about their awful advertising before and how insensitive it seems post-crisis, but this one really gets me down. Not only is it cheesy, poorly executed and raw, but it actually makes most of the folks I talk to feel…

What the Halifax should have done …

Thinking about the Halifax’s ads a bit more, some may say: “they are so bad, they’re good”, in a Shake & Vac sort of way (one of Britain’s most memorable and iconic ads – see end of blog entry if you want to see it). I disagree. The Halifax ads are just plain bad and…

Howard_Brown_Halifax_Man_Student_Pocket_Guide2

What is this f****r fee?

So yesterday’s big news is the new Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee, the FCR fee or f****r fee as the bankers are calling it. This is Obama’s big idea to get back lost TARP funds, by introducing a tax of $1.5 million per billion dollars of liabilities on a bank’s balance sheet. The aim is to…

Survival of the richest

It’s been a difficult time for City bankers, what with all the flak over bonuses and easy money after almost bankrupting the world. The longest lasting row relates to bonuses and remunerations packages. This hit the headlines a year ago, and was debated here with the arguments for and against. A year later, and the…

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