Opinion

I was invited to Ireland this week to join a debate at the University College Cork's Philosophical Debating Society.  The Debate was entitled: This House Believes That We Should Let Banks Go To the Wall, as in banks should die if they are failing. This is well illustrated by the …

What a week was last week. HBOS's former executives on the back foot over risk management procedures whilst whistleblower and former Group Head of Risk at HBOS, Paul Moore, packs a few sucker punches to say no-one listened to his warnings about leverage. One person in particular ignored and then …

What a week was last week. HBOS's former executives on the back foot over risk management procedures whilst whistleblower and former Group Head of Risk at HBOS, Paul Moore, packs a few sucker punches to say no-one listened to his warnings about leverage. One person in particular ignored and then …

I've just uploaded my latest presentation on Banking as a Service, which was presented for the first time in Bahrain this week. This is therefore, in effect, my fourth posting about why banking will be free, or razorblade margins anyway.  You can read Parts One, Two and Three first if …

Intraday Liquidity is a term that would mystify some, but is one of the core issues of today as this is a liquidity crisis. Liquidity is the ability of a bank to meet its payment obligations by being able to identify those assets that can be quickly converted to cash. …

Intraday Liquidity is a term that would mystify some, but is one of the core issues of today as this is a liquidity crisis. Liquidity is the ability of a bank to meet its payment obligations by being able to identify those assets that can be quickly converted to cash. …

After the banking leaders apologies in government hearings, I think I also have to apologise to my friends in the banking industry.  The apology is for the fact that many of us have spent months now writing stinking anecdotes about bankers, the banking system and how rotten some of it …

After the banking leaders apologies in government hearings, I think I also have to apologise to my friends in the banking industry.  The apology is for the fact that many of us have spent months now writing stinking anecdotes about bankers, the banking system and how rotten some of it …

I promise to write up more of the Middle Eastern case studies and issues soon, but became distracted because next Monday I’m joining a debate in Ireland. The debate is at the UCC Philosophical Society, one of the largest and oldest debating societies, and they came up with a wonderful …

I promise to write up more of the Middle Eastern case studies and issues soon, but became distracted because next Monday I’m joining a debate in Ireland. The debate is at the UCC Philosophical Society, one of the largest and oldest debating societies, and they came up with a wonderful …

Canadian's of course! In an article in Newsweek, there's a long discussion about why Canada has weathered this financial storm so well.  There's the first headline: "Canadian banks are typically leveraged at 18 to 1–compared with U.S. banks at 26 to 1" Well, that disagrees with this chart that I …

After inspiring Bank of America and HSBC to open small business community websites, Join2Grow, the first and some would say the best social finance website from a bank, is closing down at the end of this month.  I've used them as a reference for banking communities for over a year, …

The shine may be coming off our esteemed leader of the free world already as the Boston Phoenix has taken a few choice quotes from the audio book version of Obama's Dreams From My Father, and remixed them into things that could be used out of context. The original words are from Mr. Obama's swear …

Last week, I decided to post blogs for and against bank bonuses. I was surprised at the reactions to the case in favour, which drew more comments on a single posting  than most of my blog entries. This is obviously an emotive subject. By posting both sides of the debate, …

During the week, I enjoyed lunch with a venture capitalist who works with start-up firms that are innovating in financial services. One of the businesses he’s investing in is Wonga, another business that appears to be disrupting banks' business models in the same way as Zopa has been. I’d never …