Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

Regulation

What does ‘too big to fail’ really mean? [Infographic]

I just received this fantastic infographic from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, discussing developments since 2008 and the financial crisis.  The context is whether the Big 5 American Banks are still too big to fail (TBTF), and whether the US government has introduced effective controls under Dodd-Frank to avoid the TBTF situation if another financial…

Europe’s regulatory jumble is still a puzzle to unfold

In our annual opening meeting at the Financial Services Club David Doyle, Policy Adviser on all matters to do with EU Regulations, gave us a swift canter through the key headlines in European financial markets focus for 2015. These included the guiding principles that: All that is of systemic importance should be regulated and supervised…

50 shades of grey … hair

I was talking about the component-based model and how it was now moving into component-based regulation, when someone challenged this notion. “Not our regulator”, he said.  “Our regulator’s going the other way, and consolidating all regulations under one national system”. I thought: we did that years ago.   When we had LIMRA, FIMBRA, IMRO, SFA,…

When we have component-based banking, what happens to the regulator?

I often talk about component-based banking, most recently in this four-part series in August: Part One: Banking on Demand – the Bank in the Cloud Part Two: Banking on Demand – the Open Sourced Bank Part Three: Banking on Demand – the Customer Focused Bank Part Four: Banking on Demand – the Component-Based Bank but…

When we have component-based banking, what happens to the regulator?

I often talk about component-based banking, most recently in this four-part series in August: Part One: Banking on Demand – the Bank in the Cloud Part Two: Banking on Demand – the Open Sourced Bank Part Three: Banking on Demand – the Customer Focused Bank Part Four: Banking on Demand – the Component-Based Bank but…

BNP Paribas’ $9 billion fine is peanuts

I’m called by a number of people about the BNP Paribas fine today.  The fine looks like a done deal of $8.9 billion, and includes the bank admitting criminal charges as well as being banned from US dollar clearing. Why so bad? Because BNP failed to co-operate in the SEC and Federal Reserve’s investigations which,…

US bank fines

BNP Paribas’ $9 billion fine is peanuts

I’m called by a number of people about the BNP Paribas fine today.  The fine looks like a done deal of $8.9 billion, and includes the bank admitting criminal charges as well as being banned from US dollar clearing. Why so bad? Because BNP failed to co-operate in the SEC and Federal Reserve’s investigations which,…

US bank fines

Are regulators throwing the baby out with the bathwater?

I don't write a lot about investment banking and capital markets because the readers of this blog are primarily in commercial, transaction and retail banking, but I am going to write about it today as it seems a real shame how we've killed investment banking. From Barclays slimming down BarCap so fast that it looks…

Perfect Storm

Are regulators throwing the baby out with the bathwater?

I don't write a lot about investment banking and capital markets because the readers of this blog are primarily in commercial, transaction and retail banking, but I am going to write about it today as it seems a real shame how we've killed investment banking. From Barclays slimming down BarCap so fast that it looks…

Perfect Storm

Does SEPA matter

We had our annual debate This House Believes That SEPA Does Matter the other day, and a wonderful debate it was. In previous years, we’ve moved from being on-the-fence about the proposition to moving firmly in its favour: 2010: This House Believed That SEPA DOES Matter (Just) 2011: This House Believed That SEPA Does NOT Matter (Just) 2012: This House Believed That…

SEPA