Regulation

Apr 8, 2014

Bankers and regulators: do you want a Red or a Blue Pill (Matrix)?

I had a Red Pill moment last week. Not an Aha moment but a Red Pill moment because I realised the false reality of our world. You see, I present all the time and talk about the forces of change for the future: Political, Economic, Social and Technological (PEST). I usually skip over the Political…

Mar 31, 2014

Basel III: a mess of regulatory conflicts?

I chaired a meeting recently between counterparty banks. The focus of the discussions was Basel III and, specifically, three new regulatory ratios required for banks to manage: Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR): designed to ensure that financial institutions have the necessary assets on hand to ride out short-term liquidity disruptions. Banks are required to hold an…

Mar 25, 2014

The biggest barrier to entry to banking is the regulator

I’m just preparing a presentation in Canada and realised that, like most countries, the competitive landscape of Canadian banking has not changed much in the last century. Sure, there’s been some M&A and sure, the big banks are competing hard with each other but, outside that … Here’s the issue: the major banks in most…

Mar 21, 2014

Stressing out the banks

In America and Europe, stress tests are regularly applied to see whether the banks are becoming more resilient to another crisis. The latest results of the American stress tests shows that all but one (Zions Bancorp) of the top 30 US banks are ok. Europe is different. Having said that Europe has fudged their previous tests,…

Mar 21, 2014

Stressing out the banks

Mar 5, 2014

London versus Europe: the deep division over banking rules and regulations

It’s EU elections time, and so the mad moments begin. All of the eurocrats are keen to push through their final legislative agendas and so, just in the past week, we’ve seen the introduction of or revisions to everything from the Tobacco Products Directive to the Package Travel Directive to the Collective Rights Management Directive. Of course…

Mar 5, 2014

London versus Europe: the deep division over banking regulations and rules

Feb 28, 2014

Digital identities demand a digital infrastructure

Having talked about RBS yesterday, I’m just returning to my other theme of the week: rip out and replace. I guess it’s interesting that it is a complex situation as I was sitting yesterday talking about KYC, Know Your Client, once more and argued that for a digital age we need digital identities. This is…

Feb 28, 2014

Digital identities demand a digital infrastructure

Feb 10, 2014

It’s a wonderful digital life … if you’re a digital disruptor

I recently had an epiphany. It was not painful, but it was enlightening. The realisation occurred to me as I looked at this chart from Zopa: It’s an interesting chart, especially the hockey stick rise in funds transferred as the financial crisis hit, and relates to a recent headline in the Financial Times: “P2P group…