I just found a fascinating report released by the Policy Exchange earlier this year: Capital Requirements: Gold plate or lead weight? Policy Exchange is an educational charity targeted to “develop and promote new policy ideas which deliver better public services, a stronger society and a more dynamic economy”. The report takes a big hit at…
I keep thinking I should stop blogging about Bitcoin, as I’ve written so much about it already: Is Bitcoin the future of money … or are we smoking dope? (October 2011) Bitcoin: immersive or subversive? (January 2012) You should take Bitcoin seriously (September 2012) A new currency payment system is about to explode (February 2013) The latest stats on…
I keep thinking I should stop blogging about Bitcoin, as I’ve written so much about it already: Is Bitcoin the future of money … or are we smoking dope? (October 2011) Bitcoin: immersive or subversive? (January 2012) You should take Bitcoin seriously (September 2012) A new currency payment system is about to explode (February 2013) The latest stats on…
We had a busy day in the UK over the past two days with the release of the Parliamentary Commission Report, George Osborne’s speech about banks and the economy at the Mansion House and the announcement by the Prudential Regulatory Authority that there is a £27.1 billion capital shortfall in the UK banking system. These…
I remember in one of our early Financial Services Club meetings, a member of the UK Government’s Treasury Select Committee asking our attentive throng: can any of you explain APR to me? Not a single person in the room raised a hand. This is either because no-one wanted to answer the question or no-one could….
We had another round of debate about fixing the banking system at the Financial Services Club this week (read Part One here). This time it was the turn of the shareholder, media and industry to air their views, ably represented by: David O'Hara, Shareholder and Activist Investor, Blackthorn Focus; Nick Kochan, Author and Journalist; and…
We had another round of debate about fixing the banking system at the Financial Services Club this week (read Part One here). This time it was the turn of the shareholder, media and industry to air their views, ably represented by: David O'Hara, Shareholder and Activist Investor, Blackthorn Focus; Nick Kochan, Author and Journalist; and…
For the fifth year, the Financial Services Club ran a survey of payments professionals worldwide to see how successfully regulations and technologies are changing the European payments landscape, sponsored by CGI and EBA CLEARING. The survey ran during the spring of 2013, and was completed by 422 participants across over…
For the second time recently, I got to hear the thoughts of Andrew Bailey, CEO of the new Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Deputy Governor for Prudential Regulation at the Bank of England. This time was at the annual dinner for the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Edinburgh. A fine evening and occasion, with lots…
We had a fascinating insight into the issue of swaps mis-selling from Jeremy Roe last night at the Financial Services Club. Jeremy was a victim of the process and has been championing the cause ever since. He now counts 1,200 companies in his group, Bully Banks, out of the 40,000 cases that have been identified…
