It’s bonus season and, as in previous years*, the media and politicians stir up a row over rich pickings and knighthoods. Some say there’s even a “whiff of the lynch mob” in the air. Certainly in the UK it’s getting ridiculous as this week we saw the hysterical media coverage over Stephen Hester getting a million…
I attended an interesting lecture last night from an economic legend: Professor Amartya Sen of Harvard University. If you haven’t heard of him, he’s known as the Mother Teresa of economics in his native India, and has spent a lifetime fighting poverty with analysis rather than activism. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in…
I attended an interesting lecture last night from an economic legend: Professor Amartya Sen of Harvard University. If you haven’t heard of him, he’s known as the Mother Teresa of economics in his native India, and has spent a lifetime fighting poverty with analysis rather than activism. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in…
Over the weekend, Standard & Poor’s downgraded nine Eurzone countries, calling into question the viability of the Eurozone for the long term. France was downgraded to a level not seen since 1975. Italy is now considered the same credit risk as Kazakhstan. Portugal’s credit has now reached junk status. “This is not a catastrophe”, the…
Over the weekend, Standard & Poor’s downgraded nine Eurzone countries, calling into question the viability of the Eurozone for the long term. France was downgraded to a level not seen since 1975. Italy is now considered the same credit risk as Kazakhstan. Portugal’s credit has now reached junk status. “This is not a catastrophe”, the…
One of the good friends of the Financial Services Club is David Shirreff, European Business Correspondent for the Economist. David’s written a few amusements outside work, including a couple of musicals. The last one was Broke Brittania, a musical all about our wonderful Gordon Brown and his attempts to destroy Britain’s economy (Ed: did I say…
One of the good friends of the Financial Services Club is David Shirreff, European Business Correspondent for the Economist. David’s written a few amusements outside work, including a couple of musicals. The last one was Broke Brittania, a musical all about our wonderful Gordon Brown and his attempts to destroy Britain’s economy (Ed: did I say…
Some folks asked me to add a fourth outlook to my 2012 series regarding what customer focused trends would be occuring in 2012. Now I'm a fintech guy with a strong marketing background, and was going to write a long analysis of customer outreach – or is that outrage? – strategies for banks in 2012,…
Some folks asked me to add a fourth outlook to my 2012 series regarding what customer focused trends would be occuring in 2012. Now I'm a fintech guy with a strong marketing background, and was going to write a long analysis of customer outreach – or is that outrage? – strategies for banks in 2012,…
Stumbled across an interesting report from McKinsey that says business as usual is not an option for American banks. They'll go out of business if they don't change their business models, as average Return on Equity will sink from 11% to 7% by 2015, whilst the cost of equity will reach 9%. That means…
