Uncategorized

May 21, 2010

The euro is in danger

After Angela Merkel's comments about the "euro is in danger", I was going to write a long and in-depth review of the state of the euro … but I was beaten to it by Chris Blackhurst's column in the evening standard. Rather than reinvent the wheel, just read what he has to say: "Merkel was…

May 20, 2010

Managing liquidity risk in a changed and global world

I received an interesting white paper the other day from Wim Raymaekers, Head of Banking Market at SWIFT on Liquidity Risk. Here’s the Executive Summary: Many books and papers have been and will be written about the liquidity crisis that started mid 2007, the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, and its effect on…

May 18, 2010

Can Tesco and Virgin hack it as banks?

I was having a conversation with a firm considering entering banking in the UK. They would be an unexpected player, as their brand is seen to be trusted but totally unrelated to financial services. So I sent them this article from my collection of white papers, and thought it may be of interest to the…

May 15, 2010

So not PC but …

This is so politically incorrect that I almost didn't post it … but then I did to show how cultures are different and sensitivities are not the same. As I left Singapore, I saw this and felt quite offended: Yet Singaporeans are desperate to avoid offending foreign visitors, as are most Asian countries, so how…

May 14, 2010

Are Asian corporates the same or different?

After writing earlier this week about the bullish views of HSBC on China and Asia as a whole, with the clear view that the world has decoupled, Asia is self-sustaining and China will be the largest economy in the world by 2035 or sooner, I was really interested to hear the views of Damian Glendinning…

May 12, 2010

China will be world’s largest economy by 2035

So I’m hiding out this week in Singapore at the Eurofinance Cash, Treasury and Risk show for Asia. I love this conference as you get here and see the sponsor’s names – HSBC, JPMorgan, RBS, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. There ya’ go, you just know it’s gonna be a…

May 5, 2010

Britain’s favourite advert

This has nothing to do with banking, but all to do with marketing. John Lewis, a mutual partnership retail store in Britain, recently launched a new advert. Costing £6 million, it's a remarkable ad and captures and inspires citizens across Britain, particularly women: "All over Britain, women are kneeling in front of their tellies, heads…

Apr 30, 2010

The Great Election Debate

So we had the third and final leadership debate last night before the UK goes to the polls to vote for a hung Parliament (the most likely result). The debate is between the David Cameron for the Conservatives (leading the polls), Gordon Brown for Labour (rather gaff-prone this week) and Nick Clegg for the Liberal-Democrats…

Apr 30, 2010

And the best bank brand in the world is … Chinese

Fascinating report in the FT this week about Global Brands, with the financial sector bouncing back the strongest of all. MasterCard and Visa led the financial pack, although Goldman Sachs saw a 25% growth in brand value over the last year … I wonder how much they lost this year? Anyways, considering banks had the…

Apr 29, 2010

Joseph Stiglitz: Poster Boy

Just back from a short haul flight to Spain. Reading the BA Business Mag, I stumbled across this (doubleclick photo to see the full-size picture): Yes, it's Joseph Stiglitz: Poster Boy! Actually, it's the Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, economist and professor at Columbia University. In a short interview, he talks about life and views…