Our biggest stories of the week are ...
The Bible says bankers' bonuses are OK ...
I was listening to a sermon yesterday. The sermon quoted a lengthy section of the Gospel according to Matthew, where three servants are given their master’s wealth to look after whilst he is on travels. Two of the servants increase...
Get Shorty! Andrew Haldane speech
Last night was the occasion of the Sir John Gresham annual lecture. This year it was held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Canary Wharf with the keynote speaker being Andrew Haldane, Executive Director for Financial Stability with the Bank of England ...
Long versus Short is like Good versus Evil
I was honoured to be the guest speaker for the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists at their Quarterly Lunch yesterday. The speech focused upon short selling versus long finance, and here's the script of the speech including two of the best jokes about finance ever told ...
The Future of Business
Links to a speech given on 18th November 2011 on the Future of Business, based upon the impact of the Information Revolution. Video and slideware accessible here to watch in Silverlight; or here for general media access.
A Hugh MacLeod, Gaping Void special
At this year's SIBOS, the cartoonist Hugh MacLeod appeared etching and sketching. Hugh is a humourous guy who runs the website Gaping Void that gets over two million unique visitors monthly. I was lucky enough to have Hugh produce a special one-off work for the Finanser ...
Innovation in Banking and ... books?
As mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I took place in an interesting webinar recently with James Gardner, author of "Innovation and the Future Proof Bank"; Gijsbert Koren, author of "Crowdfunding - The New Investing"; and Rhydian Lewis, CEO of RateSetter. The focus was around innovation and P2P financial markets, and the webinar has now been posted online for all to see.
The major general news stories of the week include ...
Apocalypse now? - The nightmare scenario for the eurozone - The Independent
It is late 2012. Somewhere in the troubled eurozone periphery, perhaps Greece or Italy, a technocratic government collapses after imposing unprecedented levels of austerity for 12 months.
Merkel ally's warning to Cameron - The Independent
Senior German politicians last night rounded on David Cameron, criticising his approach to the eurozone crisis and warning they would not allow the UK to "get away" with its refusal to back a European financial transactions tax.
Europe plans curbs on credit rating agencies - The Telegraph
The European Commission will today unveil "proposals for legislation" that could radically change regulation of credit ratings agencies.
Reforms will cost an extra £13bn a year, analysts say - The Independent
Britain's clampdown on its banks will cost them an extra £13bn a year, more than doubling the cost of implementing new regulatory rules, Goldman Sachs analysts said yesterday.
Lloyds shareholders demand update on lack of a leader - The Telegraph
Investors are demanding an update on the growing leadership vacuum at Lloyds Banking Group as a result of the continued absence of chief executive, Antonio Horta-Osorio.
'No excuse at all' for owning HSBC shares - The Telegraph
Investors have "no excuse" for owning the shares of HSBC and would be better off owning no bank shares at all, according to a leading City analyst.
UniCredit to axe over 6,000 jobs following €10.6bn loss - The Telegraph
Unicredit, Italy's second-largest bank, is to cut more than 6,000 jobs after reporting a €10.6bn (£9.1bn) loss for the third quarter.
Visa Digital Wallet To Be Named "V.me" - Payments News
Visa has told AllThingsD that it will use V.me as the go-to-market brand for its new Visa Digital Wallet. The company had said earlier that the online wallet would have its own acceptance mark that differentiates the new multi-card brand wallet from the traditional Visa acceptance mark. In a related
Fresh UBS rogue trading revelations - Financial Times
The Swiss bank suffered unauthorised trading on the desk of its UK wealth management division in 2007, a UK tribunal has heard
Buffett buys $10.7bn stake in IBM - BBC
Warren Buffett, one of the world's most successful investors, reveals he has built a 5.4% stake in IBM after years of avoiding tech stocks.
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Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...
