Our biggest stories of the week are ...
How to deal with an insolvent bank
Sitting in a conference talking about living wills isn’t how you want to spend your typical day, but it did spark a whole bunch of thoughts in my mind. The FSA issued their consultative paper 11/16 last summer. The idea...
It’s Davos time, as usual. In the last week of January, the great and the good of the world’s leadership from governments, business, academia and media all gather in Switzerland to debate the future of the world’s economies and the...
For some time there’s been debate about whether Vickers or Volcker is the right way to go. Should investment banks be divided from their retailing and commercial siblings by a fence, or completely separated so that one cannot poison the...
Yesterday I wrote about the concept of banks being barred from betting on the bonds and equities markets. “Own account” trading disappears and the only folks who can “speculate” are those with their own chips to play in the game:...
Biometrics isn’t discussed that much at banking conferences these days. Most of the time, when I raise the topic, there’s a groan from the banking audience. “Oh, been there, done that.” The usual view is that biometrics doesn’t work. It’s...
The major general news stories of the week include ...
Angela Merkel in 'Tobin tax' jibe at Britain - The Telegraph
Angela Merkel said that the failure to fully endorse the financial transaction tax was one of the key areas where European efforts to stem the crisis were "insufficient."
Europe Unprepared for Greek Default, Rogoff Says - Business Week
Kenneth Rogoff, an economist at Harvard University, talks about the European debt crisis and the impact of a Greek default on the region
FSA fulfils vow to bag high-profile target - Financial Times
The watchdog has been promising a high-profile scalp to prove to those in the City that it will not tolerate trading on privileged information. Now it has delivered
HSBC faces money laundering inquiry - The Telegraph
HSBC executives face the prospect of being called to appear before a US congressional hearing this year as part of a Senate investigation into allegations the bank was involved in money-laundering.
Funnyman Barnier wins over City audience. Not - The Telegraph
Who'd have thought it? Michel Barnier, European Commissioner for markets and services, solicited cheers from a City of London audience yesterday morning.
Fred Goodwin and the Occupy crowd should take up Scouting - The Telegraph
Uniformed youth groups play a vital role but are short of leaders. Boris Johnson suggests some people who could help out...
Lagarde warns of '1930s moment' - BBC
IMF chief Christine Lagarde warns the world faces an economic spiral reminiscent of the 1930s unless decisive action is taken on the eurozone crisis.
Italian and Spanish banks see billions withdrawn - The Telegraph
Italian and Spanish banks suffered the largest outflows of depositors' money last year as customer fears over the safety of money held at Southern European lenders escalated.
Virgin Money nears deal on MBNA portfolio - The Telegraph
Virgin Money is in pole position to buy a key part of MBNA's UK and Irish credit card business after a joint approach by Goldman Sachs and Apollo Management for the whole business appeared to have fallen by the wayside.
Vision of buyside clearing fails to become reality - Financial Times
Many clients of the banks are still not ready for the ’big bang’ of central clearing
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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...
