As we had a long Easter Break last weekend, this is a fortnight's worth of news.
Our biggest stories of the two past weeks are ...
Monkeys should be given billion dollar bonuses
It’s amazing how
often Monkeys and Money come up in conversation. First, there is the proof that
money is in our DNA like sex. Monkeys proved it in a Yale University exercise
back in 2009. Second, monkeys are continually used...
T2S: the good news and more at the fifth clearing &
settlement plenary meeting
We had our fifth
plenary meeting of the Clearing & Settlement Working Group (CAS-WG) in
March. The meeting covered all the latest issues, news and views, and was
kicked off by Greg Caldwell, Chair of the Regulations Subject Group, who...
Our financial future and the implications of European
regulatory change
As mentioned
yesterday, we finished the debate at the CAS-WG Plenary with a panel discussion
about the future for the City and the UK financial system in light of European
regulatory change. The panel consisted of (from right to left):
I just had a quick
tour of the British Museum inspired by an article I read in The Telegraph about
their exhibition of British bubbles and bankruptcies. The exhibition traces
back schemes from the 1600s, such as the Darien Disaster,...
UK Regulators crucify UK Banks
In case you missed
it, the UK financial authorities announced THREE substantial
and major regulatory changes in the last two days to demand:
* More Competition
in Banking
* More Competition in Payments
* More Capital in Reserve
Crazy little thing called regs
Maybe it’s just me,
but looking through the announcements of the three major regulatory changes the
new authorities have introduced, I think they’re a bit nuts. On the one hand,
they are increasing capital requirements for existing banks to avoid future shocks
whilst, on the other hand, they are lowering capital requirements for new banks
to encourage competition …
Creating an agile, designer IT Shop from a CIO who knows
how
I recently met
Michael Harte, CIO of Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). Over the past
five years, he has replaced the bank's core systems, moved much of the banks
services to the cloud, created many apps and innovations that have given CBA
global recognition and more. How do you do it? In this speech,
Michael gives a few insights.
Does SEPA matter and is it happening?
We had our annual
debate about SEPA for the fourth year running the other day. This time: Jerome
Traisnel, Slimpay; Ruth Wandhöfer, Head of Market Policy and Strategy, EMEA,
Global Transaction Services, Citi; and Tino Kam, SEPA Executive, Global Cash...
They say that women
control most of the spending in the world (or is that men in the
world?), so I was amused to see this advert for Citibank during my recent trip
to India, as it appeals to this share of wallet.
The major general news stories of the past two weeks include ...
2013
European Payments Research – Free Report - The Financial Services Club
The Financial Services Club has produced research around SEPA, the PSD and the
European Payments Landscape over the past four years. This year’s research is
underway and we would ask you to answer a few short questions to get a free
copy of the research when it is published in May.
Bubble
talk as digital cash Bitcoin soars as 'safe haven' - The Telegraph
Bitcoin, the online currency, is trading around record highs well above $100 a
coin, after economic turmoil helped push the price of the "new gold" to
unprecedented heights.
Dutch
bank ING's online customers find wrong balance in accounts - Reuters
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch bank ING was inundated with complaints from retail
and business customers in the Netherlands on Wednesday because their online
accounts showed incorrect balances.
How
it all went wrong at Barclays - The Telegraph
Bad culture can exact a heavy cost. Barclays learned that the hard way.
Fred
Goodwin sued as investors launch £4bn case against RBS - The Telegraph
A group representing 100 institutional shareholders and 12,000 private investors
in Royal Bank of Scotland have launched a £4bn claim against the directors who
presided over the collapse of the bank.
Worse
than Fred Goodwin! The verdict on the bank bosses who presided over the £40bn
collapse of HBOS - The Independent
In public, HBOS appeared as it always did – confident, brash, even a little
cocky. Entering 2008 this was an institution that had forced its way on to the
top table of British banking.
RBS
lines up Nathan Bostock as new finance chief - The Telegraph
Taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland is set to announce a shake-up of its top
management, with Nathan Bostock lined up as the lender's new finance chief.
Time
bomb to the next crash is ticking as debt sales surge - The Telegraph
Sales of high-yield debt - or junk bonds - have exploded this year.
FSA
to give way to ‘twin peaks’ system - Financial Times
Discredited watchdog to be replaced by two new regulators: the Prudential
Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority
Top
ten FSA fines - The Telegraph
The Financial Services Authority has fined Prudential £30m for failing to
follow correct protocol in notifying the city regulator about its $35.5bn
(£23.4bn) bid for Asian rival AIA in 2010. Here is where that fine sits in the
top ten largest handed out by the FSA to date.
Fed
orders Citigroup to improve money laundering checks - Reuters
(Reuters) - The Federal Reserve has ordered Citigroup Inc to better police for
the risk of money laundering, part of a broad U.S. regulatory crackdown on the
potential for illicit money flows.
Wall
Street worries about PayPal's real-world expansion - Reuters
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Wall Street is having second thoughts about following
PayPal from its online roots into the physical world.
PayPal’s
‘free ride’ on payments to end - Financial Times
Ebay is to reveal what charges credit card networks will impose on its payment
arm as the fight to control electronic wallets intensifies
Profit
at Big Five banks 'wiped out' - BBC
The major UK banks saw their core profits for 2012 wiped out by a mix of
regulations and their own mistakes, a KPMG report says.
Draft
deal reached to rescue Cyprus, shut a bank: sources - Reuters
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Cyprus's president and the European Union have agreed the
outlines of a rescue deal that would see the creation of a "good
bank" and a "bad bank" and include the shutting down of Cyprus's
second largest lender, EU sources said.
Why does Cyprus need capital controls? - BBC
Why Cyprus has brought in capital controls
London
retains financial services crown - Financial Times
City stays top of the league of global financial centres but other rivals,
particularly Singapore and Frankfurt, are closing the gap.
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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...
