Uncategorized

Dec 6, 2011

UK banks pay £53.4 billion in taxes

Just got a press release that I would usually ignore … but this one's interesting. It's from Open Europe, a think tank, and says that the UK banking sector not only pays over £50 billion in taxes, but that the whole sector is in danger of being squashed by the EU. Here it is for…

Dec 5, 2011

The London Protest #OccupyLSX is useless

I’ve been down to the #OccupyLSX, or #OLSX for short, site several times. That’s the Occupy London Stock Exchange site for those not following them on twitter. They were inspired by the #OccupyWallStreet, or #OWS folks, who began protesting back in September. Our group is a similar rag, tag and bobtail amalgamation of disparate folks,…

Dec 5, 2011

The London Protest #OccupyLSX is useless

Nov 29, 2011

Banking is a land of extremes

There are evangelists and dogmatics across the banking spectrum. On the one hand, I have regular debates with mobile extremists who believe cash is dead; on the other, there are those who are still fighting to keep the cheque in existence, and even lobbying to bring back cheque guarantee cards (they were phased out in…

Nov 28, 2011

Product or solution: a breed apart

Just had an interesting chat with a couple of guys who provide sales development and account planning services to IT firms. The gist of their business is turning product sellers into solution sellers, a core stomping ground of mine and one which intrigues me as it's more relevant now than ever. I guess it’s like…

Nov 25, 2011

Should a bank be called a bank

After Richard Branson's Virgin Money successfully acquired Northern Rock, loads has been written about the takeover. Much has been negative, saying that the Chancellor did a bad deal and ‘gifting’ the bank to Virgin, losing £400 million in the process. A lot of other dialogue has been positive, saying that the Chancellor got fair value…

Nov 24, 2011

Risk is not a discipline, it’s an attitude

One of the panels at the trading technologies show that I chaired was all about pre- and post- trade risk, and the impact of real-time risk management. We were meant to talk about real-time risk, what it would mean, the ability to be able to see credit, market and liquidity risk across counterparties, asset classes…

Nov 16, 2011

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 work of humour for the Financial Services Club and the Finanser blog so, here it…

Nov 14, 2011

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 their master’s wealth, whilst one digs a hole and buries it. The latter doesn’t like…

Nov 10, 2011

A big know know

I’m no expert on such matters, but a friend of mine was talking about different tools for different times and how they use certain technologies for different services. In particular their interests are data visualisation techniques and how these can identify fraudulent activity or improve investment strategies. He equated it to the Donald Rumsfeld knowns…