More flexible Working Rights - but how much is too much?

News that UK employees are to be 'given' more flexible working rights may sound good news, but the question is: How much, and how much would be too much? It is again a policy based on Top-Down Command rather than allow market forces to find an organic solution. 

UK employees to be given more flexible working rights

Bitcoin: Regulators wash their hands - too long for some?

While some are supposed to have become rich due to the wonders of the digital "currency" hype one should remember that this is a giant ponzi scheme where the lucky few owe their winnings to the late-comers who splash out serious money in order to get hold of one ephemeral electronic bit - wherever that is. A chain letter at least gives you a piece of paper to put on your wall. Where are the regulators, why are they busy concocting ever more intrusive regulations that hardly serve any purpose except increasing costs for ordinary savers? Should they not at least apply the rules for the digital space?
CNBC

Bitcoins: The drumbeat goes on

The drumbeat goes on, any number of self-appointed 'experts'  push bitcoin etal, still not clear what 'value' it has or provides, just question of time that regulators impose restrictions, to market, buy/sell it through traditional banking channels unless full 'know your customer' disclosure is made. and who REALLY needs bitcoins, internet banking is so efficient already! Price easily manipulated due to complete lack of transparency, and who are the idiots that pay $10,000 for a bit with REAL money?
Here's why not to put your money into bitcoin (Evening Standard)

MIFID: Now the Tax Man wants to have his cut

Just when you thought the 1000+ pages MIFID nonsense could not get any worse this news hits the wire. Could it be that it was all along the main purpose of this unnecessary and counterproductive EU edict to create new tax raising opportunities for the voracious appetite that quasi-democratic politicians so desperately are looking for? Just one more reason to make it more attractive for the Financial Service Industry to decamp to friendlier climes, such as New York, Dubai, Singapore. Maybe a successful Brexit will make Britain to abolish this convolut.
Bloomberg

Bitcoin: What is the Value of Hot Air?

Let self-interested promoters and their acolytes in the Media invest their hard-earned savings in a bit of (hot) air, or better: some digits in a far-away computer that nobody controls. Shares (hopefully) pay dividends, bonds pay interest, land can be rented out, but bitcoins and the like? Nothing but the hope of finding a Greater Fool down the road.
And Bitstamp, a 'digital currency exchange', should it not be banned from calling itself as an exchange by the SEC and fellow regulators? No surprise that its chairman sings the praises of 'crypto' 'currencies' (their are neither crypto nor currencies, you might as well start paying your groceries with some rare shells)
CNBC

Top Execs sell stock before bad company news breaks

When well-paid (overpaid?) top executives behave like this one should not wonder that Capitalism and the Market System increasingly lose public support. It is only fortunate that the average citizen is not really able to properly put such blatant abuse of position into proper perspective. After all, how many do really understand what a million dollars (life changing amount for 99% of the population) means? The maths scores tell a story! And it will be interesting to see how regulators and the trustees of the savings of ordinary people (aka investment managers, private bankers) and the corporate and 'socially responsible' investment crowd are going to do about this.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/equifax-executives-sold-stock-after-data-breach-before-informing-public-2017-09-07?siteid=rss&rss=1

Russia To Ban Cryptocurrency Sales To "Ordinary People"

Rightly so, time our often over-reaching regulators wake up to this charade, and please don't call these 'Coins' a 'Currency', they are neither coins nor currencies but should be relegated to the game universe.
Russia Backpedals On Bitcoin - Unveils Plan To Ban Cryptocurrency Sales To "Ordinary People"

Bitcoin Hype - Regulators asleep or afraid

Given the thousands of pages of detailed regulation that has been produced in all major industrial countries one has to wonder why the Regulators are keeping stumm about the Bitcoin craze. Claims that thses 'coins' are Digital 'Currencies' are clearly misleading (try selling a 'Digital House', or a 'Digital' Brooklyn Bridge). Neither are they a safe haven, they are digital assets and given the way they are offered and promoted they are investments and as such should be brought under regulatory umbrellas.
(22-Aug-2017)
The price of Bitcoin and Ethereum is slipping but Bitcoin Cash is rising

EU Regulators Take Aim At London's Asset-Management Industry

No surprise there, EU is basically a protectionist racket, dominated by socialist parties and lobbies, where even pseudo right wing parties are praying from the same hymn sheet and embrace big government. Also means that the UK has to negotiate harder, I suggested a while ago that if local production would be required for asset management services then the same rule should be applied to manufactured goods. So come on BMW, Daimler, start producing in the UK. And someone has to tell the Eurocracy: keep your MIFID and Financial Transaction Tax nonsense!
EU Regulators Take Aim At London's Asset-Management Industry

Outsourcing without limits?

Should national and supranational regulation allow the unconstrained outsourcing of vital enterprise functions? Information Technology is no longer a low skill 'back-office' job but a vital ingredient of today's business. And this applies more than ever to the finance industry where security is more important than in most other lines of business.
Job-Spirale nach unten: First London, dann Zürich - Inside Paradeplatz

Slap on the Wrist for Omega's Cooperman

Can one call a $5 million fine significant given that Cooperman is a certified billionaire? Slap on the wrist would be more appropriate. And if no guilt is admitted why pay a fine? Looks like there is a two level justice system and incidents like these will do nothing to restore public confidence in financial regulation or the banking and investment industries.
Leon Cooperman’s Hedge Fund Settles Insider Trading Case

Regulation: Race to the bottom?

If rules are interpreted so 'flexibly' in the USA it will be interesting to see how 'Europe' reacts (if the sleepy bureaucrats there even notice or care). Apart from the problem that Brexit will soon loom over any regulation in 'Europe', the response could be either to loosen rules/interpretations as well or demand that US entities comply with stricter rules designed in Europe. And what if the UK goes for a laxer regulatory environment? Every bloc will try to help his financial firms or bloc those from the other blocs, interesting times indeed!
Who’s Watching Wall Street? The Feds Turn a Blind Eye to Goldman’s Game | The Fiscal Times

Compliance hiring at fever-pitch!

My (pessimistic) prognosis of  'One Compliance Kommissar behind every productive Staffer' is soon (already?) sad reality. Wish the same could be said about politicians and civil servants! Did Ancient Rome not die after suffocationg on legal and bureaucratic overkill?
Deutsche Bank hiring in compliance - Business Insider

EU markets rules are the 'worst piece of legislation'

No surprise! Anyone who ever had to read through the garbage produced by the FSA, FCA, Bafin etc would heartily agree. At least Brexit will cut out the ECB and EU scribblers!
The boss of one of the world's biggest exchange groups said EU markets rules are the 'worst piece of legislation' he's ever seen

BOE's Carney urges banks to prepare for all potential outcomes

OK, so what about WW3, Meteor impact? All these events COULD happen, more work for the jobsworths in the ever-expanding  regulatory realm.
Brexit: Mark Carney urges banks to prepare for all potential outcomes

FCA Interim Report on Fund Management

It is always reassuring that the cast of thousands employed in the recently-established regulatory silos are put to good use. Even if it is mostly confined to produce volumes of paper that unfortunates in the businesses that they are regulating are forced to plough through.

Does the Fund Management Industry need more 'oversight'? Maybe, but to a certain extent any imperfections are also the result of misguided legislation introduced by a succession of governments (and increasingly so by a EU and its assorted bureaucracies).

But what benefit will it bring to raise the fiduciary bar from a general obligation "to treat customers fairly" to a new requirement "to act in the best interests of investors"? No doubt that legions of (expensive) lawyers find this picking of words will go a long way to pay for their kids' school fees.

Even more expensive (for the investors, for as they will ultimately have to pick up the tab for this new boondoggle) would be the introduction of an "Independence Governance Board".  It will be most welcome to myriad retired professionals that will be employed to produce annual reports of the issues they have raised and management's response.

How the introduction of an all-inclusive charge could work in practice does not seem to be of major concern to the paper-pushers at the FCA. Trading in securities is still not free, even in the age of online dealing and wafer-thin commissions.

Professional/Institutional Investors are already more than able to analyse the performance and cost of investment propositions.

The FCA report is more relevant for the retail investor who may find it difficult to pick the right investment fund when there are many more funds than equities to choose from. So investors tend to rely on intermediaries - Private Bankers and IFA mostly - that do the selecting and monitoring for them. Maybe more transparency would be needed in that space? How many Private Banks publish their performance and fee schedules on a regular basis?

Asset Management Market Study, Interim Report, FCA

Brexit - Impact on London Financial Centre

Merchants of doom are let loose by the result of the Out side winning the EU Referendum in the UK. All sorts of comments are made by objective and less objective parties. The surprise referendum result shocked quite a few and as the Remain side was expecting a win the resulting reaction was also emotionally charged. And many in the business and financial community favored staying in the EU. That our 'friends' on the other side of the Channel are fighting to get as much of the financial business as they can should surprise no one. One only wonders why they are so keen on activities that the political and cultural 'Elites' on the Continent seem to keen to despise in any case.

But how much business is going to move away from London?

The Brexit impact will be crucially dependent on the skill with with the Exit negotiations are handled by the British Officials.

BHS Pension Fund Debacle

Yesterday's headline read Green 'missed five chances to save BHS pension fund.' But the article missed the possibility that Philip Green and his (well rewarded advisers) were more than happy to 'miss' these opportunities.
They were on the inside and had all the information about the state of affairs at BHS as well as the pension fund.
It could well have been the case that all the 'opportunities' available to extricate Green from BHS would have been more expensive and therefore unattractive.
The fact that the Green camp was advised of the track record of the eventual 'buyer' shows that they can not claim to have been in any way duped or surprised about the eventual outcome.
What is really astounding is the way the pension regulator and the trustees of the pension fund behaved. It can only be described as inept (the most charitable description), in the good old tradition of just trying to be nice to everybody, we are all from the same schools, go to the same clubs and attend the same (free) hospitality at sports and entertainment events....reminds me of a former Chairman of British Airways (it may have been before BEA and BOAC combined) who climbed into the cockpit during a flight and asked the captain 'What model of airplane is this?'. Enough said, British management has improved since those days, but not in the party and state dominated 'public' sector.

Commodity Trading - A Mystery

While this news item illustrates the extraordinary influence the - mostly Switzerland-based - Commodity Trading firms have in the markets the real mystery is the profitability of their business model. Given the nature of the business most transactions - if not all - are conducted with counter parties outside of Switzerland. That leads to the questions where trades are booked and taxes are paid. Do the Swiss really care, do the authorities in Geneva and Zug have the resources to police all transactions? Or are they happy with the taxes they receive, following the motto that something is better than nothing. The trading firms could leave at a drop of a hat and decamp to friendlier climes (Dubai? Cayman?) if tax officials are becoming too nosey. And how are these wondrous profits achieved? Most deals are over-the-counter, in physicals. Counter parties are often little-supervised and basically unregulated entities in places that rank very low on the transparency side. Has any of the numerous regulators that harass the financial industry ever shown interest to have a close look at the commodity trading universe? Not to forget the media that could also stop writing fawning pieces on the 'success' that the trading firms have and the fabulous wealth their senior executives enjoy.

Why Europe's Banks don't have enough Capital

Interesting contribution from the Head of Research at BIS. But when the incompetents in Politics and Regulation have the UK banks pay £45 Bio in penalties for (mostly ficticious) 'mis-selling' one can only say it is a miracle that the banks are left standing and the sleepy shareholders (basically the fiduciaries managing the investment management industry) are not up in arms. 

If you want to bleed your banking system dry there is no better way, similar to Fx and Libor Fixing. 

The principles of forensic and detailed proof are brushed aside in order to score political points.