16 Feb 2011

Arbitrary Bonus Awards - potential for contentious litigation

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A recent court judgement illustrates again that arbitrary bonus awards and redundancy decisions should be avoided at all costs. Not only do...

Profitability of Commodities business disappoints

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The headlong rush into the commodities business may not be as profitable as banks and brokers expect. Each commodity requires special skill...
13 Feb 2011

Barclays: Protium deal worries shareholders

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A look at the longer-term performance of the shares of some of the leading 'universal' banks confirms that shareholders have largely...
12 Feb 2011

UK banking regulators: lunatics at the controls?

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When 'bank regulators are launching a new type of "stress test" that forces banks to consider unlikely but potentially disastr...
8 Feb 2011

Forced Ranking: UBS falls for Management Fad

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The ' forced ranking ' human resource management tool introduced by CEO Oswald Gruebel at UBS has created bad blood among employe...
5 Feb 2011

Andrew Smithers on Banking Equity Ratios, Competition and Pay

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We heartily recommend Andrew Smither's latest comments on the failure of banking regulation. Smithers argues that higher capital ratios...
4 Feb 2011

Raiffeisen buys 70 pct of Polbank - valuation more realistic than pre-crunch

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News that the Austrian Raiffeisen International buys a 70 pct stake in the aptly named Polbank in Poland confirms that the market for ban...
2 Feb 2011

Tax burden in UK becomes problematic

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A simple calculation in the sports section of a British newspaper came to the conclusion that a football player who would move to England on...
1 Feb 2011

Smaller players will win market share in Investment Banking

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We agree with Chris Whalen, MD of Institutional Risk Analytic s, when he predicts that smaller firms will gain market share in investment b...
26 Jan 2011

Regulation runs amok

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A ' Discussion Pape r' published by the Swiss regulator FINMA on the subject of regulating the marketing of financial products to pr...