30 May 2015

Anti-Money Laudering measures bark up the wrong tree

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Prevention, detection and prosecution of money laundering has become big business during the past 20-30 years. And it will keep on growing ...
16 Apr 2015

We are an Earnings Machine

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Claims Steve Schwarzman ( CNBC ) - but is it very diplomatic to boast so openly about the profits Blackstone makes off its investors? Maybe...

London the global Bitcoin Hub?

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Pull another one would be my first and only reaction. I may be of the wrong generation but would still stake my reputation on the fact that ...
15 Apr 2015

The 'fun' (ugly?) face of the City

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The one thing that surprises me - given the amount of ever-more sophisticated technology that is available - is the survival of the voice-ba...
9 Apr 2015

Jamie Dimon clings to outdated business model

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No surprise that Dimon defends the status quo, bigger is better and the banking department store model is best ( Reuters ). But I wonder i...
27 Jan 2015

Single Capacity to protect counterparties - notes on Goldman/LIA dispute

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Not a question of being smarter, though that may well be the case. It is a question of morality - or lack thereof. When firms are feted as ...
21 Jan 2015

QE - should you laugh or cry?

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More and more desperate calls for all-out QE in the Eurozone make me laugh and cry at the same time. Laugh because it is not very likely tha...
20 Jan 2015

Does Bini Smaghi pass the competency test?

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Lorenzo Bini Smaghi may have many (too many?) fine qualifications, but he is basically an academic and bureaucrat who never in his life made...
5 Dec 2014

Being a 'Global' Bank brings extra Risks

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One has to wonder if being a 'Global' Bank is really an intelligent business proposition. It requires Superman/woman to manage far-...
11 Sept 2014

Succession planning at Santander - an example to follow

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Yesterday's announcement of the death of Emilio Botin, the man behind the immense growth of Banco Santander over the pa...