Latest opinions that Dan Barnes has shared on Finextra

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Dan Barnes

Writer

Information Corporation

Member since

11 Sep 2013

Location

London

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Dan's opinions

It's my cartel and I'll cry if I want to

Research by law firm Allen & Overy indicates that 2013 was a record year for fines awarded by anti-trust regulators, totalling US$4.2 billion up 10.5% from 2012’s US$3.8 billion, across Australia, Brazil, Canada, the EU, Japan, South Africa and the US. That would have been higher, were it not for several banks ‘fessing up and assisting the aut...

09 January 2014 /regulation Future Finance

If the banking industry was a man, would you give him a job?

In December a spat between the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, and Deutsche Bank co-chief executive, Juergen Fitschen, cast doubt upon the seriousness with which some banking executives consider the industry’s position. Schaeuble stated recently that banks are adept at evading rules. Fitschen objected that, while not unworthy of critic...

07 January 2014 /regulation Future Finance

Unlicensed premises

It must be hard trying to start out in the world of banking. There are all of these massive competitors, hoovering up business, and there is no way to match their scale. Without scale, you cannot pay the same level of wages, you cannot offer the same breadth of services and you cannot reach as many customers. What could be done? Well, regulators c...

05 December 2013 /regulation Future Finance

Regulators need to watch 'Friends on benefits'

Cooperative and community banks enjoy a special place in the hearts of the people, often giving them special regulatory status too. However in an age that has debunked many of the theories of capitalist economics, it worth noting that the cooperative theory of ‘Friendly Societies’ is failing too. Rabobank’s rating downgrade by Fitch last Thursday ...

28 November 2013 /regulation Future Finance

Fining money factories does not work

It is impossible to punish banking through fines. Regulators must know this. When one reads of the scale of fines in the financial services industry, it is often hard to conceive of the amounts that the firms are paying. Even more so when one considers that these payments happen every year, and sometimes several times a year. Bruno Bettelheim, the...

21 November 2013 Future Finance

Why banks shouldn't fear tax

Governments' aggressive approach to taxation is alternately punishing and rewarding financial services firms. The Swiss government is planning to abolish tax secrecy laws – what does that mean for Swiss banking? On Wednesday 29 May 2013 the Swiss government proposed to allow Swiss banks to disclose information to the US government. The proposal, if...

20 November 2013 /regulation /wholesale Future Finance News Analysis

The Big Wind-up

Plans to wind down banks that are too big to fail have at last been agreed but will not take effect until 2018. Italy's recent revelation about derivatives losses proves that there are still plenty of skeletons hidden in European Union (EU) cupboards. The recently reported conduct of bankers in Ireland at the start of the crisis has challenged the...

20 November 2013 /regulation /wholesale Future Finance News Analysis

Self-regulation leads to self-doubt

The European Commission (EC) is threatening to move setting of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) to Paris, after the exposure of the current process as “the rate at which banks do not lend to each other” in the words of Mervyn King, former governor of the Bank of England. An interbank benchmark system must be found that engenders trust, bu...

20 November 2013 /regulation /wholesale Future Finance News Analysis

Party like it's 1929

Several US senators have introduced a bill bringing back elements of the Glass-Steagall Act “to reduce risks to the financial system by limiting banks’ ability to engage in certain risky activities and limiting conflicts of interest.” With some banks still struggling to swallow the Dodd-Frank Act, will the ‘21st Century Glass-Steagall Act’ serve t...

20 November 2013 /regulation /wholesale Future Finance News Analysis

Criminals get physical

Financial Fraud Action (FFA) UK, the finance industry’s national anti-fraud group has observed an increase in successful criminal activity in the first half of 2013, with physical theft of cards using increasingly complex techniques on the rise. I thought Chip and PIN was going to stop fraud? Fraud is like an air bubble under a plastic sheet; if yo...

20 November 2013 /security /wholesale Future Finance News Analysis