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Retired Member
Merchants hate paying 2% for credit card interchange, yet reports show that they are willing to pay 7-9% to companies like Google that envelop the payment transaction within the shopping context and actually deliver sales. A recent study by Deloitte looks at online purchases only, but I am excited about how the same ideas can be applied to real-wo...
07 November 2007 /payments SEPA and European Payments
According to a recent statistic published by China Union Pay, Chinese banks have issued more than 1.3 billion debit, credit and ‘quasi’-credit cards through the end of September. This means that, on average, every man, woman and child in China now carries a piece of plastic. Quite a staggering number and, at first glance, quite promising. Howe...
07 November 2007 Asia Financial Services
In July, 2003, the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) scuttled an ill-conceived terrorism futures market. While the project was a political failure, the idea underscores the ongoing need for innovative thought in the area of indications & warning (I&W). The construction of a terror futures exchange wherein marke...
06 November 2007 Information Security
Regulating interchange fees would eliminate a powerful incentive for payment schemes to create innovative products and services which benefit merchants. Payment schemes should be able to compete with each other to make their products more useful and valuable to merchants, their incentive being the ability to generate higher interchange and, in con...
05 November 2007 /payments
In 2003, Yale University professor Dr. Robert Shiller ("Irrational Exuberance") published his widely heralded tome, "The New Financial Order: Risk in the 21st Century." In it Shiller lays out his ideas for "radical financial innovation," and, specifically, the development of financial products and services which pro...
03 November 2007 Trends in Financial Services
These are difficult times for investment banks. I will spare readers a painful rehash of the past three months, but suffice it to say that the days of the centrally-planned, highly conglomerated uber-IBanks are clearly numbered. To survive going forward, investment banks must embrace a doctrine of strategic differentiation. The future financial la...
02 November 2007
If you like British comedy, you may remember that old John Cleese sketch about “What did the Romans do for us?” OK, they gave us a legal system, the basis for our language, roads…but besides that, what did the Romans do for us? So MiFID’s here – what’s MiFID done for us? Well, NYSE has bought (not merged with) Euronext, so in one move it owns excha...
PwC released this study a few months ago titled "Internal Audit 2012* - A study examining the future of internal auditing and the potential decline of a controls-centric approach" Five key trends were identified as: 1. Globalisation 2. Changing internal audit roles 3. Changes in risk management 4. Talent and organisational issues 5. Techn...
01 November 2007 Internal Auditors in Financial Services
I think this direct quote from one of the template MiFID letters being sent by clients to their brokers is a slight understatement! With only a few hours to go before the MiFID gun fires, a massive paperchase is still underway in financial institutions around Europe and beyond. Scanned versions of consent forms with hand written updates are floodi...
31 October 2007 MiFID
Very disappointing, as I am sure we all agree. Doubly so knowing Lord Erroll's dedication and enthusiasm for the work of the Committee (having heard his impassioned views on the issues at our recent Information Security dinners). Perhaps the Government should be more aware of the content of the FSA's Market Watch newsletters...
31 October 2007 /security /regulation Information Security
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