It’s a well-known marketing ploy in banking – offer free checking and then hit customers with outrageous fees when they bounce a check – £40 or so in the UK for what American bankers called non-sufficient funds (NSF). Now the High Court has ruled the fees come under laws on fairness of contracts, governed by the […]
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A tech vendor friend from New York was very pleased with the quality of attendees and the content at TradeTech 2008 in Paris. The show drew high level people who really knew the industry and were apt to be decision-makers, he thought. He didn’t mind the high price of £3,684 (€5,526). In fact, he thought […]
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Has USP just surfaced in Europe or is it emerging from a decades-long hibernation? I can’t remember the last time I heard the term before TradeTech 2008 in Paris were people were flinging around USP (short for Unique Selling Proposition) like there was no tomorrow. (Hmm, judging by the hoarse voices at panels on Thursday […]
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As the equity trading industry gathered at TradeTech in Paris this week to discuss the latest developments in terms of liquidity pools, new trading venues, smart order routing or low latency, it is interesting to note comments made about financial markets by European political and business leaders in recent weeks.
The departing chairman of insurance giant […]
Filed under: Credit Crunch, Securities & Capital Markets, regulation | No Comments »
IT professionals will be happy to learn they can now count star (or is it “rogue”?) trader Jerôme Kerviel as one of their colleagues.
The French media revealed yesterday that Kerviel had been hired a couple of weeks ago by an IT consulting firm, LCA. The company’s owner, Jean-Raymond Lemaire, told Agence France Presse Kerviel has […]
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The London-based Observer supports bailing out the banks, but with strict conditions.
British banks deny that they have messed up and are asking for state rescue, notes The Observer, which disagrees with their assessment.
“But the reality is that British banks are guilty of systematic arrogance and complacency. They relied on credit from each other to pump […]
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Heather McKenzie’s blog entry on April 10 underlines the need of corporates for adequate banking relationships. It reminded me of a column published at the end of 2007 by the French association of corporate treasurers, AFTE, which poked fun at the apparent chaos the arrival of MiFID had caused in their banks’ customer relationship departments.
Indeed, French corporates […]
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The Basel Committee has announced a series of steps to help make the banking system more resilient to financial shocks. These include:
Enhancing various aspects of the Basel II Framework, including the capital treatment of complex structured credit products, liquidity facilities to support asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) conduits, and credit exposures held in the trading book.
Strengthening […]
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Which parts of the FSA’s guidance is a firm expected to follow?
That’s what one attorney asked Roseanne Harford, Manager, Strategy and Risk Division – at the FSA during Tuesday’s MiFID Forum in London.
The FSA relies on informal guidance which creates the risk of a soup of materials that firms find difficult to navigate, he said. Is […]
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Wholesale markets in Europe have done well under a gentle regulatory regime, David Wright, deputy director general, EU Commission told The Forum, a MiFID event Tuesday. European markets grew twice as fast as GDP and faster than markets in the US.
“It is a pretty staggering change from where we were 10 years ago.”
But he warned […]
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