What’s wrong with MiFID II? April 13, 2017 | City Talk Years in planning and one year late, the European Union’s wide-ranging new Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II) regulation will still catch out much of the industry. While the aim — to fully and transparently align the industry with the end client — is worthy, the challenge is in implementation. Some areas remain [...]
United Airlines: An abject lesson in how not to behave in a crisis April 12, 2017 Unless you were taking a break from the internet for the past two days, you would have come across a video of an elderly man – apparently 69, apparently a doctor – with his shirt rolled above his stomach, glasses slid down his face, blood dripping from his mouth, dragged down the aisle of the [...]
Why cybersecurity needs more attention from business leaders April 10, 2017 | City Talk As businesses have become more dependent on technology, their exposure to cybersecurity threats increases – driving a need for boards and senior management to understand the risks. Cybercrime has grown so much that the Office for National Statistics (ONS) recently began including it in official figures. In 2016, a report from the National Crime Agency [...]
Victorious private equity consortium wins shareholder approval to take over Shawbrook bank April 10, 2017 The private equity consortium which launched a drawn-out takeover attempt of Shawbrook bank has finally emerged victorious, passing the shareholder acceptance threshold for its offer. BC Partners and Pollen Street Capital have walked away with a total of 75.6 per cent of Shawbrook's shares – well over the 50 per cent they needed to win [...]
Fintech: three truths and two myths April 7, 2017 | City Talk Neal Cross is the chief innovation officer of DBS, Singapore’s largest bank. His role affords him a unique perspective on many issues in fintech. We had a fascinating conversation on the subject. Below are some of the thoughts he shared with me. Myth 1: Fintech start-ups are at war with banks. Neal Cross: I think [...]
How can you make your presentation stand out? March 30, 2017 | City Talk Presenting is an essential responsibility for many finance professionals. To gauge just how essential, we asked CFA Institute Financial NewsBrief readers how often they have to give presentations. More than half of the 585 respondents (58%) to our unscientific poll said they present at least once a month. Meanwhile, only 19% responded that they “rarely” [...]
How Ireland became the data capital of Europe March 28, 2017 | City Talk Over the last 20 years Ireland has established itself as The Data Capital of Europe; with an impressive cluster of leading data rich companies serving Europe from Ireland; from Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, LinkedIn,Twitter, Airbnb, with many investing in substantial data centre infrastructure around the Island. Today data privacy issues are at the forefront for [...]
How banks are benefiting from fintech innovation March 22, 2017 | City Talk Digital disruption powered by nimble startups has bitten at the heels of many large financial organisations, but now the banking behemoths are striking back. Fintech’s first wave was all about new names targeting businesses and consumers with services like money transfer, foreign currency exchange, and even loans. We now live in a world where Apple, [...]
Here’s why fintech will make banks stronger March 22, 2017 | City Talk Fintech’s early stages have been all about small startups taking on the banking goliaths, but the next phase will see the more established players getting a piece of the innovation game. Brian McCabe, who chairs the fintech working group at the Fintech and Payments Association of Ireland, says existing banks and financial players won’t get [...]
Why banks should say thanks to fintech startups March 22, 2017 | City Talk A perfect storm of financial crisis and technological advances paved the way for a flurry of fintech activity. The sector has seen growing investment and is maturing as traditional finance houses wake up to the challenge of digital rivals. Anna Scally, partner and head of KPMG’s fintech practice in Dublin, offers several explanations why the [...]