Sub-Prime Cuts
Over a drink with a friend last night, I was reminded about how I once considered myself a financial journalist - having contributed to the financial pages of The Banker, Financial World, The Daily Telegraph and The BBC. One of the last financial pieces I wrote was on how the sub prime market was garnering interest from the high street lenders who were keen to inclusify millions who fell outside their usual criteria. This was a topic that I was keen... [Read More...]
A Peach Of A Problem
The European Union (EU) remains fragmented along linguistic, cultural and political lines. Yet despite these differences, what it has achieved in terms of economic and monetary union deserves a great deal of credit. The European Commission (EC) is not resting on its laurels. In addition to the 12 member states that have already adopted the euro – and the three member states that remain outside the eurozone – the EU has expanded east with the accession... [Read More...]
Time for a plan when bills get out of hand
Eric Bond, 48, of South Glamorgan in Wales knows a lot about brown envelopes. As a postman with 25 years’ service, he has delivered scores of them to local households. However, even he was not prepared for the demands landing on his doormat last year when he found himself in the same position as tens of thousands of others in the UK in the midst of a debt spiral. Mr Bond, like many people, was tempted into taking out many personal loans and... [Read More...]
The one-stop shop for white-collar criminals
David Blunkett’s plan to introduce ID cards is supposedly going to reduce the cases of identity fraud, but it could have the opposite effect as criminals would need to steal or counterfeit just one document. The scheme is to include a variety of high-tech countermeasures such as retinal scans and facial recognition, known as biometrics. But there are no plans to allow financial services companies access to these countermeasures owing to public... [Read More...]
The New Wave Of Outsourcing - Staff And All
Banks are now starting to think the unthinkable. In increasing numbers they are beginning to allow outsiders to manage their IT systems after a brace of massive outsourcing deals were announced in the fourth quarter of last year. IBM, for example, recently announced the biggest outsourcing deal of its kind in the financial sector when JP Morgan Chase agreed a seven year outsourcing agreement in excess of $5 billion with the IT behemoth. JPM plans... [Read More...]
Rogue Trading For Dummies
The recent sentencing of AIB’s John Rusnak has shifted focus back onto the risk banks face from their own staff. Kris Sangani tells how Rusnak could have been stopped with the right checks in place John Rusnak was jailed in February 2003 for seven and a half years without parole and has been ordered to pay $1000 a month back to his former employer, Allfirst of Boston who lost $691 million through his rogue trading activities, for a period of five... [Read More...]
Identity Theft
It is easy to assume someone else’s identity (ID), points out Peter Warner, vice-president of security risk management for Mastercard Europe. “When I walked in here this morning and someone gave me my badge, I had to announce who I was but I didn’t have to hand any identity over. I could have said that I was Joe Smith, for example, and I could have assumed that identity during the break and played the part of one of my competitors,”... [Read More...]
