Securities Lending

In the Investment Management universe of businesses the Securities Lending sector is an important part of whole sector. I present in this post a video from Global Custodian Magazine, which is a publication dealing with the Custodian, Private Banking and Investment Management sectors generally. It features an interview with Simon Lee senior vice president for Business Development EMEA eSecLending in which is discussed recent trends in securities lending industry. I would highlight the new regulatory framework for the industry, that may bring greater clarity and transparancy; hard issues like indemnification, that is an increasing cost to these industries but with room for innovation and development, and other issues.

This industry plays an increasingly important role in the Financial Services industry, and was one of the protagonists of the Financial Crisis. The major changes going on on the whole Investment Management industry is in some part a proper response to the events of the Crisis, like the issues related to Clearing, Repurchase Agreements, Central Counterparties, Risk Management and so on. These changes hopefully will restore the good reputation of the industry, the competiteveness and quality of the services delivered and of course being a healthy source of business opportunities.

Venture on Film

I guess I won't need much further comments:

'' I am a Canadian in London....''

Despite the humorous and fancy title of this post, it is a serious take on the new Governor of the Bank og England. Mark Carney, which is a Canadian born Economist and a reputed banker is taking over Sir Mervyn King in the command of the ''Old Lady of Threadneedle Street''. We all which him well. But to begin with, Mr.Carney won't surely have an easy and handsome time in the years ahead, and for sure the prescriptions for the UK economy will not be the same as other advanced economies like the US or the Eurozone.

As the featured video in this post from FT's correspendent Chris Giles in talk with John Authers notes, Mark Carney will face a conumdrum dealing with his new remit for the Bank of England. On the one hand Mr. Carney will be willing to taper the ongoing monetary stimulus of the Bank to the economy, which still faces low growth figures, but on the other hand he will be advised not to take same prescription of his counterparts from the FED, and looking at this problem from the point of view of the trade-off between the level of employment and Economic growth.

The two FT's columnists and reporters quite righlty indicate to us all the nonlinearity in the relationship between employment or unemployment figures and the Macroeconomic variable of the variation in Growth Domestic Product. In the UK economy, even if the Growth figure is pretty dismal or negative, the employment data has been resilient and strong.

That said, Mr. Carney might well be tempted to target in his policy framework the level of nominal GDP, and not the real GDP figure and be able to sort himself out of one of his remit conumdrums. Along the way he will certainly enjoy the magnificent City of London.

Security Data Edge

In our times of Big Data for big rewards, at least potentially, there's also the threat of big security issues surrounding that massive wealth of information. This videos highlights this and reminds us all to the need for security. FT's Connected Business talks to Vijay Raghavan, Chief Technology Officer at LexisNexis and this companny approach which tries to strike a balance between the security needs of Financial Services  companies and the required and mandatory privacy of customers.

FT on the Insurance Industry: a Webinar

The Link below gives acess to a Financial Times Webinar on the Insurance Industry that took place in the begining of this Month of July. An important part of the financial sector, this industry was particularly affected by the Financial Crisis and is trying to regain ground amidst greater difficulties. A good and knowledgeable panel is always certainly a contribution to the debates on the future of the Insurance Industry!

London Webinar | Calendar | FT Live

Opalesque TV on Reinsurance

I confess on this post that I from time to time - maybe daily at the moment - receive e-mails from Fund Management publications like Opalesque. Matthias Knab is a major editor in this publication that occasionally also sends e-mails directly to my mail box with updates from this Swiss specific publication. I present here a video in which Matthias talks with Joe Taussig CEO of Multi-Strat Holdings about why the great Fund Managers of all time as well as some prominent Hedge Funds set a Reinsurance Business. He explains the superior returns of this business relatively compared with traditional Insurance, by the manner in which so called 'Float' premium received by re-insurers is properly used to invest elsewhere and only later the business needs to pay the cost of Insurance. But he warns also that the performance isn't equal for every Fund, which tells us that experience and the right strategy continues to matter. Nevertheless it is a reminder of why the Fund Management is so competitive and the way that, and in times of difficult to get low returns, the industry should strive to get the necessary alternatives.
Mr. Taussig takes also the opportunity to reveal the way Multi-Strat Holdings will in the near future - rest of this year and next years - set its strategy concerning deploying 1 Manager a month, and in 2014 onward 2-3 Managers a month in more of an Asset Management framework, and explains the more competitive and receptive playing field for this kind of business in cities like New York or London compared to European Financial Centers.

John Kay FT Comment

It is with a mix of emotion and praise that I post here this video depicting  Dr. John Kay's comment about Quantitative Easing and our current Economic predicament. Since I was living in the UK, I tried always to read and check Dr. Kay' work and articles. He is a respected and listened economist. And quite so that it couldn't disappoint with his take on the paradoxes about the current economic policies in place to deal with the consequences of one of the major Financial & Economic downturns of our recent History. Interesting to think and reflect about the bad balance achieved so far between Fiscal Stimulus, Quantitative Easing, Monetary Policy and the urgent need for Investment and Growth. The results speak for themselves, and the savvy but gentle warning of John Kay just add value to the judgement of all.

Really impressive to me is the recognition of the paradox that, despite our economies are living with real negative interest rates (which is a form of Government subsidy), the so called needed Investment on Infrastructures and sectors of the Economy vital and Strategic to long term Growth aren't taking off. What it all seems instead is that the QE money is being wasted or hoarded by the Financial System. It begs the question: Where do we go from here?!