News / Views
Select articles for 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005
April 2010 - Survey says people and technology rather than regulation key to tackle insider trading
MPI has published the results of our industry wide market abuse survey, which highlights improvements in people, culture and technology rather than regulation as being the way to tackle market abuse/insider trading. For more details, get in contact with us.
March 2010 - MPI poll puts “surviving tougher regulator scrutiny” as top compliance issue for 2010
A poll by financial sector consultancy MPI Europe run on LinkedIn found that among respondents the top compliance concern was surviving tougher regulatory scrutiny just ahead of addressing new regulations. When looking at the results split by company size, it was the large companies that had the greatest concern about survival and regulator attention, perhaps indicating that they were not confident that the principle of “too big to fail” was an effective defence. The results make it clear that respondents see 2010 as a year of addressing challenging, new regulation being implemented by tougher regulators even before more global changes such as updated Basel rules with their longer lead times become reality, probably during 2011.
February 2010 - Retail Banking just got fashionable ... again
As noted in the January MPI FS Bulletin, Richard Branson wanted a banking license for Christmas, but shrewd business man that he is, he waited till the January sales before snapping up small UK based bank Church House to facilitate his entry into banking proper. 
His existing Virgin Money business has to date been a joint venture with a high street bank; an easier way of entering the market, but this arrangement does rather cramp his style. Branson is not alone in seeing an attraction in retail banking. Invesco and M&G have made a £95M investment in a new entrant banking venture, Walton & Co, being set up by ex-analyst Sandy Chen. There is also the Home and Savings Bank backed by private equity firm Blackstone. These ventures are very different animals, but it does look like retail banking has become fashionable again and I think there are some key reasons why this is happening, as set out below:
- Divestments and breakups: As discussed in previous bulletins, major UK banks RBS and Lloyds are being forced to sell off branches and telebanking services, plus there is the break up of Northern Rock into a “good” and a “bad” bank. So the previously tough job of setting up a significant branch network and infrastructure – a traditional barrier to entry - just got easier.
- Public sentiment: In the recent past, once retail clients have joined a bank they have stuck with it. However, given the anger at traditional banks this may be changing. (Virgin Bank chief Jayne-Anne Gadhia, told the BBC: "We want to live up to Virgin's ethos of making sure people aren't ripped off, that they know what they're paying for with no hidden charges and I think that's really important.")
- Technology: Even a bank with a small branch network using the web/mobile can give you the reach of a national bank with less cost and yet (if done correctly) be more attractive to your potential customers
- Risk: Given the strong recent messages that deposit taking banks will not be allowed to fail, retail banks are now lower risk and more credit worthy … hence a better investment for either entrepreneurs or investment managers?
January 2010 - MPI Europe and Fernbach announce "Practical Liqudity Risk Solutions" Breakfast Briefing on 27th January
This briefing looked at practical solutions to address the UK FSA Liqudity Risk requirements based on our experience in the market to date. To simplify the solution for firms of this new regime - due to be implemented initially for sterling banks in June - Fernbach and MPI have devised a Liquidity Risk Appliance which takes the leading liquidity risk software from Fernbach, running on the latest Intel based hardware, combined with an implementation approach from MPI