Institutional Investor (March 20)
“For years, asset management firms have benefited as the banking industry was dragged down by quantitative easing and increasing regulation. The one-two punch spurred a more than $100 billion divergence in revenues since 2011, with asset managers up $65 billion and wholesale banks down $45 billion at the end of 2016…. But now, with asset managers facing ‘intense’ pressure on fees and with economic policy shifting in favor of banks,” there are growing predictions for “a ‘reversal of fortunes’ for the two sectors.”
Tags: Asset management, Banking, Economic policy, Fees, QE, Regulation, Revenues, Reversal
The Economist (February 18)
We are approaching a tipping point. The automotive dominance of internal combustion engines (ICE) looks increasingly limited. Electric cars are “set for rapid forward thrust. Improving technology and tightening regulations on emissions from ICEs is about to propel electric vehicles (EVs) from a niche to the mainstream.” But the transition “from petrol power to volts will be a tough one for carmakers to navigate.”
Tags: Auto, Cars, Combustion, Dominance, Electric, Emissions, Engines, EVs, Mainstream, Regulation, Technology, Tipping point, Transition
Reuters (November 16)
“It will be a new day at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after President-elect Donald Trump installs his choice to run the agency.” With the resignation of SEC Chairman Mary Jo White, who was a proponent of regulation, Trump’s team will have a relatively free hand. “Some rules already are marked for death or dialback.” Among them are the conflict mineral disclosure requirements and “a proposal that would require companies to disclose pay ratios between their CEOs and employees.”
Tags: CEOs, Conflict minerals, Dialback, Employees, Mary Jo White, Pay ratios, Regulation, Resignation, SEC, Trump, U.S.
Euromoney (April Issue)
“There is a strong feeling abroad that Europe is making good progress on the road to banking union, with a credible regulator in the European Central Bank soon subjecting banks to uniform regulation and chipping away at some of the fudges on asset quality that national regulators have previously winked at.”
Tags: Asset quality, Banking union, Banks, ECB, Europe, Feeling, Progress, Regulation, Regulator
Chicago Tribune (March 31)
Ride share services like Lyft, Uber X and Sidecar are changing the way people get around urban environments like Chicago. “Consumers like ride shares. They like being able to find a nearby car, check out the driver and agree to a fare, all on their smartphones. They like the option of paying a premium for faster service in peak hours or bad weather. They like choices.” In contrast, taxi owners are unhappy with the new competition and pushing for tighter regulation or outright bans on ride sharing. Some prudent regulation is inevitable and desirable, but lawmakers should side with consumers rather than protecting “the people who got into the taxi business by paying $300,000 or more for a city medallion.”
Tags: Bans, Chicago, Consumers, Lyft, Premium, Regulation, Ride share, Sidecar, Smartphones, Taxis, Uber X
Euromoney (February Issue)
Asia “is seen as the growth engine for private banks, but it is not without its trials.” As regulation increases, costs rise and competition heats up, industry “consolidation among private banks in the region is inevitable.”
Tags: Asia, Banks, Competition, Consolidation, Costs, Growth engine, Industry, Private banks, Regulation
The Economist (October 12)
“China is dangerously short of water. While the south is a lush, lake-filled region, the north—which has half the population and most of the farmland—is more like a desert.” To try to solve the problem, China has now “built as many large dams as the rest of the world put together.” To really solve the problem, however, China will need to focus on regulatory issues, such as cracking down on polluters, and economic incentives, such as increasing water rates to encourage conservation.
Tags: China, Conservation, Dams, Desert, Economics, Farmland, Polluters, Population, Regulation, Water
Wall Street Journal (January 28)
British Prime Minister David Cameron discussed the future of the EU, raising important points on Europe’s waning competitiveness, excessive regulation, free trade agreements and the primacy of the single market. European leaders largely were not listening. “Yet the picture of Europe that Mr. Cameron sketched on Wednesday is an EU worth belonging to, not just for Britain but for every other European state that does not want to sacrifice prosperity and democratic representation on the altar of centralization. Mr. Cameron’s critics should read his speech twice.”
Tags: Competitiveness, David Cameron, EU, Free trade, Regulation, UK
New York Times (December 23)
The proposed acquisitions of NYSE Euronext by IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) and Knight Capital Group by Getco both “reflect the demise of traditional stock-exchange trading. The equities market has been eclipsed by the global market in derivatives, and human traders have been increasingly replaced by computers programmed to profit from split-second price anomalies.” Regulators have not kept pace with this change. “The mergers should remain on the drawing board unless and until regulators can reassure the public that the newly created companies will operate not only for private gain, but in the public interest as well.”
Tags: Derivatives, Equities, Getco, High-speed trading, Ice, Knight Capital, Mergers, NYSE Euronext, Regulation
The Economist (July 7)
The latest banking scandal may have been a tipping point in the court of public opinion. “The attempts to rig LIBOR (the London inter-bank offered rate), a benchmark interest rate, not only betray a culture of casual dishonesty; they set the stage for lawsuits and more regulation right the way round the globe. This could well be global finance’s “tobacco moment”.
The latest banking scandal may have been a tipping point in the court of public opinion. “The attempts to rig LIBOR (the London inter-bank offered rate), a benchmark interest rate, not only betray a culture of casual dishonesty; they set the stage for lawsuits and more regulation right the way round the globe. This could well be global finance’s “tobacco moment”.
Tags: Banking, Global finance, LIBOR, Regulation, Scandal, UK
