Institutional Investor (June 1)
Nearly a decade after the financial crisis, financial institutions still face challenges. However, the “savvy” ones are simplifying their structures and realizing efficiency gains. “For the past nine years, investments have poured into regulatory compliance and reporting initiatives. The rapid development of disruptive technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence is helping firms automate many of those processes and redirect their energy toward growth activities. Big data, analytics and digital technology shed light on what they do best—and most profitably—and enhance the customer experience.”
Tags: AI, Analytics, Big Data, Challenges, Customers, Digital technology, Disruptive technologies, Efficiency, Energy, Financial Crisis, Growth, Investments, Profit, Regulatory compliance, Reporting, Robotics, Savvy
Wall Street Journal (April 7)
“Compensation for the chief executives of the biggest U.S. companies fell more sharply last year than any year since the financial crisis, as weaker corporate performance slowed cash bonuses and accounting rules pared back pension growth.” CEO pay at the largest companies dropped by “3.8% to $10.8 million last year from $11.2 million in 2014.”
Tags: Accounting rules, Bonuses, CEO, Compensation, Financial Crisis, Pension, U.S.
New York Times (March 21)
“The lessons of the last financial crisis are clear. Less clear is whether regulators have the tools and the willingness to apply what they have learned to new circumstances and new threats.” The surge of money from China into the U.S. “far outpaced growth in the overall economy last year, a sign that too much money may be chasing too few good opportunities and that lenders may be compromising standards.” There are clear reasons for concern. “The system is still too opaque, and resistance to regulation remains fierce.”
Tags: China, Financial Crisis, Growth, Lenders, Opaque, Opportunities, Regulators, Resistance, Standards, Threats, U.S.
Financial Times (December 8)
“Greater shareholder engagement with quoted companies has been one of the key themes in corporate governance to emerge since the financial crisis” and underpins the UK’s stewardship code for institutional investors. In the U.S. as well, there has been a “recent upsurge in activist investing,” along with “growing demands by long-term institutions for greater input.” This creates potential for progress. “It can only be good that shareholders take an active interest in the businesses in which they invest.”
Tags: Activists, Corporate governance, Engagement, Financial Crisis, Institutional investors, Shareholders, Stewardship code, U.S., UK
Wall Street Journal (September 15)
“The world’s second-largest economy is faring worse than previously thought, with government stimulus measures proving too short-lived to counter China’s sharp real-estate downturn or to prop up flagging factory output.” The slowdown in growth was highlighted by a slump in industrial production which fell to levels last seen during the financial crisis. “The falloff comes as Europe is stumbling and the U.S. recovery looks more moderate than expected, leaving the world in search of economic growth.”
Tags: China, Downturn, Economy, Europe, Factory output, Financial Crisis, Government, Growth, Industrial production, Real estate, Recovery, Stimulus, U.S.
Euromoney (September Issue)
“The recovery of the global real estate market from the devastating toll inflicted by the financial crisis is continuing to gather pace, with investment almost back to 2008 levels and growing confidence fueling increased risk appetite.”
Euromoney (July Issue)
UBS was named “Bank of the Year” by Euromoney. “Less than three years ago, UBS was written off as one of the ultimate victims of the financial crisis. The bold decisions taken then by a new chief executive and his management team make it today a bank that others seek to emulate.”
Tags: Bank, Bold decisions, Chief executive, Euromoney, Financial Crisis, Management team, UBS, Victim
The Economist (May 24)
“Obituaries of the Great Moderation may have been premature.” Following the financial crisis, volatility has again returned to low levels characteristic of the Great Moderation. “The big question is whether the return of the Great Moderation has also prompted a return of the sort of risk-taking that produced the crisis. There are troubling signs.”
New York Times (March 23)
“It’s the one question about the 2008 financial crisis that people still ask me more than any other: Why have regulators done so little to rein in the credit rating agencies?” Despite abuses which helped create the sub-prime crisis and despite numerous resolutions to revise the regulatory environment for firms like S&P and Moody’s, little has been done. “Ratings still loom large, even after they were found to have been so disastrously inaccurate in 2008. It’s yet another example of the glacial pace of regulatory change.”
Tags: Abuses, Credit rating agencies, Financial Crisis, Moody's, Ratings, Regulators, S&P, Sub-prime crisis
Financial Times (October 25)
“A painful and protracted hangover from the financial crisis has slashed demand for cars in Europe, forcing mainstream manufacturers to close factories, lay off workers and fill their financial statements with red ink.” Despite these measures, however, the industry is still struggling with overcapacity, compelling many global automakers to subsidize European losses with sales elsewhere. Providing a glimmer of optimism for Europe, however, Ford “called the bottom of the disastrous market slump on Thursday, the first carmaker confident enough to turn tentative hopes into official profit guidance and draw a financial line under six years of falling sales.”
Tags: Automakers, Carmakers, Demand, Europe, Factories, Financial Crisis, Ford, Guidance, Losses, Manufacturers, Optimism, Overcapacity, Sales, Workers
