Institutional Investor (January 21)
“For more than half a decade, a seemingly irresistible momentum has been building around the idea that finance and technology are converging at a historical inflection point, a combination of business transformation and competitive disruption that has come to be labeled fintech.” Fintech “has legs,” making a “2000-style crash” unlikely. Still, fintech is not immune to cyclical decline, may be approaching frothy levels, and carries other risks as well.
Tags: Cyclical decline, Disruption, Finance, Fintech, Froth, Inflection point, Momentum, Risks, Technology, Transformation
CFO.com (March 13)
“While any good finance executive will focus first on the costs and revenue opportunities in proposed energy-saving plants, the risks and benefits to company employees and external society will be squarely on his or her radar, because they potentially affect the company’s brand reputation.” Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) will also have their eyes open for sweet spots, “where what’s good for the planet melds seamlessly with what’s good for the bottom line. For example, Costco found that changing its energy consumption helped cut its costs.” The problem is that most environmentally based metrics aren’t linked to financial metrics. For example, when a company reduces its carbon footprint, CFOs want to see the link with “an income statement, balance sheet, or cash-flow statement.” Does the smaller footprint reduce costs, increase sales or reduce liabilities such as lawsuits? “The challenge of sustainability at the corporate level is to find a way to answer that question in hard, numeric, provable ways that take into account the self-interest so basic to our free-enterprise system.”
Tags: Benefits, CFOs, Costs, Environment, Finance, Metrics, Risks, Sustainability
The Economist (January 7)
Bank bashing has become routine, but Britain should also “prize” the important contribution of finance. “London is by many measures the world’s biggest financial centre, and weakening it is in nobody’s interest—least of all Britain’s. Better regulation of banks is certainly needed…. But running down one of the world’s most successful (and mobile) commercial clusters is folly—and it is surely not the legacy Mr Cameron would wish to leave his successors.”
