Of Special Interest
Filters
- Newslink Trends-The Global Strategic Perspective
- Juniper Research says digital wallet users to exceed 4.4 billion by 2025, as mobile drives digital payments’ revolution
- Criminals exploit COVID-19 pandemic with rise in scams targeting victims online
- Equifax says Open Banking proving pivotal to pandemic lending
- Consumer confidence in banks, credit card providers and investments remain stable as demand supercharges digital finance says Toluna research
- Mintos says Europeans are starting to embrace investing
- US banks see IT modernisation as a way to improve customer experience
- Risk mitigation in global trade depends on digitisation-Andrew Raymond, CEO, Bolero International comments
- Juniper Research new study says the volume of B2B payments facilitated by non-banks will exceed 53 billion in 2022, from a COVID-related low of 38 billion in 2020
- CMA issues fifth publication over 3 years of the service quality league table of personal and business current account providers
- Barclays says scammers take advantage of COVID-19, cashing in on nations’ uncertainty
- S&P Global report says financial market infrastructure sector's earnings likely to cool off In second half
- Global banking market capitalisation slumps by over 30% amid pandemic says Buyshares research
- Digital wallet spend in Europe & North America to increase by 40% in 2019, finds study
- Juniper forecasts mobile money transactions will exceed 200 billion by 2024
- Banks can save the world from climate change, says former UN climate chief
- Research by NatWest reveals gender divide over attitudes to saving
- Europe’s big bank problem: too much capital is trapped in the US, says Scope
- Later-Life lending market set to almost double in the next 10 years, finds report
- Barclays/Cebr report challenges nation to think differently about wealth
- Fifth of UK investors looking to debt investment, new research reveals
- Regtech will play a more important role in PSD2, says Mitek
- Banks turn to Fintech partnerships to improve customer experience, finds Fraedom
- New industry code to tackle fraud must deliver, says Which?
- New TTF report highlights loss of trust in financial services
- Arxan highlights financial app vulnerability epidemic
- SAS asks whether banks really need to choose between operations and innovation
- Which? raises alarm as almost 1,700 free ATMs become fee-charging
- Financial wellness affects half of peoples’ mental or physical health, finds report
- Study finds traditional financial institutions embrace Fintech disruption
- Grass is greener for environmentally friendly businesses, finds Barclays
- Prospective homeowners would consider a 40-year mortgage to escape renting, finds Santander
- Millennials’ needs are changing the face of banking industry, says new report
- FS is putting consumer data at risk by failing to protect mobile apps, says Arxan
- A lack of belief in their ability holds 28% women back in work, says Cambridge & Counties
- ‘Which?’ reveals Scotland has lost over a third of its bank branches in eight years
- Next downturn unlikely to be as bad as 2008, according to S&P
- FCA reveals findings from first cryptoassets consumer research
- US consumers favour single mobile app for banking and payments
- Banks suffering major IT shutdowns every day, ‘Which?’ reveals
- The US will be a key offshore centre in 2019, says GlobalData
- Debit industry changes markedly in 10 years of the Debit Issuer Study
- UK's ‘Big Five’ face ‘too big to compete’ as small challengers secure stellar returns
- Banks as vulnerable now as before crash, says new study
- Leverage ratio a constant conundrum for European and US banks, says SNL
6th September 2011
Bank governance changes required
Two British members of parliament, Matthew Hancock and Nadhim Zahawi have written a new book about the banking crisis, "Masters of Nothing: How the Crash Will Happen Again Unless We Understand Human Nature".
Hancock was a former Bank of England economist and is close to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne - to the extent that the book launch will be held today at 11 Downing Street, the Chancellor's official residence. Zahawi was the former CEO of YouGov, a leading UK market research company,
The book argues that changes in governance are required if a further banking crisis is to be avoided. They use various examples to suggest that it is wrong to believe that people, and in particular bank executives, always act in a rational way thinking of their self interest and the long term good of the bank.
The authors argue for a new charge of professional gross negligence be created for senior executives of Systemically Important Financial Institutions. One comparison they make is that the owner of a food shop that does not follow food hygiene laws can be imprisoned and yet no head of a bank has been sent to prison despite the major consequence of their actions.
They also point to situations where the board has appeared afraid of the Chief Executive and never challenged the CEO's decisions. The book contains many examples relating to Sir Fred Goodwin and the Royal Bank of Scotland. The publication follows closely on the autobiography of Nigel Lawson who also had harsh things to say about the Chief Executives of both Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS at the time of their collapse. It has been suggested before, and supported by Lawson that neither chief executive had appreciated the seriousness of their own bank's financial situation just days before the bank's had to be propped up with billions of aid.
"Masters of Nothing: How the Crash Will Happen Again Unless We Understand Human Nature" by Matthew Hancock and Nadhim Zahawi is published today by Biteback Publishing.