Ten Years after the Crisis

A decade has passed since 2007, the year sub-prime loans began to default, signalling the start of the financial crisis which shook the world within months of its beginning. Governments have changed, foreign exchange rates are back to pre-2007 era, real estate rates have stabilized, jobs are back but the banking sector is still dealing with the aftershocks and it still remains under intense public and political scrutiny.

The very memory of 2007-08 sends shivers down bankers across the globe

So, the question that remains after 10 years since world’s largest banks began to feel the tremors that would ultimately lead to their end, what exactly is the future of banking?

Today’s Needull, a recent article from The Economist, sums it up all, as it looks at the various changes triggered by this financial apocalyse, over the decade.

So have the banks at last put the crisis behind them? This special report will argue that many of them are in much better shape than they were a decade ago, but the gains are not evenly spread and have further to go. That is particularly true in Europe, where the banks’ recovery has been distinctly patchy. The STOXX Europe 600 index of bank share prices is still down by two-thirds from the peak it reached ten years ago this month. European lenders’ returns on equity average just 5.8%.

America’s banks are significantly stronger. In investment banking, they are beating European rivals hollow. They are no longer having to fork out billions in legal bills for the sins of the past, and they are at last making a better return for their shareholders. Mike Mayo, an independent bank analyst, expects their return on tangible equity soon to exceed their cost of capital (which he, like most banks, puts at 10%) for the first time since the crisis.

Full Article Here

The Economist – Patrick Lane

Original Blog: Brazen Banker

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Most Influential Women in Finance

Everyone seems to be cashing in on the International Women’s Day frenzy. The above image of a defiant girl in front of Wall Street’s iconic charging bull statue was just another addition to the same. State Street Global Advisors, world’s third-largest asset manager, installed this bronze statue on Tuesday morning as part of its new campaign to pressure companies to add more women to their boards.

Talking about women in financial sector, today’s Needull is a list of my favourite women finance professionals. Go through the list, read through these relatively unknown names and you will be surprised to know how women are ruling the world, even in a literal sense.

The financial world is dynamic, unpredictable, capricious and sadly, male driven. But thanks to the women mentioned in this blog and thousands more like yours truly, the world is gradually waking up to the idea to let the fairer sex handle the finances, at home and outside. There is a lot needed to be done but as for now, the defiant girl is just standing, determined and steadfast, as the bull ahead snarls in anger.

Full Blog Here

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No Future without Past

The future of fintech is bright, almost blindingly so, but many of the entrepreneurs in the industry fail to grasp what will eventually lead to the downfall of countless fintech firms, particularly those that lend money – a tendency to forget the past and inability to say ‘No’.

FinTech (or Financial Technologies) is undoubtedly the new buzzword in the banking scene. Everyone is talking about it, be it the biggies or the newcomers. Start-Ups have sprung like weeds around the concept of applying latest web or mobile based technologies in finance & banking.

But most of these firms have a tendency to ignore the power of history. When it comes to banking, or investing in bank stocks, few things are as important as history. An investor with deep and visceral appreciation for the historical swings of the credit cycle gets a definite competitive advantage. However, these new tech-based lenders often tend to neglect history and in their desire to acquire clients, tend to say ‘yes’ top every request. They just dismiss hundreds of years’ worth of experience reflected in the history of banking as outdated. There demise will begin the very day the credit cycle takes a turn for the worse.

Today’s Needull, an article from the pages of FOX Business, is actually a warning to such lenders who play with tools of future but tend to neglect the past.

Full Article Here

John Maxfield – FOX Business / fools.com

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Is Banking a Man’s World?

“This’s a Man’s World….”

This 60s song by John Brown is specially true when it comes to banking industry. The women comprise less than 20% in the banking industry. There are claims that this might be because women are weaker / less interested in Maths compared to men. The veracity of this ludicurous claim is something about which I recently wrote in my blog at Brazen Banker.

But your Needull for today is not something I wrote about in this blog. It is a recent data about the second part in the above seemingly male chauvinist song that I referred to earlier.

“But it would be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl…”

So, today’s Needull is about why women are actually better at handling money compared to men. A research about women as investor / trader has seen that their risk averse nature actually helps in better returns to their investment. The data is clear. The gender stereotype that women are less confident than men – or “that women are less overconfident than men” – is, for once, a useful trait. There is a strong argument that women, by their very nature, do indeed make better traders and better returns.

Complete Article Here

Original blog: Where have all the girls gone?