Consumer finance
Breaking the chains
The need to diversify customer credit risk and the rising importance of fiduciary standards make open architecture distribution vital to structured products’ future. As advisers become concentrated in bigger institutions and market volumes remain static,…
Wrap it up and start again
Marketing structured products is a tough challenge, with both nascent and established markets battered by the Lehman Brothers collapse. Meanwhile, providers must also adapt their techniques to suit interactive and online channels, and be increasingly…
BITS publishes new guidelines for Financial Services Aggregation
BITS, a Washington, DC-based non-profit consortium of 100 of the largest financial institutions in the US, has published new voluntary guidelines for financial services aggregation that promote sound, private and secure services.
S&P versus Basel II: A fragile accord
By publicly casting doubt over aspects of the Basel II Accord's methodology, rating agency Standard & Poor's is voicing concerns shared by many in the banking industry. Joanne Hart asks how this dispute may affect bondholders and the market in general.
Buying your way out of trouble
UK high-street retailer Littlewoods has saved £1.5 million through an energy risk management and procurement programme. Utilyx’s Nigel Cornwall looks at how other companies can reduce energy costs through purchase programmes
Playing a waiting game
With energy – and particularly natural gas – costs on the rise, are end-users finally coming to terms with the importance of hedging or are they still waiting to get burned before they enter the hedging market? Kevin Foster reports
Banks should use Basel II delays to improve retail-lending systems
NEEDHAM, MASSACHUSSETTS - Banks should use the time gained by delays to the Basel II bank accord to plan for the replacement of systems that can’t handle the ever-increasing volume of loans to the retail sector, a report by banking technology consultants…