The Finanser's Week: 26th October 2009 - 1st November 2009

The biggest news stories of the week include:

Banks not buying in to Single Payments Area (Euractiv)
Credit crunch almost over, says ECB (Euractiv)
US economy is growing once again (BBC) 
ING to separate banking and insurance operations, and divest ING USA (ING Press Release)
Brussels to split up Britain's high street banks (Times) 
Bernanke: Smaller Banks Not Necessarily the Answer for ‘Too Big to Fail’ Dilemma (Wall Street Journal)
Part one | Reckless strategies doomed WaMu and Part two | WaMu: Hometown bank turned predatory (Seattle Times)
Wall Street's Naked Swindle by Matt Taibbi in the Rolling Stone

And our biggest stories of the week include:

Money and Sex: the Twin Engines of Life

I've often used the relationship between money and sex as a clear allegory for how important finance and financial services is to our lives.  Now we have proof as Yale University document the first instance of monkey prostitution.

Worthless bank-vendor contracts

I had a really interesting chat with a lawyer recently, who claims that contracts between banks and their technology providers which include NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) and SLA (Service Level Agreement) rules aren't worth the paper they are written on.

Vince Cable and the British Property Bubble

In preparing for the speech of Vince Cable, being delivered this evening at the Financial Services Club, I have been reading his book the Storm: The World Economic Crisis and What it Means.  It seems rather clear of our mania with using property to make money when you summarise the figures Mr. Cable presents in the book as background to the crisis.

So what does Vince Cable think?

Earlier this week, as mentioned, we looked forward to a fine dinner with Vince Cable at the Club and a fine dinner it was.  Dr. Cable covered a wide range of topics from the credit crisis to the housing crisis, from banker's bonuses to banker's morals and ethics, from the role of the EU to the future of Britain's economy.

Virgin gets easy pickings

With the EU breakup of Britain's banks and the sell-off of the best bits of Northern Rock, only a few companies can afford to buy the residual pieces, even though they are good pieces.  Virgin is at the forefront of those most likely to buy.

Building tomorrow’s bank

My good friend Conny Dorrestijn shared this article she wrote on teenager's views on money and banking.  I thought it so good that it's worth sharing here.

Casino Capitalism and the American Culture

The next generation of banking won't be American.  If you don't believe this, then an article that appeared over the weekend gave me more insight into the relationship between the American culture and gambling than any other.

NEWS: 2009 FinTech 100 Rankings

American Banker, Bank Technology News and IDC Financial Insights released the sixth annual FinTech 100 rankings of the top global technology providers to the financial services industry today.

  

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