In this fifth article in the Economists’ Hubris series, we investigate the practical applications of eight papers that won best-article awards in 2008 and 2009 from the Journal of Finance or the Journal of Financial Economics, the two leading journals in finance. We find that these articles...

An understanding of strategic network management and its impact on the sources of competitive advantage for financial institutions is becoming increasingly important as the traditional boundaries for products, firms, and industry sub-divisions change. The repeal of the Glass Steagall Act in the...

Some effects of e-Commerce, and their implications for financial services firms, are becoming clear. The web drives transparency, and increases the information endowment of all market participants. It is harder to manipulate customers’ behavior, or to overcharge them, as their information...

In June 2003 Bank Mandiri announced that it would sell 20% of its total share capital through an initial public offering (IPO), making it the largest IPO in Indonesia since 1997. Bank Mandiri’s IPO, marks the completion of a turnaround that transformed four ailing state banks into one...

Clearly, the events of 2003 have taught the financial services industry not to take the crisis preparedness and reputation management process for granted or underestimate its importance. The best crisis management is really crisis prevention, which necessitates a clear understanding of worst...

In this paper, I will focus on two aspects of the transformation – operations and technology – that we undertook at Shinsei. It is my hope that by sharing some of my experiences in this paper, I can help some of my colleagues mitigate some of the mistakes that were made along this journey of...

The 1990’s saw considerable amounts invested in new technology only to see the promised returns unrealized. The programs were often well planned, executed, within budget, and the functionality delivered was exactly what was expected. So what went wrong? Although the solutions are installed,...

After many years of ‘tinkering around the edges’, financial institutions of today are finally waking up to the fact that they must undertake a total transformation of their operations and technology into efficient, cost effective, customer friendly, and controlled environments. The...

After three years of cost cutting in their domestic operations, most financial services companies have little remaining fat. They have reached the proverbial muscle, and must strategically address how technology and operations, in particular, will help their organizations grow with fewer...

We believe that few of today's ASP/BSP in-sourcers have the correct economic and operational structures in place to withstand a few more years of a less than favorable economic environment. Consequently, we believe that many should reassess their business models to be able not only to survive...