In this, the third paper in the Economists’ Hubris series, we highlight the shortcomings of academic thought in developing models that can be used by financial institutions to institute effective enterprise-wide risk management systems and policies. We find that pretty much all of the models...

Open-economy macroeconomists regularly invoke the policy trilemma that states that governments cannot simultaneously maintain an open capital account, a fixed exchange rate, and a domestically-oriented monetary policy. My thesis is that jurisdictions with substantial offshore activities find...

This paper makes a study of payment systems in the countries of the enlargement of the European Union for the period 1996-2003 and its comparison with the members of the European and Monetary Union. The general tendency is of a movement from cash to alternative instruments of payment. However,...

The relationship between financial development and growth has been the subject of intense scrutiny. Economists debate whether finance causes growth [Hicks (1969), Schumpeter (1934)], or whether it is growth that triggers the development of financial markets [Robinson (1952)]. This paper proposes...

In this opinion piece, Dr. Anthony Kirby provides a snapshot view of the current business-to-business (B2B) landscape. He outlines how first-mover advantage has become first-prover achievement and explains why so many B2B exchanges are diversifying their range of services to build customer and...

The success of online stockbrokers has led many to believe that almost all aspects of the financial services industry can be disintermediated. I propose that those who make such predictions overlook the heterogeneity of this industry, and suggests that the fixed income market already possesses...

In today’s highly competitive environment, financial institutions will be hard-pressed to fund capital investments, system upgrades, new projects, state-of-the art infrastructures, and ultimately new products and services. They will, however, be expected to grow their businesses in the double...

The financial services industry is just beginning to take full advantage of the benefits of offshore business processing. Some have taken the steps to outsource parts of the lowerend value chain to third party providers within emerging economies. We predict that similar to the manufacturing...

This article explains the new market abuse regime’s approach in broad terms. It will be introduced by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (the act) when it takes effect in summer 2001. It also explains the interaction between the new regime and the rules of the Recognised Investment...

In this paper we take a look at a number of predictions made about the future of the financial services industry during the past few years to find out firstly, how accurate they were and secondly, whether we can learn anything from them that might help us in the future.