Banks are often smug about their management of risk. Smugness may well be justified for market and credit risks, but banks can learn much from industry about managing operational risk. In order to manage operational risk, industry has evolved enterprise risk/reward management systems which...

We researched 130 financial centres for this edition of the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI 33). The number of centres in the main index has increased to 120, with the inclusion of Minneapolis/St Paul. There are 10 associate centres awaiting potential inclusion in the main index.The average...

The sixth edition of the Global Green Finance Index (GGFI 6) was published on 27 October 2020. GGFI 6 provides evaluations of the depth and quality of the green finance offerings of 74 major financial centres around the world. The GGFI serves as a valuable reference into the development of green...

This article examines an increasingly important mechanism for exploring and delivering new sources of revenue that we have dubbed “high ratio relationships”. These relationships involve connections between very large and very small companies that are more complex and creative than the usual...

Banks are keen to supply current accounts because apart from direct income, they are more successful in selling a wide range of their financial services to customers who possess a current account. The UK market for current accounts appears to exhibit little customer movement and is dominated by...

The definition of a financial center is bound up in the definition of a city. We can start by observing that financial centers are cities or districts of cities where finance is conducted. However, the definition of a city is problematic, as anyone who has tried to compare city populations...

The London Accord and other climate change investigations conclude that there is no single solution to the problem of climate change. Mankind must deploy a diverse range of potential solutions - market solutions, technological solutions and social solutions. The ‘supply side’ of potential...

Smaller Quoted Companies (SQCs) are the pinnacle of SME growth and account for over 2,000 companies outside the FTSE 350, comprising some 85% of all UK quoted companies. They employ some 2 million people, accounting for almost 10% of all private sector employment in Britain. They pay £20...

Investment banks (‘sell-side’) spend several USD billion per annum globally creating equity research for investment clients (‘buy-side’).Sell-side firms, and credit research agencies, have the potential to play a significant and positive role in enhancing the quality of equity market...

In "The Road to Long Finance: A Systems View of the Credit Scrunch", co-authors Michael Mainelli and Bob Giffords argue that only systemic wisdom will provide a long-term solution to the crisis. A return to "business as usual" will leave un-addressed such important problems as ‘too big to...