Author's posts
May 20
Get Set for Leasing Systems Shake-up.
Update May 2013: Since the publication of this article in December 2010, there have been significant delays to the re-drafting of the Lease Accounting Standards ED1. The Re-Exposure Draft was finally published in May 2013 and, as expected, that it still contains significant changes for both Lessees and Lessors, including many of the issues discussed in this article. Will IT …
May 11
Share and Share Alike
For Vehicle Finance, 2013 started quickly with the news on 2nd January that ZipCar, the world’s largest car-sharing network, had been acquired by Avis Budget Group for nearly $500m. At first this would not seem to be of that much immediate impact to funders, but it is a significant step for the whole car industry, …
Mar 08
Peer to Peer
After peer to peer lending this Economist leader points out the next big thing could be sharing. You might think this is no different from running a bed-and-breakfast, owning a timeshare or participating in a car pool. But technology has reduced transaction costs, making sharing assets cheaper and easier than ever—and therefore possible on a …
Mar 03
No WFH? WTF?
Will banning working from home stop the decline of Yahoo!? Surely not? See this leading article from the Ecomomist.
Feb 19
Beefy Lessons for the FSA
The Food Standards Agency and the Financial Services Authority, as well as sharing an acronym, could both learn lessons about regulation. (I know that the Prudential Regulation Authority is technically becoming the regulator but the pun of the FSA was too good to resist). No tests had been done for Horse DNA in beef for …
Feb 19
A tale of two regulators..
The UK Financial Services Authority Mission ‘If we are to get it right, we need to aim high. So we have set ourselves a challenging corporate objective. Our mission statement will be along the following lines:- The Financial Services Authority will aim to be a world-leading financial regulator, respected for its professionalism and integrity both …
Feb 18
From Micro Loan to Micro Banker
Amira was not well served by banks. In fact she lives thirty miles from the nearest bank. She didn’t have any money either, since her husband died five years ago. A man came to Amira’s village from an agency offering micro loans to help people buy chickens or anything that would provide villagers with alternative …
Feb 18
Challengers to the High Street
Two articles coinciding over the weekend about challengers to the big British Banks: An article in the Economist on New Banks featuring Weatherbys, Aldermore, Metro Bank, Tesco Bank and Wonga. The Bottom Line on Radio 4 featured a discussion on Alternative Finance including Giles Andrews is CEO of Zopa, the peer to peer lending website; Anil …
Feb 17
Lean Beef
The current uproar in Europe over the food supply chain, after horse meat was found in products labelled as beef, shows an immediate benefit of Lean production and supply chain. To produce something cheaply the traditional supply chain tries to screw suppliers to get raw materials as cheaply as possible. The suppliers in turn will …
Feb 17
The i in team
I have never met him but Ross Bradder should be knighted for services to business for sharing this on facebook from Santa Clarita, CA