Finances
Finances
Marc Bachs Castan co-wrote this article on the compounding benefits of long-term thinking. To eat or not to eat the marshmallow, that is the question You are 4 years old. Instead of taking you to the playground like any other day, your parents take you to a building you have never been to before. You are in a room with a man who gives you a marshmallow and tells you that you can either eat it now or wait for…
Modak Fahad shares an article on delivering a differentiated client experience in asset and wealth management. The asset and wealth management industry continues to experience a lot of consolidation with deals such as Morgan Stanley/E*Trade/Eaton Vance, Schwab/TD Ameritrade, and Franklin Templeton/Legg Mason. Scale is becoming an important competitive advantage in this winner-takes-all environment. Leaders in sales and marketing at these firms are pressured from all sides to be more relevant and valuable to their clients. Not only are they competing…
If it seems like your company burns through money, Serge Milman may provide insight into the reason why. If you’ve spent any time at all around Procurement professionals, then you’ve likely heard about Tail Spend Sourcing. There are numerous consultants, technology providers, outsourcing providers and even some Procurement Leaders singing its praises. That’s unfortunate. Organizations pursuing Tail Spend Sourcing are explicitly communicating that they’ve given up on managing 60%+ of their supplier base, and perhaps more importantly, that they are…
Marc Bachs Castan shares an article he co-wrote with and was published on DataDrivenInvestor. Disclaimer: We are not investment advisors. All opinions are ours alone. There are risks involved in placing any investment. None of the information presented in our articles is intended to form the basis for any offer or recommendation or have any regard to the investment objectives, financial situation or needs of any specific person, that includes you, dear reader. So everything you’re going to read is…
Boris Galonske shares a white paper on investing in infrastructure to increase financial stability and prosperity. Infrastructure has evolved as an investment asset class. With increasing investment needs, the participation of private capital has increased as well. However, a funding gap remains putting economic development at risk. The 2008 financial crisis has shown that infrastructure contributes to higher resilience of the financial services sector. Hence, policy makers are well advised to further improve the conditions for privately funded infrastructure build-out….
Jeffery Perry shares a post that explores Gen Z and their move towards financial acumen. Gen Z is no longer just children. The oldest members of Gen Z turn 25 in 2021 and are demonstrating their own attitudes about money and their financial futures. As the first generation to be completely immersed in digital technologies, from the ease of buying almost anything with a touch of a smartphone, endless subscription opportunities, and cashless payment systems, it is easy to assume…
Luiz Zorzella shares a summarized evolution story on Open Banking. If you are thinking your response to what is happening around Open Banking, this will provide you with some valuable historical context on how events evolved to get us where we are today: It all started with online banking. Before Open Banking, banks thought it would be a good idea to give their clients access to their accounts using the internet. So, since clients could access their accounts using…
Tobias Baer shares an article that questions the current, popular credit strategy of instant gratification with delayed payments. Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) is hot – and that makes it increasingly controversial, as it was made clear by Monday’s article in the Financial Times. Retailers love it as a way to increase sales, FinTechs as a way to build new, appealing lending propositions. But from a consumer’s perspective, is it good or evil? The question whether BNPL is good or evil obviously…
Luiz Zorzella shares an article on the growth of open banking, the factors that “repress” adoption, and possible solutions. As you probably know, worldwide, Open Banking is one of the hottest trends in financial services. Not only is it growing at a breakneck speed, but also its success is inspiring regulators and players in other sectors like finance and insurance who now wonder how to replicate the model. This article is a high-level review of what is happening in…
Tommy Kim provides an article that explains the differences between Private Equity (PE) and Venture Capital (VC). Private Equity (PE) vs. Venture Capital (VC). You suddenly realize that you are being presented with two similar, yet different types of capital sources. PE and VC investment management businesses offer investors different types of return on capital using unique risk profiles in long-term illiquid assets. Whether you are interested in this side of the business as entrepreneurs and CEOs seeking capital…
As both people and businesses begin to feel the economic impacts of the Coronavirus, Tobias Baer provides clear steps that can help your business deal with delinquent accounts. Many of my clients so far have experienced less delinquencies on consumer debt than I had feared. Unfortunately I don’t think that I can claim that this is only because I’ve helped them draw up extraordinarily effective credit policies and scoring systems – instead, this time around delinquencies themselves might be…
Martin Nel shares his synthesis on recent events and data that have informed his outlook on how COVID-19 will affect major players in Canadian Retail Banking. Covid-19: When will it end? What will be the damage to the economy? What will be the impact on the major players in Canadian Retail Banking? Looking at the S&P 500 over the last few weeks, it seems that it will all be over soon, with limited economic damage. Let’s call this the…
David Gross takes a look ahead at the looming concern about pension plans. Author’s note: This article focuses on defined benefit pension plans in the private sector. To learn more about the pension challenges facing municipalities and states, check out this article by Mary Williams Walsh at The New York Times and the Federal Reserve’s analysis from December 2019. Stock markets plummet by 20 to 30 percent. Long-term interest rates drop. Future economic growth and asset returns are…
Pieter Lekkerkerk describes current alternative pricing models making inroads in car insurance in the US: pay-per-mile and driving-score based pricing. In the last few decades car insurance premiums have traditionally been set based on o a risk assessment questionnaire (typically covering the car, its usage, the driver and her/his background among others), enriched with data from e.g., credit bureaus and the Department of Motor Vehicles (on e.g. traffic fines). In the wave that saw the disruption of many…
