The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has banned Mrs Colette Chiesa and Mr John Chiesa from working in financial services for integrity failings. Additionally, Mrs Chiesa has been fined £50,000 for attempting to mislead the FCA during an FCA interview. Mr and Mrs Chiesa were founding partners of Westwood Independent Financial Planners (Westwood), a firm authorised by the FCA to provide personal investment advice. Continue reading…

A key role of …nancial intermediaries is to provide liquidity – essentially, on-demand access to cash –to their investors. Typically, …nancial intermediaries that provide liquidity also engage in maturity transformation. For example, banks issue long-term loans but grant their depositors the right to withdraw their funds on demand. Similarly, open-end mutual funds (“funds”) that invest in comparatively illiquidsecurities, such as corporate bonds, give their investors the option of redeeming their shares in cash every day. Daily redemptions allow fund investors to insure against their liquidity needs while participating in the higher return their fund earns on less liquid assets. At the same time, funds need to adequately insure the residual liquidity risk that they incur.1 Insu¢ ciently insured liquidity risk can trigger and amplify …nancial crises.
Continue reading…

It is worth repeating that public trust and confidence in the financial system cannot be compromised. The cost of financial crimes and terrorism financing are staggering. Based on the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), money laundering transactions are estimated to cost economies between 2% to 5% of global GDP. This equals to USD1 to 2 trillion annually. It is a humongous amount. Beyond monetary terms, these activities have destructive consequences for the lives of many, especially the poor and underprivileged.
Continue reading…

Risk managers and insurance buyers have a “narrow window” in which to prepare for the growing threat of cyber crime, says Kyle Bryant of Chubb. The WannaCry ransomware attack which affected businesses and individuals around the world in May this year served as a powerful reminder that vulnerability to cyber crime is the new normal. Continue reading…

The euro area continues to experience a solid, broad-based and resilient recovery. Deflationary risks have disappeared and some measures of underlying inflation have ticked up over recent months. But overall inflation developments, despite the solid growth, have remained subdued.
Continue reading…

Underwriters need to develop away from transaction-driven model to stay relevant. Airmic chief executive John Ludlow has called on insurers to “transform” their business models to meet the changing needs of businesses. Writing in a Telegraph special report hosted by Business Reporter, he said that the value in today’s business models is based upon more complex and vulnerable assets than in the past, and that the insurance industry has “struggled to keep pace” with this shift.
Continue reading…

The prospect of a very gradual normalisation of our monetary policy gives rise to concerns and expectations. I will begin by focusing on what our accommodative monetary policy has already achieved today, before talking about prospects for the future. 
Continue reading…

Insurance is critical for mitigating the impact of cyber attacks, but prevention must start with employees. Adeola Adele and Glyn Thoms of Willis Towers Watson, argue that risk managers must work with HR to ensure that skills, training and resources are a company’s strongest cyber defence.

Continue reading…

The Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI), the global standard setter for payment, clearing, settlement and related arrangements, laid out a strategy to improve the security of wholesale payments that involve banks, financial market infrastructures and other financial institutions.
Continue reading…