Biz Net - Business News

Swiss banks screening of customer accounts

Alan — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:14:12 +0000

Financial institutions worldwide are facing major problems in security and screening of customer accounts. With so much money laundering, tax fraud and hidden funding for terrorist activities going on in the world financial market, regulations and screening must be improved in order to keep lending institutions out of trouble.

Traditionally, Swiss banks have been the ultimate safe haven for those who want complete security and confidentiality from their bank. The popular myth that once you open a Swiss bank account it is untouchable by any outside entity is not entirely true, but it is true that Swiss banks have a much stricter policy than most when it comes to revealing information about their customers. In the last year the number of ‘suspicious’ transactions, i.e. the transfer of funds into and out of Swiss banks, increased by more than five percent, and that small percentage amounted to somewhere around 2.23 billion Swiss francs (or about 1.5 billion pounds). Dr. Jonathan Pell is CEO of Datanomic, one of the largest organizations that offers data screening and integration for financial entities such as banks, insurance companies and asset managers. Dr. Pell notes that identifying what are known as Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) and screening potential customers against sanction lists has become increasingly crucial in today’s world, and that Switzerland in particular is under pressure from other countries to conform to new, stricter regulations imposed by international regulatory agencies. Datanomic has introduced a system called dn:Director for Sanctions & PEP Screening that the company claims will vastly improve and streamline the screening process for its users. The software is designed to insure the banks comply with all financial regulations while retaining the confidentiality their customers demand, and allows each institution to ‘police’ its accounts from within, but still allow complete auditability by regulators. Related posts: Banks are taxed Britain put an additional two billion pound yearly tax on... Where’s the trust between SMEs and banks A recent survey by the Federation of Small Businesses (FBS)... Banks against end of self-cert mortgages Britain’s largest lenders are speaking out against new proposals that... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

West Midlands engineering plants busy on the back of continued growth Alan — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 02:57:58 +0000 According to the British Chamber of Commerce, or the BCC, engineering plants have been busy once again in the West Midlands. The plants will be providing specialized parts to the German car industry. David Kern is the chief economist with the BCC. He says that manufacturing in Britain has been more successful than services for three quarters now. “We have not seen that for a very long time”, he says. Dr Kern says that the increased business in manufacturing is due to the prevailing effect of the exchange rate. The British Chamber of Commerce says that manufacturing will grow by 3.3%, while services will only increase by 1.4% in growth. Still, it is not known if the significant growth in manufacturing is due to a prompt snap-back following the economic recession. Furthermore, it is unclear on whether or not this growth can be continued. The economy in Britain is recovering slowly, and unemployment will continue to rise throughout 2011. Dr Kern has stated that the economy is “clearly slowing”, and that the “same global imbalances that caused the crisis” have become evident even today. He has also stated that the Bank of England could be forced to enter yet another round of quantitative easing. This will help to offset budget cuts and bring Britain’s economy back to a sustainable spot. Charles Bean, the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England says that quantitative easing will be possible, and that “further policy action” will likely be essential to a full recovery of the economy.Ba Related posts: Business interest rates hold at 5% The monetary policy committee of the Bank of England voted... Banks are taxed Britain put an additional two billion pound yearly tax on... CPI shows improvement in May Inflation decreased a bit in May to just 3.4% after... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. 4 in 10 managers could commit a fraud at their company Alan — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 05:08:54 +0000 The findings of a new survey from COA Solutions, the business management and information systems provider, revealed that 41% of all UK managers believe that they could commit fraud at their organizations if they wanted to. The research included 70 senior finance professionals and managers across the UK. The results match the Ernst & Young Global Fraud Survey which shows that fraud is now increasing within the businesses. Given the two sets of data, COA Solutions is asking that organizations spend more in terms of security by investing in software such as analytics to offer another layer of prevention and fraud detection. The survey by COA also found that 41% of those surveyed thought they could take some of the company funds with 17% of those stating that it would be ‘very easy’ to do so. 58% reported that it would be ‘very difficult’ or ‘difficult.’ Perhaps more stunning, 40% of the surveyed reported that they already suspected or had actually seen a colleague commit fraud within their organization. Encouragingly however, only 10% of those surveyed felt that it was outside of their organization’s tools to actually detect and stop staff from committing fraud. Managing Director of COA Solutions, Mark Thompson, stated the results from the survey show that organizations do not have the proper fraud prevention and detection solutions in place which leaves their businesses open to fraud from within. Given that the UK Bribery Act holds companies liable if they are unable to stop bribery, Thompson commented that this should be a large worry. Related posts: Where’s the trust between SMEs and banks A recent survey by the Federation of Small Businesses (FBS)... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. China now worlds second biggest economy Alan — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:37:01 +0000 China became the second largest economy during last quarter finally overtaking Japan putting an end to the nation’s rise over the last three decades as they fought to overcome the isolation of Communism and become a superpower. Japan’s GDP for the second quarter of 2010 came up to $1.288 trillion which China toppled with a GDP of $1.337 trillion. However, overall Japan is still in the lead for the first half of the year. China was the leader as the world began to come out of the global recession with a strong economy that became over 90% better when Deng Xiapoing finally dropped the Communist policies and turned to free market reform during 1978. By 2027, Goldman Sachs Group Inc economist Jim O’Neill predicts that China will take over the United States as the largest economy in the world. Senior fellow at Brookings Institution, Eswar Prasad, stated that China passing Japan shows that they are continuing to hold onto their role in the global economy which was aided by the economy’s resilience during the economic crisis. The Shanghai stock index reflected the strong GDP rising 2.1% before it closed at 3pm which is its largest climb of the month so far. China is the lead in other places as well taking over the US during 2009 as the largest automobile market and beating Germany out as the biggest exporter. China is also the top buyer of copper and iron in the world and is known as the second largest crude oil importer around the world. China did show a low industrial output in July but it is not expected to last. Related posts: Sorrell cautious about upturn If you want to be soothed and reassured about the... Business interest rates hold at 5% The monetary policy committee of the Bank of England voted... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. Philips team up with Richard Florida to launch their Livable Cities initiative admin — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 15:44:27 +0000 Richard Florida who is best known for his forward thinking on many aspects of urban regeneration, he is also written many well-respected books on many aspects of living in cities, such as his bestselling recent book Who’s Your City? Now he has teamed up with the Philips Company in order to offer three grants to people who come up with creative ideas aimed at improving our great metropolitan areas. This new venture is called the Philips Livable Cities Award, and will consist of a total grant of €125,000, which will be divided between the three most interesting concepts aimed at improving the liveability of our cities. Professor Florida and Philips are looking for people who have new concepts that will translate into achievable ideas for improving the health and well-being of people living in cities. He believes that the more variation we can bring to our cities the more enjoyable and pleasant they will become for their inhabitants. But he also realises that the ordinary people who actually live in the cities may have many ideas that will improve the day-to-day living off city-dwellers, perhaps with simple and easily achievable small changes that may impact many tens of thousands of lives, this is why he, and Philips, want to hear your ideas. Click here for more information about your participation in this exciting new concept. No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. BAA strike looming Alan — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 12:54:18 +0000 The Unite Union will announce soon if BAA staff will strike this week. If the strike proceeds as planned, 300,000 passengers that pass through the six BAA airports in the UK will be affected. British Airways flies out of Glasgow, Heathrow, Aberdeen, Stansted, Southampton, and Edinburgh. BAA has confirmed that if the strikes do occur than each of these airports will be closed because without security staff, fire-fighters, or engineers the airports are not able to operate. This means that approximately 2,500 flights per day of the strike will be affected. British Airways is attempting to head off the strikes by offering members a one percent increase in pay and another .5% in sickness agreements. However, the Unite Union claims that this is not enough given that there has been a pay freeze in place since 2009. In addition, there is argument over a bonus of £450 that BAA did not pay out to 3% during 2009. According to the union, BAA staff members should be given a financial pat on the back given the performance targets were narrowly missed over last year. A summer bonus is also being sought after which BAA stated will not happen which is valued at £700. The strike is scheduled to happen on August 19^th if the 6,185 staff members vote to proceed in a ballot that went out today. There is a rumour however that the strike may be moved to take place over the August Bank Holiday on August 28^th for a bigger impact. Related posts: BA strikes will affect World Cup travellers British Airways passengers will have to deal with 15 days... BA manages to head above water in difficult year Despite major setbacks in the form of cabin crew... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. Barclays posts huge profit Alan — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 14:49:42 +0000 One of the major banks Barclays, has just reported that they showed a profit of £3.95 billion in the first six months of 2010, a rise of about 44%. Both of the large rival banks, Lloyds and HSBC, also reported significant profits. The profits shown are chiefly the result of a drop in bad debts for all of those banks. Barclays Bank realized a large majority of their gains from their Barclays Capital arm, which is the investment branch of the organization. The profits exceeded expectations, as analysts had predicted about £3.4 in profit for that period, but shares in the bank fell by about 3% as the numbers indicated a slowdown in BarCap activities. John Varley, chief executive of Barclays, said that the bank was approving more loans in 2010 than previously, with an approval rate of 85% as opposed to 80% in 2009. In response to criticism about the bank’s overall lending rate, he said that there have been fewer applications for consideration. Spain is still a problem for the bank, with a large amount of bad debts still on the books. There was a £433 million increase in losses on corporate loans in that country, partly due to the falling value of real estate. However, even with this loss, Barclays’ overall bad debt ratio fell to £3.0008 billion, a drop of about 32%. The bank expects bad debt losses to continue dropping during the year, but analysts say the forecast is uncertain. Related posts: BoE lets interest rates settle The Bank of England’s decision to leave interest rates at... Is the cash finally starting to flow During the first quarter of 2010 credit availability for businesses... Marks & Spencer staff £81m cash handout Marks & Spencer staff are expected to receive an overall... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. IT job market may be looking up Alan — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 02:55:16 +0000 There is new evidence that the IT job market recovery seen during the 1st quarter and in the financial sector has continued to grow stronger during the 2nd quarter. The news comes from the hiring index of McGregor Boyall the IT specialist recruiter. The hiring index tracks the amount of vacancies across 16 different organizations in the financial market and in the last report saw an increase in job opportunities during January and February of 2010. Near the end of June, a jump was made by about 255% in vacancy numbers compared to what was reported at the start of the year. Although the statistics were not as dramatic, the contract market also saw job opportunities increase by about 75% when the same time periods were compared suggesting that the budget for IT positions was increasing. Additionally, the report also revealed that more organizations are hiring on a permanent basis instead of on an ongoing basis which was the exact opposite in 2009. Boyall stated that the increase in permanent hiring shows that there is a new found market confidence among many companies in the financial sector. The top jobs in demand are still the same however, with Developers making up a great deal of the vacancies followed by Business Analysts, Risk, Derivatives, and Equities. Despite the positive results, Boyall did offer a small word of caution stating that while it seems as if a steady recovery is on the way, there is still some need for hesitation. Related posts: SME’s still at risk According to this week’s report from the insolvency firm Begbies... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. BA manages to head above water in difficult year Alan — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 19:28:06 +0000 Despite major setbacks in the form of cabin crew strikes and a volcanic ash cloud, British Airways is soldiering along, and the latest report is that the company expects to break even before tax over the whole year. Willie Walsh, BA’s chief executive, told interviewers that higher yields and cost cutting have improved the company’s overall revenue, and that they will continue to lower costs and implement structural changes across the board in the coming months. Due to the eruption of the volcano Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland, BA was forced to cancel many of its European flights for about seven days in April, at a cost to the airline of about £108 million, including compensation to stranded passengers. However, BA and other airlines protested that the government-enforced closures were an overreaction, and hope to reclaim some of those costs. The dispute over pay and staffing levels involving 12,000 BA cabin crew members had been going on for 18 months when it devolved into strikes and walkouts in March. The loss in revenue over the 22-day strike bumped the airline’s total losses for the quarter to about C250 million, creating a net loss for the period of about £16 million more than the same period last year. No final agreement has been reached in the negotiations between CEO Walsh and the Unite union that represents British Airways flight attendants, but no more walkouts are expected for at least a month, and if they do occur, the airline will continue to operate a “significant number” of flights with new hire employees. Related posts: BA strikes will affect World Cup travellers British Airways passengers will have to deal with 15 days... BAA strike looming The Unite Union will announce soon if BAA staff will... Digital sales of music higher than CDs The British music industry got some great news yesterday when... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. Sim Cards for Business admin — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 14:33:20 +0000 Although most people are used to their mobile phone supporting the use of a sim card in order to store all of their personal information as well as their account details in order for a mobile to be activated, the truth is that in the future the mobile market is headed for dual sim phones support. In a nutshell this essentially means the support of two sim cards within one mobile phone, which is something that businessmen have been taking advantage of for the last year or so. Sim cards for business that travel extensively are actually the perfect solution to paying international roaming charges. The beauty of dual sim cards is that business people that are deeply involved in commercial society allow two sim cards, or in some mobile phones even three sim cards, to be inserted into one mobile phone so that you can switch sim cards as needed depending on location. Thus, businessmen can travel to foreign lands and use free sim cards from that country in order to make phone calls so that they can save on mobile phone costs and avoid roaming charges that can quickly build up when calling in another country. Since both sim cards can be used at the same time, you can switch between the two as needed, and if you only want to use one line at a time you can choose to set it on line to just one sim card, which is perfect while on business and while at home when an alternative card may not be needed so frequently. Outside of simply providing for dual sim card standby, there are four modes that can be supported on certain dual mode mobiles including sim1, sim2, dual sims, and flight mode all of which are useful sim cards for businessmen. Businessmen have long been dealing with the aftermath of expensive phone calls while abroad and while chasing after clients that are located in another geographical region. However, with sim cards that can be used dually to support low cost international phone calls outrageous mobile phone bills are now a thing of the past for avid travellers. Even those on holiday in a foreign country can make use of the technology to call home to the UK at a reduced cost, which many people are already taking advantage of including many avid business and corporate travellers. Related posts: iPhone deals – where to locate them With the release of the iPhone 4, everyone is out... SMEs moving to VoIP over long distance travel Most companies have a real in challenge keeping their costs... How They Blew It – New Book about catastrophic business failures How They Blew It is a series of eye-popping tales... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.