1 The quiet financial services revolution begins
(Mohamed El-Erian in The Guardian) Steadily and indisputably, the financial
services industry – with which we all interact, whether as borrowers, savers,
investors, or regulators – has embarked on a multiyear transformation. This
process, slow at first, has been driven by the combined impact of two sets of
durable forces.
On one hand, top-down factors – regulatory change,
unusual pricing, and what US economist Nouriel Roubini has cleverly termed the
“liquidity paradox” – are at work. Then there are disruptive influences that
percolate up from below: changing customer preferences and, even more
important, outside visionaries seeking to transform and modernise the industry.
As a result, established institutions – particularly
the large banks – will be inclined to do fewer things for fewer people, despite
being flush with liquidity provided by central banks (the liquidity paradox). The
impact on the financial services industry of top-down factors will gradually
amplify the importance of the bottom-up forces. Over time, this second set of
factors will fuel more direct and efficient provision of services to a broader
set of consumers, contributing to a reconfiguration of the industry as a whole.
For starters, customer expectations will evolve as
the millennial generation increasingly accounts for a larger portion of
earning, spending, borrowing, saving and investing. With many of these newer
clients favouring “self-directed” lives, providers of financial services will
be pressed to switch from a product-push mindset to offering more holistic
solutions that allow for greater individual customisation.
Airbnb and Uber have demonstrated that disruption
from another industry is particularly powerful, because it involves enabling
efficiency-enhancing structural changes that draw on core competencies and
strategies that the incumbent firms lack. The end result will be an industry
that serves people via a larger menu of customisable solutions.
And, while emerging firms will offer better
services, they will not find it easy to overcome immediately and decisively the
institutional and regulatory inertia that anchors traditional firms’ market
position. As a result, a proliferation of financial providers is likely, with
particularly bright prospects for institutional partnerships that combine the
more agile existing platforms with exciting new content and approaches.
2 Hackers hit US military data (BBC) Hackers with
suspected links to China appear to have accessed sensitive data on US
intelligence and military personnel, American officials say. Details of a major
hack emerged last week, but officials have now given details of a potential
second breach. It is feared that the attack could leave US security personnel
or their families open to blackmail.
The agency involved, the Office of Personnel Management
(OPM), is yet to comment on the reports. Officials believe the attackers have
targeted the forms submitted by intelligence and military personnel for
security clearances. The document includes personal information - everything
from eye colour, to financial history, to past substance abuse, as well as
contact details for the individual's friends and relatives.
It is also believed the breach of personal data of
US government workers announced last week may be far larger than previously
reported. Initial estimates put the number of people potentially affected at
four million, but officials close to the investigation said that as many as 14
million might be involved.
3 ‘I wrote this column – Despite being a woman’
(Shada Islam in Dawn) Social media in India and the world over has had a field
day over Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s sexist praise of his Bangladeshi
counterpart, Sheikh Hasina of being tough on terror “despite being a woman”. Imagine:
the leader of the world’s largest democracy — and one which had a powerful
female prime minister — making such an old-fashioned, disparaging remark about
women. Indian men are still stuck in a time warp.
Really? Once the laughter stops, let’s take a sober
look at the sad reality of women’s role, status and influence in the 21st
century. And let’s also recognise that there is no dearth of men — and women —
who still believe that women should be neither seen, nor heard. And that those
of us who do manage to live “normal” lives, sometimes even becoming prime ministers,
parliamentarians, business leaders, judges, doctors, teachers, journalists and
so on… do so “despite being a woman”.
In the same week that Modi got blasted for his
comments, Tim Hunt, an English biochemist who is also a Nobel laureate, told
the World Conference of Science Journalists in Seoul, South Korea, that he
believed scientists should work in gender-segregated labs. “Let me tell you
about my trouble with girls … three things happen when they are in the lab …
You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you and when you criticise
them, they cry,” Hunt intoned. Oh dear.
If only Modi and Hunt were alone in believing women
aren’t really strong and stoic enough to play hard ball. As the two men have
shown, rubbishing women is probably the one sentiment/prejudice that unites
many men, rich or poor, educated or illiterate, living in an industrialised or
a developing country.
Women have achieved much over the years. But there’s
still a long way to go. For all the howls of derision directed at him, Prime
Minister Modi has done his bit to empower women through political appointments
and social policies. After taking office last May, he appointed six women to
his cabinet — the highest number in the history of the country.
He has taken a strong stance against female
feticide, which he called a “terrible crises” since India has a child sex ratio
of 918 girls for every 1000 boys, a recipe for social unrest. It’s great he’s
taken these and other steps — despite being a man.
No comments:
Post a Comment