Due to the so called subprime crisis a large number of banks had to make heavy cumulative value adjustments in the third quarter 2007. The ultimate cause for this crisis was credit default related problems with sub-prime loans for house financing (mortgages) in the US. New stresses and strains seem to be occurring for the [...]

As we know from several studies and own observations strategic planning can be a very hard business. In the literature a large number of ideas are available; some of them are very helpful. Others might be appropriate for a specific industry or even a specific organization. Sometimes it can be helpful to look beyond one’s [...]

When you start reading current newspapers it is very likely that you will find several articles and columns concerning the sub prime crisis. Now it seems that each and every editor, journalist, writer in every newspaper or magazine does understand risk management business, rating issues and can explain what happens and which management failures had [...]

well, before I start I have to explain that the term “second” here is equivalent to “another”. To be more specific, it is the bank’s second major strategic move to enter the lower retail banking market. One of German leading financial institutions, the Deutsche Bank, has started its associated company “Norisbank” to enter the German market [...]

I discovered it only today: Yesterday, the same day as Tobias Bayer’s article “For they know not what they do” in Financial Times Deutschland, there was a comment with a similar message in Financial Times: John Kay – “The same old folly starts a new spiral of risk” (available on his website). John also says [...]

Actually, this is not exactly the question I want to answer with this post. It is borrowed from an article in today’s Financial Times Deutschland, which is titled “For they know not what they do”. Author Tobias Bayer looks at the latest bank-failures (or better almost-failures) in Germany and presents some surprisingly simple explanations: At [...]

Today Hypo Real Estate Holding AG (HRE), a specialised German real estate financing institute, and DEPFA BANK plc, Ireland, announced that HRE would take over DEPFA. DEPFA, which has German roots too, is specialised in public sector and infrastructure financing. Both are listed companies with a high free float. Both banks are active in the [...]

Two weeks ago Dagmar discussed some important issues of the real estate business in Germany. Hence I would like to present some interesting data that explain supporting factors for this development. So let’s look at liquidity. Presently we face an amazing level of financial liquidity; we could argue that the world rolls in money. Hence [...]

I made a quick and dirty competitor benchmarking today in the office. This was a spontaneous idea when I worked on the profile of one of my company’s competitors. When doing this I realised how many buzzwords this company used to describe how great it is and why customers should do business with this company [...]

I really like this: Lebanon’s First National Bank offers Loans for Plastic Surgery. With the slogan “Beauty is no longer a luxury….  With FNB’s Plastic Surgery Loan you can cover all your Plastic Surgery operations and Orthodontics” they offer loans from USD 500 to USD 5,000. All you need is a certain minimum salary. I [...]