During the past year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has engaged in an in-depth review of short-term small dollar loans, specifically payday loans extended by non-depository institutions and deposit advance products offered by a small, but growing, number of depository institutions to their deposit account customers. This review began with a field hearing held in Birmingham, Alabama in January 2012. At that event, CFPB Director Richard Cordray noted that "the purpose of the field hearing, and the purpose of all our research and analysis and outreach on these issues, is to help us figure out how to determine the right approach to protect consumers and ensure that they have access to a small loan market that is fair, transparent, and competitive." Director Cordray went on to state that "through forums like this and through our supervision program, we will systematically gather data to get a complete picture of the payday market and its impact on consumers," including how consumers "are affected by long-term use of these products."

The U.S. life and property/casualty (P/C) insurance industries wrote over $1 trillion in total premiums in 2011 and play an important role in ensuring the smooth functioning of the economy. Concerns about the oversight of the insurance industry arose during the 2007-2009 financial crisis, when one of the largest U.S. holding companies that had substantial insurance operations, American International Group, Inc. (AIG), suffered large losses. These losses were driven in large part by activities conducted by a non-insurance affiliate, AIG Financial Products, but also included securities lending activity undertaken by some of its life insurance companies which created liquidity issues for some insurers. The losses threatened to bankrupt the company, and AIG was one of the largest recipients of assistance by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the federal government under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) set up during the crisis. This book examines any effects of the financial crisis on the insurance industry and policyholders, and addresses what is known about how the financial crisis affected the insurance industry and policyholders, and the types of actions that have been taken since the crisis to help prevent or mitigate potential negative effects of future economic downturns on insurance companies and their policyholders.

""Skyrm makes complex financial scenarios accessible to all interested readers in an informative and entertaining manner. We can all learn something from this book." -Thomas Peterffy, Chairman, CEO, and President of Interactive Brokers "Skyrm put together the story of MF Global like no one else could in providing the ultimate autopsy covering destructive financial engineering that's played such a big role in our capital markets." -Lawrence G. McDonald, New York Times best selling author of A Colossal Failure of Common Sense "God is in the details...first come the reporters, then the lawyers. Skyrm's book is the necessary antidote. Only someone who has 'done' it can explain it. Perhaps the best 'counterfactual' rationale for reading The Money Noose: If John Corzine had been able to before, there would likely have been no after." -Stan Jonas, Managing Partner, Axiom Management Partners In 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. MF Global was bankrupt less than a year after the law's passage. THE MONEY NOOSE is a general accounting of the facts that led to MF Global's collapse, as well as the story of the major players involved. It is a chaotic story, one in which individual actions taken in and of themselves are relatively minor. But the sum of those individual actions equal the same end result. How, then, can investors protect themselves from this outcome? The best answer is education. Investors need to be fully aware of what is involved in the investment process, and that includes an understanding of seg funds. It is, after all, their money. This book is designed to tell the story of MF Global, what went wrong and how things came to an abrupt end. In those regards, it's an incredible story. Scott E.D. Skyrm is one of the leading figures in the repo and securities finance markets today, and regularly quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Bloomberg News Service, Reuters, Market News, and Dow Jones. He is highly regarded as a former salesman, trader, trading desk manager, and global business head in fixed-income, securities finance, and securities clearing and settlement. He recently left Newedge, where he was their "Global Head of Repo, Money Markets, and Fixed Income Clearing." He now is writing commentaries on the repo market, the short-end of the Treasury market, Federal Reserve policy and general Wall Street topics. He has worked on Wall Street for over 22 years and has taken billion-dollar risks on the trading floor, managed a multi-billion dollar balance sheet, and consistently ran one of the most profitable trading groups at every firm where he worked. Prior to Newedge, he managed the repo desk at ING Barings, worked summers at Shearson Lehman/American Express and started his full-time career at The Bank of Tokyo.

On March 14, 2012, more than three million people read Greg Smith's bombshell Op-Ed in the New York Times titled "Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs." The column immediately went viral, became a worldwide trending topic on Twitter, and drew passionate responses from former Fed chairman Paul Volcker, legendary General Electric CEO Jack Welch, and New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg. Mostly, though, it hit a nerve among the general public who question the role of Wall Street in society -- and the callous "take-the-money-and-run" mentality that brought the world economy to its knees a few short years ago. Smith now picks up where his Op-Ed left off.
His story begins in the summer of 2000, when an idealistic 21-year-old arrives as an intern at Goldman Sachs and learns about the firm's Business Principle #1: Our clients' interests always come first. This remains Smith's mantra as he rises from intern to analyst to sales trader, with clients controlling assets of more than a trillion dollars.
From the shenanigans of his summer internship during the technology bubble to Las Vegas hot tubs and the excesses of the real estate boom; from the career lifeline he received from an NFL Hall of Famer during the bear market to the day Warren Buffett came to save Goldman Sachs from extinction-Smith will take the reader on his personal journey through the firm, and bring us inside the world's most powerful bank.
Smith describes in page-turning detail how the most storied investment bank on Wall Street went from taking iconic companies like Ford, Sears, and Microsoft public to becoming a "vampire squid" that referred to its clients as "muppets" and paid the government a record half-billion dollars to settle SEC charges. He shows the evolution of Wall Street into an industry riddled with conflicts of interest and a profit-at-all-costs mentality: a perfectly rigged game at the expense of the economy and the society at large.
After conversations with nine Goldman Sachs partners over a twelve-month period proved fruitless, Smith came to believe that the only way the system would ever change was for an insider to finally speak out publicly. He walked away from his career and took matters into his own hands. This is his story.

An inside look at what makes a successful financial services company

Irv Rothman may not have considered a career in the financial services early on, but he ended up in leadership positions at AT&T, Compaq and, for over a decade, Hewlett-Packard. His consistent record of success and insider perspective make him the perfect guide to the art of building and growing a financial services company, and in "Out-Executing the Competition" he shares his remarkable story and years of experience, giving readers a glimpse into his numerous accomplishments and providing takeaways they can apply to their own companies, whatever the industry.

An engaging and lively account of Rothman's career focusing on his work at financial services companies during some of the most economically challenging periods of the past thirty years, the book explores the methods and tactics he used to help his companies not only weather financial uncertainty, but to thrive.Tells the story of financial services company expert Irv Rothman, in his own wordsIncludes invaluable insights into how to build a financial services company that can survive and thrive in even the toughest economic climateHelps readers working at financial services companies and in other industries to construct solid businesses that can outperform their competition

Part biography, part how-to guide, "Out-Executing the Competition" is the ultimate inside look at building a financial services company that's sure to succeed.

Based on in-depth interviews with more than 30 senior, experienced bankers, regulators, consultants, and others deeply involved in the regulatory process, this text provides the real best practice picture of what actually works, what ought to work, what prevents it from working, and what needs to be done about bank regulations.

Financial protection against the cost of illness and inclusion of vulnerable groups - will require better mobilization and use of private means. Private voluntary health insurance already plays an important role in mobilizing additional resources to the health sector and protecting against the catastrophic cost of illness in some countries. This review explores the context under which private voluntary health insurance could contribute to an improvement in the sustainability of the health sector and financial protection in other countries.

Praise for From the Boiler Room to the Living Room

"Only Mitch Anthony could put such context around our job as advisors. Read this book and I promise you will walk away with more 'ah-ha's' than any other one you've read. It will change the way you work with your clients forever. From the Boiler Room to the Living Room is a powerful book."
--Deena B. Katz, CFP(R)Associate Professor, Texas Tech University

"Can transactional brokers become comprehensive financial advisors? Billions of dollars ride on the answer to that question, and Mitch Anthony provides an answer--and a road map. His latest book will be invaluable to financial professionals who want to make a difference in their clients' lives, as well as insure their own professional success."
--Evan CooperSenior Managing Editor, InvestmentNews

"This book is a must-read for financial advisors who understand that puttingthe clients' interests first is also good business. From the Boiler Room to theLiving Room will help to change the financial services industry to the financial planning profession."
--Roy Diliberto, CFP(R)Past president of the Financial Planning Association and author of Financial Planning: The Next Step

"The future belongs to the fee-based, right-brained advisor who brings wisdom and knowledge into holistic conversations with clients who are wrestling withmajor anticipated or unanticipated life transitions. Mitch deftly describes theessence of planning beyond money. What clients value and what they prefer are meaningful discussions surrounding purpose-driven net worth, i.e., solutions that support, sustain, and nourish their three most important assets--their mind, their body, and theirsoul."
--Lewis J. Walker, CFP(R)President, Life Transitions Advisors, LLC

In a city known for its powerful business leaders, Ben Love towers as one of the most influential. Serving as CEO of Texas Commerce Bancshares in the 1980s, during the collapse of the Texas banking industry, Love had an inside view of the debacle. His story, told here in detail for the first time, provides an insightful perspective on the Texas banking industry's evolution after World War II, its decline, and its subsequent recovery. It also offers a glimpse into of the kind of character that creates men of power. Love grew up with his family during the Great Depression. Their farm outside Paris, Texas, taught him hard lessons about opportunity and financial security-lessons that would serve him well in the future. After America's entry into war in 1941, Love flew Eighth Air Force B-17 combat missions over Europe, then settled in Houston in the late 1940s. His entrance into the world of banking began as a member of the board of directors for River Oaks Bank & Trust. He accepted an offer to leave River Oaks to join Texas Commerce Bank (TCB) in 1967. Appointed president of TCB in 1969 and CEO from 1972 to 1989, Love cultivated change from single banks to holding companies, garnering a national reputation for his banking organization. Under his competent management, TCB was the only "Big Five" Texas bank to survive the economic down-turn. One reason for its continued success lies with Love's successful merger in 1987 with the Chemical Bank of New York, now J. P. Morgan Chase. When he retired at the close of the decade, Love turned his formidable energies to full-time civic and humanitarian work. Ben F. Love's inspiring memoir is one of only a few available in the literature on banking andfinance. Not only does it reveal an inside look at the evolution of banking in Texas, but it will also serve as an instructional guide to future business leaders and managers. The final chapters summarizes experiences and lessons learned in eighty years of a successful and productive life.

As economic and regulatory pressures drive financial institutions to seek efficiency gains by improving the quality of their trading processes and systems, firms are devoting increasing amounts of capital to maintaining their competitive edge. Straight-Through Processing (STP), which automates every step in the trading system, is the most effective way for firms to remain competitive. According to the Securities Industry Association, the US securities industry will spend $8 billion to implement STP initiatives, and 99% percent of this investment will be made in systems internal to the firm. Straight-Through Processing for Financial Services: The Complete Guide provides the knowledge and tools required by operations managers and systems architects to develop and implement STP processing systems that streamline business processes to maintain competitiveness in the market.
* Learn the tools and techniques for developing software systems and for streamlining business processes
* Keep up to date and well informed in this highly regulated and ever changing market
* Gain the knowledge and experience for a leading consultant in the field

The Complete Financial Advisor- Creating Exceptional Careers for Financial Advisors! The 7 Steps to Becoming a Complete Financial Advisor in Today's marketplace are the cornerstone to this book. This is a "how to" career book for someone considering a career as a financial advisor, someone having just begun their career as an advisor, or an advisor struggling to build a successful career and become a million dollar producer!
This book can help you become a better advisor today! The book discusses the 3 primary steps in building a million dollar practice-the advisor, the client, and the practice-and the keys to gaining the rewards a career as an advisor can bring. As an advisor you need to be in the right channel for your personality and selling style; when prospecting, you need to know what type of client to look for, where they are, and what attracts them to an advisor, and then you need to build the office/practice environment that the high net worth client expects- "The Concierge Level practice"!
The book also discusses marketing strategies, referral strategies, and professional designations. Get "in the zone," revitalize and reenergize your career, and look forward to getting to work each and every day!
Don't be part of the more than 80% of advisors that fail after 4 years and start being part of the top 20% that succeed! Get the rewards from life that you deserve with a successful career as a Complete Financial Advisor!
Business franchises succeed and go it alone small business fail because of one factor- they have a business plan and they "don't wing it!" This book gives today's advisor a business plan for success! Stop "winging it" and become a Complete FinancialAdvisor today!

Provides a glimpse of the men who made lasting impressions in the world of business and finance.

First published in 1985, this volume examined the development of the United States securities market over the ten years following the 1975 Securities Acts Amendments. Presented by Amihud (entrepreneurial finance, New York U.), Ho (president, Thomas Ho Company), and Schwartz (finance, Baruch College)

Selected as one of the Top 10 Business Books by Booklist

The Last Partnerships is an enormously enjoyable read.--United Press International

The Last Partnerships narrates the rise and fall of the great financial houses--from the Yankee Bankers at the turn of the 19th century, up to Goldman Sachss historic IPO in 1999-- tracing their origins, their successes and failures over the years, and the reasons for their ultimate demise.

In recent years, the delivery of financial services has changed consistent with technological advances that have occurred. On-line banking, on-line trading and brokerage services, and capital markets are available and utilized in varying degrees in the industrialized nations of the world. Beyond the availability of services on-line, E-Finance is redefining the cost and competitive structure of financial services. This convergence of technology and financial services provides opportunities for emerging markets to leapfrog in the development and delivery of financial services. This paper identifies issues arising from the spread of E-Finance including the readiness of telecommunications infrastructure, public policy and regulatory requirements, and financial sector development approaches. It hopes to stimulate dialogue on the role E-Finance can play in supporting the World Bank's overall mission.

Comprehensive Coverage
Completely Up-to-date!

A detailed road map for getting started as an independent financial consultant

Each year, thousands of people from all walks of life leave the security of their nine-to-five jobs to pursue careers as independent financial consultants. For a great many of them, the experience is financially and personally rewarding beyond their expectations. If you, too, are thinking about taking the big leap into becoming a financial consultant, but you aren't sure how to go about it, this book is for you.

How can I be sure that financial consulting is right for my personality? What kinds of training and skills do I need to succeed, and how do I get them? What special licenses or certification are required? How do I find clients and build lasting relationships with them? With the help of first-person accounts from successful financial consultants from across the country, expert Edward J. Stone provides complete answers to these and all your questions concerning:
* Acquiring and honing key skills, including the all-important "people" skills
* Organizing and structuring your business
* Indispensable software tools
* Services you can offer clients and why you should specialize
* Marketing your services, targeting clients, and building a solid core clientele
* Why you should become certified and how to go about it
* Profiling clients and drawing up formal financial plans
* Dealing with state and federal regulations
* Contracts and key legal considerations
* Surviving in a down market

A classic history of banking and trade in the medieval period, combining superb research and analysis with graceful writing.

The Medici Bank was the most powerful banking house of the 15th century. Headquartered in Florence, Italy, it established branches in Rome, Venice, Geneva, Lyons, Bruges, London, and many other cities. The bank served as financial agent of the Church, extended credit to monarchs, and facilitated international trade in Western Europe. By their personal influence and the use of their profits, the owners and administrators of the bank contributed significantly to the development of Florence as the greatest center of the Renaissance.

This study examines the failure of the Franklin National Bank and the international banking crisis of 1974-1975. It discusses the changes in banking regulation and practice which contributed to Franklin's problems and explores how regulators in the U.S. and abroad coped with the threat to the safety and soundness of the international banking system. The study explains how the failure of the Franklin National Bank and the Herstatt Bank forced bank regulators and policy makers to address the new international nature of banking and to work together to address the dramatic changes in international financial markets. Such international cooperation to manage bank crises and to set common standards will help to prevent financial crises in the future. The book also addresses an interesting undercurrent in the Franklin Bank: the involvement of the mysterious Italian financier Michele Sindona.

Financial services regulation tends to be costly and unsympathetic to consumers. This book examines why that is the case and proposes and regulatory regime that would be more efficient and more responsive to consumer interests.

The dramatic story of the last fifty years of the Speyer banking dynasty, a Jewish family of German descent, is surprisingly little known today, yet at the turn of the 20th century, Speyer was the third largest investment banking firm in the United States, behind only Morgan and Kuhn, Loeb. It had branches in London, Frankfurt and New York, and the projects it financed included the Southern Pacific Railroad, the London Underground and the infrastructure of the new Cuban republic. Later, it was the first major banking firm to finance Germany's Weimar Republic, as well as providing League of Nations loans to Hungary, Greece and Bulgaria. Yet, the firm was doomed by the nationalist passions aroused by World War I. Its English partner was denaturalised and exiled; its American partner enjoyed reduced standing because of his connection to Germany; and the Frankfurt branch closed with the coming of the Third Reich, its German partner fleeing into exile. The firm was dissolved in 1939, a surprisingly anticlimactic end to one of the great international banking companies of modern times. George W. Liebmann here tells the story of the firm and the family - shedding new light on the protagonists of a remarkable dynasty, who came undone in the dramatic years of the early 20th century.

This book suggests how good loans can be made to individuals and firms at the 'frontier'. This frontier is not geographic, but market based. On one side are those parts of the legitimate economy that are not usually considered creditworthy by formal financial institutions, and on the other are the generally more prosperous entities that do have access to formal finance. Good loans are loans that are repaid according to the terms agreed on when they were issued. It examines how lending at the frontier can be remunerative to commercial banks, development banks and other development finance agencies that retail credit and assume credit risk. Remunerative lending is important because most lenders, regardless of their ownership and institutional form, tend to avoid activities that are not attractive. Unremunerative lending is transitory, unstable, and not robust in the face of adversity. Credit markets function poorly when lenders are not adequately rewarded. Experience at the frontier clearly indicates that weak financial institutions do not do a good job serving society in general and firms and individuals at the frontier in particular. This book is intended for readers interested in the relationship between finance and development at the firm and household levels and in the use of credit by individuals in low-income countries.

This book demystifies the developments and defines the buzzwords in the wide open space of digitalization and finance, exploring the space of FinTech through the lens of the financial services professional and what they need to know to stay ahead. With chapters focusing on the customer interface, payments, smart contracts, workforce automation, robotics, crypto currencies and beyond, this book aims to be the go-to guide for professionals in financial services and banking on how to better understand the digitalization of their industry. The book provides an outlook of the impact digitalization will have in the daily work of a CFO/CRO and a structural influence to the financial management (including risk management) department of a bank.

William D. Cohan's Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World is a chronicle of the most successful, iconic bank on Wall Street, from the firm's founding in 1869 to the present day. Goldman Sachs are the investment bank all other banks - and most businesses - want to emulate; the firm with the best talent, the best clients, the best strategy. But is their success just down to the gilded magic of the 'Goldman way'? William D. Cohan has gained unprecedented access to Goldman's inner circle - both on and off the record. In an astonishing story of clashing egos, backstabbing, sex scandals, private investigators, court cases and government cabals, he reveals what really lies beneath their gold-plated image. 'The best analysis yet of Goldman's increasingly tangled web of conflicts' Economist 'Startling ... lifts the lid on Goldman's pivotal role in the meltdown' Mail on Sunday 'Cohan portrays a firm that has grown so large and hungry that it's no longer long-term greedy but short-term vicious. And that's the wonder - and horror - of Goldman Sachs' Businessweek 'Cohan's book tells of bitter power struggles and business cock-ups' Guardian 'A definitive account of the most profitable and influential investment bank of the modern era' The New York Times Book Review William D. Cohan was an award-winning investigative journalist before embarking on a seventeen-year career as an investment banker on Wall Street. His first book, The Last Tycoons, about Lazard, won the 2007 Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award and was a New York Times bestseller. His second book, House of Cards, also a bestseller, is an account of the last days of Bear Stearns & Co.