Author: Julie Duncan

Steve Jobs of Apple dies at 56

Posted on by Julie Duncan

Former chief executive and co-founder of US technology giant Apple, Steve Jobs, has died, aged 56, after suffering from cancer.

A statement released by Apple said: ”Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.”

He was one of the world’s best-known business leaders and introduced the iPod and the iPhone to the world.

Every technology company founder has been inspred by Steve Jobs – Thank you Steve, RIP

 

Liquidity Stress Testing

Posted on by Julie Duncan

Thank you to everyone who attended our Liquidity Stress Testing Webinar, which we run exclusively for ALMIS® users. We had a high attendance highlighting how important the topic is.

To encourage interaction and add extra value, William Webster the Managing Director of Barbican Consulting Limited, joined the meeting as a guest treasury expert where he shared his views on Liquidity Stress Testing. He made several interesting comments which are outlined in our slides.

Attendees provided information on the stress tests they run in advance of the meeting. The slides also contain a summary of user feedback on what liquidity stress assumptions are currently used.

Please feel free to download slides from Liquidity Stress Testing Webinar

This peer comparison proved to be very useful, with one attendee commenting

“Always good to see a comparison of what other institutions do”

Polls revealed that most (77%) split out idiosyncratic and market wide stresses and more than half of attendees run 3 to 5 scenarios.

We hold webinars every month on important industry topics. Our next webinar is on yield curves for interest risk and fair values, and will be held on Tuesday 27th September at 2.30pm.

“quick way of getting a good understanding of a subject”

“very easy way to get a group of ALMIS® users together & discuss various topics”

August Newsletter

Posted on by Julie Duncan

We are pleased to inform you that our latest newsletter is available to download.

Our newsletter gives an overview of what’s new in the marketplace, developments within ALMIS® and upcoming events.

August Newsletter

Kind regards,

Lyndsey Gardner

ALMIS® International

IAS 9 (IAS 39 replacement project) delayed until 2015

Posted on by Julie Duncan

At the IFRS Conference held in Zurich on 5th July 2011, IFRS staff member Sue Lloyd announced their recommendation to the IFRS board to delay IAS 9 adoption until 2015.This is yet to be formally confirmed by the IFRS Board.

A delay to the timetable is bound to be welcome news to banks who are struggling to understand and implement this far reaching accounting standard. However early adopters can still take advantage of improvements in the standard, particularly to hedge accounting – and if you adopt before January 2012 you will not need to retrospectively report under IAS 9 rules.

The next important date to watch is the final general hedge accounting standard in Q3 2011 and exposure draft for macro hedging, due to be published Q4 2011.

Reporting & Managing Basis Risk

Posted on by Julie Duncan

Thank you to everyone who attended our Reporting & Managing Basis Risk Webinar. This proved to be an important topic with 18 firms attending.

The FSA have introduced a new basis risk report. This report is helpful for the regulator as it gives trends and peer comparison.

One of the conclusions from the meeting was that the FSA Basis Risk Report is a rather crude measure and 59% of our delegates use their own custom in-house reports instead, with a further 18% developing in-house reports for basis risk.

Additional basis risk reporting and analysis techniques were discussed and are being deployed by ALMIS® users, including static sensitivity, forward reports and fully dynamic sensitivity.

 

Forward Looking Regulation

Posted on by Julie Duncan

The Bank of England and FSA have announced a new more forward looking approach to Bank regulation.

The joint paper The Bank of England, Prudential Regulation Authority – Our approach to banking supervision sets out the current thinking on how the future Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) will approach the supervision of banks, building societies, credit unions and investment firms.

Hector Sants, FSA chief executive and PRA chief executive designate, said:

“The PRA’s purpose is fundamentally different from that of previous regulatory regimes and will lead to a significantly different model of supervision to that which was in use pre-2007. In designing this new model we have incorporated both the lessons learned from the last financial crisis and those from firm failures of the past.

“The new regulatory model will be based on forward looking judgements and will be underpinned by the fact that the PRA has a single objective to promote the stability of the UK financial system and in consequence will be a very focused organisation. The new supervisory approach will build on the more intensive approach adopted by the FSA since the crisis.”

ALM Good Practices Seminar

Posted on by Julie Duncan

ALMIS® International ALM Good Practices seminar was attended by industry experts, regulators, and representatives from over 40 Banks and Building Societies.

This seminar explored how to make ALCO more effective in small and medium sized banking institutions, and addressed specific areas such as:

  • Interest rate risk in the banking book

  • Making ALM more forward looking

  • FSA perspective

ALMIS® International also released their findings from extensive research into the ALM Good Practices at small and medium sized banks.

Some of the feedback from the seminar was that the range of speakers and particularly the FSA input on theri thinking on this area was particularly beneficial.

Our expert speakers are:

Joe Di Rollo

– Director and Founder, ALMIS® International Limited

William Webster

– Director, Barbican Consulting Limited

Jonathan Pyzer

– Treasury expert, FSA Retail Firms Division

 

 

ALM Good Practices

Posted on by Julie Duncan

ALMIS® International investigates ALM good practices amongst the smaller regulated firms

Following extensive research into ALM practices at smaller firms and the FSA’s Dear CEO letter on ALM Good Practices, ALMIS® International publishes the results of its research. This research was presented at our ALM Good Practices seminar, attended by industry experts, regulators and representatives from over 40 UK banks and building societies.

Download research into ALM Good Practices

Launch of ALMIS® Version 9

Posted on by Julie Duncan

We are pleased to inform you that ALMIS® Version 9 is now available for download from our website.

Our newsletter gives an overview of whats new in version 9.

April Newsletter

Web Meetings

We will also be holding two online meetings this month to demonstrate the functionality of our two new modules. These meetings should last between 30-45 minutes.

FSA Reporting Module

– Thursday 21st April at 11am

Capital Adequacy Module

– Wednesday 27th April at 11am

Please email [email protected] if you would like to attent either of these meetings.

 

Kind regards,

Lyndsey Gardner

ALMIS® International

Making ALM function more effectively

Posted on by Julie Duncan

On the 17th January 2011, the FSA sent a letter to all banking chief executives on what constitutes good practice within ALM. Following the FSA’s recent observations and recommendations, ALMIS® International is carrying out further research to find out the views of small to medium size banks.

These observations and recommendations can help banks improve their ALM effectiveness and some of the key points made by the FSA are outlined below.

Observations & Recommendations made by FSA

1. Structure of ALCO

The FSA recommend that all business heads, the CFO, Group Treasurer, the Chief Risk Officer, the Head of Market Risk, the Head of ALM, Head of Internal Audit and Chief Economist attend ALCO meetings. Along with this, it was observed that the more often the CEO attended meetings, the more effective they were.

2. Forward Looking

There has been much more focus within the sector to monitor emerging risks and base decisions on the future and it was observed by the FSA that ALCO meetings that focused on proactive management, rather than focusing on the past, were more effective.

3. Liquidity & Funding

It was uncovered that ALCO meetings which focused on the maturity profile were not as effective as firms that considered all risks such as changing competitive landscape, and different behavioural assumptions.

4. Interest Rate Risk in the banking Book (IRRBB)

The FSA states that it is good practice to account for varying behavioural assumptions and non interest rate drivers such as competition. They also recommend that banks use a number of different risk measures such as EVE, VaR, NII, Basis Risk and Scenario Stress Testing.

5. Reverse Stress Testing

Another recommendation made by the FSA is for banks to carry out reverse stress testing and report these outcomes as it allows banks to stay within their risk appetite.

 

ALMIS® International will be releasing the results from their research shortly.