Kirja-arvio: Maailman taloushistoria: Esiteollinen aika (Johan Söderberg)
Vastapaino on julkaissut muutaman vuoden kuluessa kaksi erittäin mielenkiintoista taloushistorian perusteosta. Vuonna 2013 Vastapainolta ilmestyi Lundin yliopiston taloushistorian professorin Lennart Schönin (1946-2016) 1)Waldenström, D. (2016). “Lennart Schön (1946-2016)“. Ekonomistas, 7.1.2016; Bengstsson, T., Gunnarsson, C., Ljungberg, J. & Nilsson, A. (2016). “Lennart Schön“. Sydsvenskan, 9.2.2016paljon kiitosta saanut Maailman taloushistoria – Teollinen aika. 2)Nissilä, R. (2014). “Neljän I:n selitys uuden ajan talouskasvulle“. Agricolan kirja-arvostelut, 6.1.2014; Wahlstedt, P. (2013). “Näin talouden voittajista tulee häviäjiä“. Talouselämä, 7.9.2013; Ojala, J. (2015). “Maailman taloushistoriaa pohjoismaisesta näkökulmasta“. Historiallinen aikakauskirja 113(1), s. 97-99. Schönin mainio teos löysi nopeasti tiensä myös suomalaisten yliopistojen pääsykoe- ja kurssikirjallisuuteen. 3)Schöniltä on lisäksi ilmestynyt vuonna 2000 erinomainen Ruotsin taloushistoriaa syväluotaava En modern svensk ekonomisk historia: tillväxt och omvandling under två sekel; ks. Ögren, A. (2000). “Lennart Schön: En modern svensk ekonomisk historia. Tillväxt och omvandling under två sekel“. Ekonomisk Debatt 2(8), s. 795-798; Herlitz, L. (2002). “Analytisk historia om tillväxt – reflektioner kring Lennart Schöns En modern svensk ekonomisk…
How valuable is insurers’ data really? More than you can imagine
In God we trust, all others must bring data. – W. Edwards Deming Everyone is talking about data all the time. “Data is the new oil,” is one of the most famous clichés among data-oriented people who don’t actually understand data science. 1)Listen to this podcast to understand the point. This data talk is a form of mass illusion as collecting data is very different from actually deriving meaningful and valuable insights from the data available. Many people have emphasized the importance of data for the future of insurance business, and there probably is n. It also looks like that insurance companies and their senior executives are constantly talking about business intelligence (big) data, data analytics, data mining, and data science. 2)Sure, consultants are talking about this a lot too. Every insurer recognized the importance of data management and data analytics. According to SMA’s research, over 90% of insurers have…
Nordnet launches Robosave: Where is the Nordic digital wealth management heading next?
On last Thursday, one of the largest Pan-Nordic online banks, mutual fund distributors, and stock brokers Nordnet Bank AB unveiled its new robo-advisory service for its Swedish clients. The new independent robo-advising service is called Robosave, and this move signifies a new strategic direction in Nordnet’s overall story. Nordnet has a long history, alongside its main Swedish-only competitor Avanza, of continuously launching new innovative financial services. In the past, Nordnet’s value proposition, as has been noted by Pekka Puustinen in his great book FinancialServiceLogic: In the Revolution of Exchange in Banking and Insurance, has revolved mainly around the promise of functional value (and associated benefits). Nordnet has focused primarily, but not exclusively, on streamlining internal operations, extending the benefits of its various services beyond the plain vanilla retail brokerage (e.g. trade capture, clearing & settlement, and reporting) – all that are essential hallmarks of a value proposition constructed around the promise…
Useful GDPR resources & assets which you should check out
A lot has been written about the GDPR that will apply from 25 May 2018 onwards. There is a multitude of good sources to make sense of the GDPR, and how this new data protection regulation will change the way organizations collect and process personal data within their organization. During my own study of the GDPR and its operational impacts, I have come across a lot of very useful articles, blog posts, and webinars dealing with the various aspect of the regulation. Most of these resources are free-of-charge and some of them will require you to submit some personal details in order to gain the access. Some of the more extensive one stop GDPR asset libraries are partly open for anyone to explore. 1)See for example IAPP’s library and 2twenty4 Consulting’s GDPRwiki. Here I’ve collected some of the helpful stuff I’ve found during my exploration, feel free to check these…
GDPR accountability & compliance: Don’t let the falling bricks hit you!
As I explained at length in my earlier article on the GDPR, businesses, organizations, institutions and other entities throughout the world are facing a huge challenge to become compliant with the new reformed European data protection legislation. The GDPR comes into effect throughout the world on 25 May 2018, and its profound implications are not limited to the geographical area of the EU alone. What needs to be acknowledged is that the EU data protection rules will affect almost everyone as the GDPR takes data security and privacy to an entirely new level. Most important things to know are displayed in Figure 1. As I highlighted in my earlier post on the topic, GDPR is not just a compliance IT project with some new organizational and technological aspects. The GDPR, as was emphasized by many experts on the subject, extends well beyond the geographical boundaries of the EU and its jurisdiction…
Why I wasn’t so surprised that Deposit Solutions acquired Savedo?
Allowing access to rich data sets through APIs will create a whole generation of financial service solutions. What will become very interesting is seeing how other industries as well as emerging Fintechs and start-ups might begin to use this data to augment services, or create new ones. – Kent MacKenzie, Director (Deloitte, 1.6.2017) It was confirmed on 15 August 2017 that German-based open banking and savingstech start-up Deposit Solutions (established in 2011), backed by Peter Thiel and various other well-known venture capitalists, has acquired its German-based rival Savedo. Deal terms were not disclosed. 1)Lepak, S. (2016). “Why terms of acquisitions are not disclosed?”. CoFoundersLab Discussions, 20.9.2016. As noted in the official press release by Deposit Solutions, With the acquisition of SAVEDO, Deposit Solutions is further expanding its B2C capabilities, adding more than 18,000 registered clients, 13 partner banks and two new regions – Austria and the Netherlands – to its existing…
GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) will hit you like a ton of bricks
The GDPR Doomsday ClockCountdown That’s a pretty neat clock, isn’t it? Scary? You bet! The GDPR clock has been ticking for a long time now and time will run out soon. Over the past two years, a lot has been written and said about the reform of EU data protection rules, namely the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679). The EU GDPR, coming into full force on May 25, 2018, is designed to radically harmonize data privacy laws across Europe, enhance data protection of all EU residents and provide more systematized and consolidated data privacy framework to guide how personal data is used by businesses, organizations and governments across the Europe and around the globe for that matter. 1)As stated in the the official gazette of the EU in regards to the applicability GDPR, “The principles of, and rules on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of their personal data…
Book Review: FinTech Innovation by Paolo Sironi
There is no lack of differing opinions on the future of wealth management as everyone wants to be heard. We know for sure that the future of wealth management industry is most definitely shaped by the influx of new technologies, significant global regulatory turbulence, and various changes in the customer behavior. So what else is new? We have recently witnessed how new players have entered – with great success – to areas of the financial services industry that were considered off-bounds for innovative new entrants, and even the mainstream C-suite is constantly talking about going all digital. 1)Financial Times (2016). Barclays UK sees digital technology as crucial to its future. [Accessed 3 Aug 2017] It’s no wonder that the wealth management industry is very keen to understand how the complex equation of growth versus profitability is supposed to work in the era of growing revenue and expense pressures combined with…
Lisää indeksiantibiootteja, kiitos!
Kuvittele sellainen bisnes, jossa muut ihmiset antavat sinulle rahansa hoidettavaksesi ja maksavat tästä sievoisesti. Vielä parempaa on se, että palkkiosi nousevat vuosi vuodelta, vaikka olisit auttamattoman huono työssäsi. Kuulostaa täydelliseltä. [- -] Tätä bisnestä kutsutaan rahastonhoidoksi. – The Economist (28.2.2008) Keskustelua passiivisen ja aktiivisen sijoittamisen välillä on käyty jo vuosikymmeniä, mutta passiivisesta sijoittamisesta on ryhdytty laajamittaisemmin keskustelemaan vasta 2000-luvun alusta alkaen. Erilaisten indeksituotteiden jatkuvasti laajenevat valikoima, alhaiset kulut, verotehokkuus ja parempi riski-tuottosuhde ovat osoittautuneet valtaosiltaan paikkansapitäväksi mainospuheeksi. Passiivisen sijoittamisen kasvavalle suosiolle on monia syitä ja Yhdysvalloissa on Bloombergin mukaan nykyään enemmän markkinaindeksejä kuin pörssiosakkeita. Passiivinen (indeksi)sijoittaminen voi käytännössä saada monenlaisia muotoja, mutta tyypillisimmin sillä tarkoitetaan sijoitusstrategiaa, jossa sijoittaja “luottaa perinteiseen ‘osta ja unohda’ -tyyppiseen sijoitustyyliin … [jossa] osakepoimintaa ei harrasteta ja markkinoiden hintaliikkeitä ei ajoiteta.” (Oksaharju 2013, 52-53.). Morningstarin tutkimusjohtaja John Rekenthalerin mukaan aktiivisten rahastojen liiketoiminta on pohjimmiltaan tarinankerrontaa, jossa vastuu on kuulijalla. Rekenthalerin mukaan aktiiviset sijoitusrahastot kertovat pintapuolisesti lupaavilta vaikuttavia tarinoita, mutta nämä…
Chatbots, static FAQs and automating low-value requests
I have discussed chatbots at length in my earlier posts (see Chatbots are coming your way: Start moving now!, Chatbots for wealth management, trade execution, and portfolio management? Yes, please!, Why (chat)bots are so exciting?, and Chatbots: The future of customer service?). There is no lack of pretty good commentary and viewpoints when it comes to chatbots, and various chatbot platforms have spawned in Europe, US, and Asia-Pacific. As I have argued in my earlier article around a week ago, Facebook has played a prominent role in the emergence of chatbots. There have been some news that Facebook has recently decided to scale down their initial plans in regards to chatbots as chatbots are not living up to initial expectations. Nonetheless, it has been remarkable that tens of thousands of chatbots have been created on the top of Messenger, and Facebook has allowed aspiring chatbot designers to experiment with a variety of…