Financial Indo

For many years, independent financial advisors in the UK have operated on a sales-driven commission model. This has meant that instead of being paid directly by those who came to them for impartial financial advice, they received a commission from the providers of the financial products as a marketing cost, with the advice function being a secondary consequence of the transaction.

While this offered short-term benefits for the cash-strapped consumer looking for financial advice, it brought a host of problems. The most obvious was that financial advisors were incentivised to recommend products that paid them attractive commission not necessarily those that were right for their clients.

This problem reached its peak with the pensions mis-selling scandal, which saw thousands of people move out of occupational pensions schemes when they would have been better advised to stay put. Although it first came to light many years ago, pensions mis-selling was still a problem as recently as 2008, when unscrupulous financial advisors were found to be encouraging investors to switch their pensions at a total cost of 43m per year.

As things stand, advisors can take commission when they sell products such as pensions or unit trusts, as well as a trail or recurring commission for every year the consumer holds the product. According to the FSA, these commissions amounted to an average of 5.6% of the sum invested. So while financial advice might be free at the point of sale, it certainly does have an impact on the performance of an investment and, more importantly, it is clear that the advice given to the consumer can never be truly impartial.

The Islamic Finance Council (IFC) UK and Scottish law firm Tods Murray are leading the initiative. Islamic and ethical finance are closely related and the sector is growing rapidly. According to an industry expert, Islamic finance will be worth $2 trillion (1.2 trillion) globally by the end of this year.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, Graham Burnside, chairman and head of banking at Tods Murray and IFC board member, said, We have seen ethical finance debate gain real momentum in the last 12 months.
We know that the financial services industry is fully behind the proposal and there is no doubt that Scotland is now well placed to develop the worlds first centre for the development and promotion of ethical finance, which could in turn stimulate the development of innovative financial products.
Last year, figures released by the IFC found that more than 50% of Scots want to see some of their money invested using green or ethical criteria. This signalled the opportunity for the creation of an ethical finance hub.
Swinney commented, Providers of ethical finance have the potential to position themselves as a viable alternative to mainstream institutions within the financial services sector in Scotland which will inevitably benefit consumers and the industry itself as increased competition drives standards and promotes innovation.
According to the organisations, Scotland could also see investment of over 100m in public projects from Islamic capital markets as a result of new powers to issue bonds. From 2015 the Scottish government will have the additional power to issue investment bonds.
Burnside said, This additional source of borrowing paves the way for Scotland to establish a suitably rated sukuk bond which, according to the Islamic Finance Council, could comfortably leverage well in excess of 100m from Islamic capital markets.
The use of these powers could offer a way forward for large scale infrastructure and renewable projects, which is an area of real interest to Gulf investors and one which is generally acknowledged is in search of funding.
The firm added that such a project would bring together key players from government, financial services, academia and the third sector to facilitate both commercial investment and thought leadership.

Despite chilly global credit markets, the Middle Eastern wealth management arena is a recruitment hotspot. Firms are busily hiring senior executives to spearhead new wealth management teams. For example, Merrill Lynch recently appointed Mazin Al-Shakarchi as a financial advisor covering Qatar from the Bahrain office. HSBC Bank Middle East has appointed Walid Boustany to the role of executive director, strategic investments, Middle East & North Africa. He will be responsible for HSBC’s strategic planning across the region. Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank, has appointed Fadi Abuali as co-head of its Middle East private wealth management business, alongside current head Farid Pasha.

And there is more: the Central Bank of Bahrain has approved Douglas Hansen-Luke as Robeco’s new chief executive for the Middle East. Mr Hansen-Luke formerly worked in senior positions for ABN Amro Asset Management in Asia, Europe and Saudi Arabia. Bahrain-based Ithmaar Bank has appointed Shaikh Salman bin Ahmad Al Khalifa as managing director, group business development.

The rash of appointments seen in recent years will continue, barring an unlikely collapse in demand for wealth management, Professor Amin Rajan, chief executive of Create-Research, a UK consultancy on the investment management industry, told WealthBriefing.

Wealth managers are going into the Middle East in a big way, said Professor Rajan. This is a high-margin business to be in as banks get fees right along the value chain, he said. But although the region is lucrative, making money is not easy. Local investors typically punish poor investment performance quickly – often far faster than is the case with European or US clients, said Professor Rajan.

It seems that the investment banking industry has narrowly escaped Armaggedon and the survivors are waiving the bonus flags again. Intern classes are getting bigger and Business Week reported that Goldman Sachs has reclaimed the top spot as the most popular employer among elite MBA students again. If you are a career switcher and one among many MBA applicants dreaming of joining Goldman Sachs or another bulge bracket investment bank for the summer internship, this article is for you. Below we provide an overview of an investment banking interview and explain why its important to prepare in advance. This is especially true if you are a career switcher.

There are several types of questions which you are likely to be asked in your interview. They include career questions, educational questions, competency questions, fit questions, technical questions and industry questions.

While its difficult to predict which questions exactly you will be asked, there are four questions which will appear in any investment banking interview:
– The WMTYR (Walk me through your resume)
– The 3 Why’s (Why investment banking? Why our bank? Why (should we hire) you?

The answer to the first and the second questions may be quite similar to those you provided in your MBA admission interviews. Answer to the third question is a little bit more complicated and will require specific preparation.

Have you ever stopped to really think about what your beliefs are around money? Did you know that many of our money beliefs were shaped during our childhood? Some of those beliefs were planted unintentionally by our parents or other influential people in our lives. Others rise out of our own personal experiences, especially past negative experiences. For some it can be a fear of writing checks because in the past they have bounced so many. For others, it can be a fear of success. Some beliefs serve us well and are helpful, while others hold us back.

Negative money beliefs limit us and hold us back because they block our ability to take in information that is in conflict with them. They keep us from seeing how to make meaningful changes. As long as we are being held back by negative money beliefs that don’t serve us, we go through life blindly following those negative beliefs, without conscious thought or the realization that there are other choices available to us. These negative beliefs and the negative energy that they create in our lives lead to self-sabotage.

The key is to raise your awareness of your beliefs around money. If you continue to let negative beliefs define your relationship with money, you will always feel like you are fighting with yourself.

Here are some of the most common negative money beliefs: