A History of British Actuarial Thought

30 June 2017Book Reviewsbook reviews, derivatives, economics, life insurance, pensionsNick Dunbar

by Craig Turnbull Palgrave Macmillan 2016 The reputation of actuaries in the UK has declined precipitously in the last three decades. Once they were among the most powerful decision makers in Britain’s financial sector, albeit semi-invisible. Today their role has been sharply curtailed by regulation and market trends, while their profession struggles to articulate its…

Seven things you didn’t know about the Goldman-Greece swap

29 July 2016Articlesderivatives, Goldman Sachs, GreeceNick Dunbar

15 years after it was signed, the Goldman-Greece swap continues to be a reputational problem for the bank. A longer feature that reviews a decade’s worth of unreported material on the story.

Unravelling LOBOs

8 July 2015Municipal Financebanking, derivatives, LOBOs, local government, regulationNick Dunbar

A few weeks ago, I was with Channel 4 Dispatches reporter Antony Barnett speaking to Sheffield Labour MP Clive Betts. We were on a park bench in some gardens next to the Houses of Parliament and we briefed Betts about our findings on Lender Option Borrower Option (LOBO) loans to UK councils – findings that were seen by a Channel 4 audience of over 1 million last Monday.

Lost Lobos

24 October 2014Municipal Financederivatives, Kent council, LOBOs, municipal finance, public policyNick Dunbar

For as long as most people can remember, UK municipal finance has been safe and boring. In the wild days of the 1980s, Hammersmith & Fulham council almost went bust speculating in derivatives, and was saved by a landmark House of Lords ruling. Since then, UK council borrowing has been tightly constrained by central government while derivative use has been banned.