More prudent than the Pru

21 May 2010ArticlesABN Amro, FSA, insurance, The PrudentialNick Dunbar

10 May 2010 It seems unfair to compare Prudential to the casualties of the recent banking crisis. The UK-based insurance group had a good credit crunch. It weathered the crisis well and emerged in a stronger position than its competitors, some of whom, like AIG, ended up as wards of the state. All the same,…

Liquidity as myth

12 February 2009ArticlesCitigroup, Euro MTS, FSA, liquidity, Risk FinanceNick Dunbar

Risky Finance 21 March 2005 Proteus was a Greek mythological sea-god who was so slippery he could change into any shape he chose. There is no more protean word in finance than liquidity. For some, the word denotes the excess of cash currently chasing meagre market returns, For others, the word has a Keynesian meaning:…

The mystique of structured products

12 February 2009Articles, Comment, Risky FinanceFSA, Greece, JP Morgan, pension funds, Risky FinanceNick Dunbar

Risky Finance 17 May 2007 The session of the Greek parliament on 3rd May was an especially stormy one. A few days earlier, the minister for employment had been forced to resign, and the socialist opposition smelled blood. Why, clamoured the socialist MPs, had the finance ministry hired JP Morgan to package loans linked to…

AIG, Dinallo and the Devil’s derivatives

12 February 2009ArticlesAIG, derivatives, Eliot Spitzer, Eric Dinallo, FSA, Martin SullivanNick Dunbar

29 October 2008 Risky finance:Â On January 18, 2008, the great and good from finance and politics mingled in an auditorium at New York University. There was New York's then governor Eliot Spitzer, along with his state senate and assembly supporters. The finance side included the leaders of New York's biggest financial institutions, led by…