The Responsible Bank – ESADE identifies education needs

The team of ESADE Business School in the Citizen Act Competition disclosed the outcomes of their “information responsibility poll” last week. Almost all of the visitors of their site agreed that educating consumers about finance is primarily a responsibility of the finance industry.

Next question now must be:  how are the banks doing it now?

To get an impression they are gathering anecdotes people might have on how banks did or did not educate consumers. So far, they have some interesting examples from India and the Netherlands. It would be interesting to see what examples exist from the rest of the world. Join the discussion in the quest for change here.

BiCE Summit (09.03.2010)

The Cleantech and Environment Club is setting up a registration table today, March 4th, starting at 10:30 outside the cafeteria on the 2nd Floor to sign up participants for next Tuesday, March 9th’s, BiCE event.

Even if your primary interest is Banking or Consulting and not necessarily in Cleantech, this is a perfect opportunity to network with Consultants, Politicians, Investors and Business Angels, Academics, Industry groups and Multinational Companies.

It’s a full day event packed with more than 30 speakers from different companies, plenty of food and drinks, and tons of dedicated interaction time between the audience and speakers.

BiCE has been featured in the Wall Street Journal Europe (March 3rd issue) under the Future Leadership Institute section. For full details or to register online, kindly log on to www.bicesummit.com

Business in Cleantech & Environment Summit 2010

Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Time: 11:00 – 19:45

ESADE FORUM
Av. Pedralbes 60-62
E-08034
Barcelona, Spain

For full details, kindly log on to www.bicesummit.com
Register here
For queries, please contact mbacleanenergyclub@esade.edu

Islamic Banking gaining attention at B-Schools

I wrote this article at the beginning of August 2009 but have never gotten around publishing it for some reason. Now the FT.com however convinced me to publish this article finally. My humble thoughts:

The Financial Crisis has shaken up the perception of the banking and financial systems that we have gotten to know. The finance sector will inevitably undergo drastic changes in the near future. The rumors have it that the remuneration of the investment bankers will change from the purely incentive-based pay to an increased base salary and lower performance-based remuneration scheme to reduce the risk-taking behaviour that that has arguably caused this financial crisis.

At the same time all major universities are competing in finding the way for the future theories. The theories that rely on the notion that investors invest rationally are clearly overhauled and redundant. There are new school of thoughts that try to take more into consideration sociological factors along with the classical theories. However as of today no true realistic models have been developed that can really be applied and intuition remains the key decisive factor for investment decisions.

Another school of thought that gains increasing attention and in fact momentum is the Islamic Financial System. The sharia forbids banks to charge interests on loans and therefore banks will only receive the initial amount of the loan. Theoretically that does not make the banking sector very profitable because in the non-islamic banking sector interest is the main source of revenues. The Islamic banking system records a $1 trillion turnover a year with a growth rate of 15% to 25% for the past 15 years accordingto KMPG (the australian.com.au Aug 8-9,2009). La Trobe University in Australia, the National Australia Bank and the Muslim Community Co-operative Australia have now founded a university course that teaches a combination of both schools, which is an interesting development. Perhaps ESADE should start teaching about it as well in order to be thought leader.

Now the Financial Times has picked up the topic and co-organises the Islamic Financial Intelligence Summit in London on the 5th of November, 2009. You can find out more about the summit here.

‘Top 500 Islamic Financial Institutions Ranking and Research Report’.