ICMA Centre Blog

A good paper on collateral rehypothecation. No need for the spin.

Those interested in the rehypothecation debate should read a paper written by Vincent Maurin of the European University Institute called Re-using the Collateral of Others: A General Equilibrium Model of Rehypothecation (EUI, March 2014). What draws attention is the claim that rehypothecation is unnecessary, that there is a more efficient alternative, and that a ban or restriction on rehypothecation would…

‘You shall have such a caning… as leaves a mark’. Managing agency relationships in the medieval Mediterranean

By Dr Tony K. Moore The modern financial trader is generally pictured as glued to a half-a-dozen computer screens. Six hundred years ago, he would have been sitting with ink-stained fingers before a mass of letters and account books. Most of these early financial records are now lost, but the business archive of one successful…

Meet the Tutor 2014

Last month the ICMA Centre hosted it’s annual ‘Meet the Tutor’ event. The event is a great opportunity for students to get to know their Tutor at an informal setting. This year, students from all programmes were invited to the ICMA Centre to meet faculty members and administrative staff over a light buffet and were…

Asking the unthinkable: do central banks really need to take haircuts when lending?

Risk-averse institutions often limit the amount they are willing to lend against collateral to no more than the market value of that collateral less a haircut. Central banks are no exception. At first glance, the idea of any secured lender taking collateral haircuts seems eminently sensible and, in the case of central banks, characteristically prudent….

Making it happen

A couple of weeks ago I attended a Music & Food festival, and I went to a couple of demonstrations by TV chefs – one a mega-star of the industry, one an-up-&-coming personality with a couple of shows & books on her CV. Both of them told stories about how they developed their culinary skills…

The difference between Good Communication and a Good Vocabulary

Have you seen Guardians of the Galaxy yet? If no then stop reading this and go to the cinema……. Right – the only ones left reading have seen it – excellent – wasn’t it great! Gushing over, there’s a bit early on when Rocket explains to Peter Quill why Groot keeps introducing himself – ‘I…

You’re about to start work in a big corp? What’s it going to be like?

Imagine if you will a large organisation. It’s a veritable business, been around for years and has a good reputation, but has been undermined by some missteps in strategy over the last few years, and now the industry it’s in is undergoing fundamental changes too. To help address these issues some of the previous leaders have…

So, err, like, you know what I mean?

Have you noticed that more and more people seem to be starting sentences with ‘So’? I don’t know where it’s come from, but to my ears it seems to me to be a way for people to try & sound more expert, more certain. The message is ‘I’m not giving you my opinion, I’m telling…

Collective Defined Contribution (CDC) Pension Schemes

By Professor Charles Sutcliffe, ICMA Centre In the recent Queen’s speech, the government announced plans to introduce collective defined contribution (CDC) pension schemes in the UK. These schemes, which are common in the Netherlands, have a mixture of the attributes of defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) schemes. The Dutch have industry-wide CDC…

Quality not quantity

The Association of Graduate Recruiters has just published it’s latest update and once again it shows that its’ members are reporting that many applications that they receive are of insufficient quality. But what does ‘insufficient quality’ actually mean? Well, let’s assume that people are only applying for jobs that they are qualified for (e.g. degree-type, expected grade,…