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Had lunch with a few of my ex-colleagues, some who are still currently working in the banking sector. We starting talking about the state of the financial industry and where it is heading.

It was nothing by bad news about the decline of banks and how it is going to get worse. Expenses are increasing by the day : the compliance team is now a big cottage industry, policing everything that front office sales and trading persons are doing, sometimes to the point of being overly paranoid and ridiculous. Revenues are also decreasing :  strict new rules prevent banks from earning income and capital-intensive policies like Basel 3 are making most trades impractical for banks to participate and execute. A classic widening of JAWS – expenses growing faster than declining profit. When revenue doesn’t come in by Q3, then expenses have to be cut – more blood on the floor, starting from the top…

There is no end in sight as global banks scramble to react to a world that has been turned upside down by zero/negative rates since GFC 2008. Coupled with shrinking liquidity, wide market swings are created – see recent Brexit example. Traders are now unable to make money too, as their risk limits are cut to the bone. Nowadays, everyone is trying to keep their jobs and just aim to earn base pay. Zero is the new bonus benchmark.

 

Are you an optimistic or pessimistic person? Do you see the positive side in everything you do and experience, or are you the type that will always predict the worst case scenario in everything that is happening in your life? Is that job rejection letter a sign that better options could be ahead, or is that cold a prelude to possible cancer development?

I tend to think that I am an optimist, trying to live my life every day as if it is the last day of my life. To look forward to each day, I normally start off the day by visualizing the happiest thing that I will do for the day ahead. I then spend the whole day looking forward to it. It may be as simple as a meal at your favourite shop. We should also make it a point to often smell the roses around us, to appreciate mother nature even more. One action that always work for me – I try to count my blessings every day. It helps me to fully appreciate the things I normally take for granted, like family, friends or even a full stomach.

Pessimism is contagious. It spreads like a virus. Like the world today, bad news everywhere. Slowing economies, terrorist activities, bankruptcies. People go into a funk and the hole seems to get bigger and deeper. Maybe one should stop reading the news sometimes and even actively avoid negative people.

Ultimately, it is up to oneself. It is all in the mind. Do you continue to rot in self-pity, or do you pick yourself up and say “Enough of this crap! I am going out to make myself happy today”. Easier said than done, but the first step is always the hardest. You got to want to do it. As Nike says: “Just do it!”

 

 

I am very disturbed at the recent ISIS terrorist acts over the last one week. Why would you attack your own religion during the most important festival period of the year? It is sad that when you are preparing for the holidays with your family that you cannot even go to the markets because of the fear of sudden death and injury.

It seems that ISIS is getting very desperate. Russia and US are just bombing the hell out of the terrorists with drones and smart bombs, effectively killing the top dogs of ISIS. The problem is that as they replace their senior management, the more violent and crazy ones start to take over. These new leaders will stop at nothing to make their mark in the world,like calling all members globally to attack their own countries on the holiest time of the year. This is just so wrong on all fronts! It is also apparent how desperate ISIS has become as they are choosing mainly Muslim countries to attack because it was able to attract new members there.

It is time now that all Muslims stand up to ISIS and recognise it for what it has become – a deviant group that has moved so far away from Islam that it should be branded as what it should be : “A terrorist organisation bent on destroying mankind.” I hope that the 99.9% of Muslims now would stand up to ISIS and say : “Never again!”

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

What if you could go back in time and get a record of a certain period of your life, way before electronic cards existed and everything was on paper only? Would you be excited to receive a snapshot of your youth many, many years ago?

While preparing for our high school reunion, I chanced upon the Alumni association and they told me an amazing story. A number of years back, one of the cleaners was about to clear an old storeroom in the school when she came upon many boxes that contained the original hardcopies of all the students who had studied in the school. They quickly realised the gold mine they had on their hands. The Alumni office promptly decided to digitized all these old past records of each individual that had graduated from the school.

Here we were today, brainstorming about what door gifts we should give at our upcoming reunion party. Why not give a personalized printed record of each individual who will be attending? When they showed me my record recently, I stared at the photo of a chubby 13 year old with details of my 4 years in the school, plus year end comments from the teachers/principal (“Study harder”, “can do better”  🙂   ) . Looking at my details 34 years later, I can’t help but feel nostalgic about it all, and how all our lives have turned out so differently. The innocence of youth long gone, replaced by each of our individual life experiences.

Hopefully, the old boys would like this unique door gift…

 

 

Is it just me or do I sense that most election results nowadays are trending closer to a 50/50 result all the time? Is it due to the fact that everyone is so wired into the world with information at your fingertips or is it that the political parties are too similar to distinguish?

Since Al Gore and Bush in 2000, we do see more election results which are won by a hairline difference. Brexit is the latest, with a less that 2% margin for the Leave winning camp. This phenonmenon is more apparent in the developed countries. I guess social media has a big part to play in this. Each individual can see in real time the views of the candidates and their parties. They can also actively participate in forums to discuss and share their views. Perhaps in the end, every politician from each party has similar opinions but express them in a slightly different way.

Interesting to see the next big one – the Clinton vs Trump mud-fest…

I have been a tech freak since my youth. I love to deep dive into new products and study them in detail on the pros and cons before buying. If the urge/need is still there after many days of contemplating, I will then buy it.

All through these years, I am just amazed that the cost these gadgets continue to fall drastically while the power and capabilities have grown exponentially. The first clamshell flip handphone cost $3,000 . Now you get a Samsung with the latest technology for a fraction of that. I used to spend a few thousand buying a built to order PC. Now I debate for days on a few hundred dollars. Maybe it has got to do with age and nearing semi-retirement mode. Lifecycles of products are now in months and laptops are so cheap… We are so wired into cyberspace that information flow is at lightning speed.

One of my favourite past time is to visit a well-known mall for electronic stuff, collect the shops’ latest brochure summary of products and study the prices of items I plan to “invest” in next. With eBay like local websites to help you hive off your old toys easily, this has reduced the pain of a new purchase. Just got my new toy today 🙂

 

 

Meet up with another friend today. He has been pursuing the fintech bandwagon via the P2P lending space for about 15 months now. It is tough going for him as he needs to get licenses in the ASEAN countries he intends to operate in. To date, he does not have a license in any country to operate yet. The P2P space seems quite crowded now, as I see a lot of money chasing too few loans and credit analysis seems weak.

As part of my education process to reinvent myself, I have been actively attending fintech seminars to try to see if there are opportunities which I can pursue. Everyone knows that this is the mega trend but no one has a clear road map on how this will evolve. Silos within banks will make the adoption of disruptive new technology even harder. Do you want to support an initiative that will make your current job redundant?

Startups are mushrooming all over and failure is deemed to be part of the  learning experience. For every successful one, a thousand may have fallen on the sidelines. Even for the successful ones, number 1 will continue to be paranoid that its lunch will be eaten by someone else. Number 2 will be even more pressured to fight the incumbent leader. Number 3 and the rest can forget about having a fighting chance to compete.  Uber/Grab, Facebook/Twitter/Snapchat, WeChat/Line …

 

It’s been splashed all over the news this week. I can’t help but wonder how wrong-footed the markets had been, caught with its pants down on this one. Commentaries are still ongoing and only time will tell if this was a right move or not.

Just wanted to add my 2 cents worth. While it is hugely disappointing for EU, UK had probably painted itself into a sweet spot. The long drawn process of exiting (new UK PM in Sep, invoking article 50, followed by a maximum of 2 years of negotiation) works to UK’s advantage and deepens the humiliation of EU. UK now has Juncker by the balls…  The longer the exit period, the more likely other countries might also follow suit. They might be forced to compromise frequently in order to get UK out the door in a faster time. England can then cherry-pick its way through the negotiation process.

England does 2 exits in a week too! Losing the 2016 Euro football match to Iceland… Boy, the British must be an embarrassed lot this week!