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Jónas Sigurgeirsson asked:


Kaupthing Bank is a northern European bank offering integrated financial services to companies, institutional investors and individuals. These services include corporate banking, investment banking, capital markets services, asset management and comprehensive wealth management for private banking clients.

Kaupthing Bank was formed by the merger of Kaupthing and Búnaðarbanki Íslands in 2003 and is the largest bank in Iceland. The bank operates in ten countries, including all the Nordic countries (Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, Norway and Sweden), Luxembourg, Switzerland, the UK and the US. The bank is the eighth largest bank in the Nordic countries in terms of market capitalization and it employs over 2,500 people and maintains 36 retail branches in Iceland.

In recent years, Kaupthing Bank has been one of the fastest growing financial groups in Europe. The Bank’s expansion has been achieved through sound organic growth and a number of strategic acquisitions. The most recent acquisitions are those of FIH Erhvervsbank in Denmark in 2004 and in 2005 the UK bank Singer & Friedlander, now Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander. The aim of this growth is to further enhance the Bank’s ability to provide comprehensive services to its client base in the UK, Scandinavia and elsewhere in northern Europe.

As of December 31st 2006, the bank had total assets of €42.9 billion. In 2006, it ranked number 1,006 on Forbes Global 2000, which is an annual ranking of top 2000 corporations in the world by Forbes magazine. The same year, it ranked number 177 (up by 34 seats from 2005) on the list of the world’s largest banks composed annually by the international finance magazine The Banker.

In 2006, Kaupthing Bank had net earnings of €971 million, compared with €659 million in 2005. About 70% of the operating profit originated outside of Iceland (30% in Iceland, 34% in the UK, 26% in Scandinavia, 8% in Luxembourg and 2% in other countries).

The Name

The bank is known as Kaupthing Bank outside of Iceland. In Iceland, its official name is Kaupþing Banki hf. formerly, its official name was Kaupþing Búnaðarbanki hf., but the name was changed as the former name was considered too unwieldy for most people. From 2003 to 2006 the company used the name KB banki for its retail operations in Iceland. In December 2006 however, the bank started using the old name of Kaupþing for its network of high-street bank. It was announced that the change was part of the bank’s plan to operate under the same name everywhere. [4]

History

Founded in 1930 Búnaðarbanki Íslands was publicly owned from its inception and was privatized by the government in stages between 1998 and 2003. Kaupþing Bank was founded in 1982. Four years later, it was one of the founding members of the Iceland Stock Exchange. Half of the bank was sold to the Icelandic savings banks in 1986. The other half was sold to Búnaðarbanki Íslands in 1990, which sold its shares to the savings banks in 1996. The savings banks began selling its shares to the public on the stock market in 2000.

Acquisitions, mergers, subsidiaries

- 1982 Kaupthing hf. founded in Iceland

- 1998 Kaupthing Luxembourg, S.A. opened

- 2000 Kaupthing Faroe Islands opened, Kaupthing New York opened, Kaupthing Stockholm opened

- 2001 Kaupthing Bank Copenhagen opened, Kaupthing Lausanne opened, Sofi acquired in Finland

- 2002 Aragon acquired in Sweden, JP Nordiska acquired in Sweden, Auðlind acquired in Iceland

- 2003 Kaupthing merges with Búnaðarbanki Íslands to form Kaupthing Bank, Tyren acquired in Norway, Norvestia acquired in Finland, Kaupthing Limited opened in the UK

- 2004 A. Sundvall acquired in Norway, FIH acquired in Denmark

- 2005 Singer & Friedlander acquired in the UK

- 2006 Kaupthing Limited merges with Singer & Friedlander to form Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander in the UK



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Boris Tomson asked:


Banks Related articles :banks-banking.blogspot.com

The word ‘bank’ is derived from the Italian word ‘banca’, which is derived from the German word for ‘bench’. Moneylenders in Northern Italy originally did business in open areas or open rooms where each lender worked from his own bench or table. The very first banks were probably in religious temples of the ancient world. Greek temples as well as private and civic entities conducted financial transactions such as loans, deposits, currency exchange, and the validation of coinage. Charging interest on loans and paying interest on deposits developed in ancient Rome.http://banks-banking.blogspot.com

A bank is a financial institution that provides banking services such as accepting deposits and making loans. There are also financial institutions that provide certain banking services without meeting the legal definition of a bank that are called non-banks.

The main functions of a bank include raising funds by attracting deposits, borrowing money in the inter-bank market, and issuing financial instruments in the money market or a securities market and then lending out most of these funds to borrowers including companies, individuals or government. Other services rendered by banks are facilitating international payments, issuing credit cards, provisioning safe locker facilities for valuables, project financing, merchant banking facility, online banking, personal banking, and investment banking. Typically, a bank generates profits from transaction fees on financial services and the interest charges on its loans.

There are several different types of banks including central banks, investment banks, merchant banks, private banks, savings banks, offshore banks, commercial banks, retail banks, and universal banks.

Present day banks need highly qualified, dedicated, and reliable staff because of intense competition from other financial institutions like insurance companies that provide some banking services to the public.

Banking provides detailed information about banking, banking jobs, banking services, and more. Banking is affiliated with Swiss Bank Accounts.

The word ‘bank’ is derived from the Italian word ‘banca’, which is derived from the German word for ‘bench’. Moneylenders in Northern Italy originally did business in open areas or open rooms where each lender worked from his own bench or table. The very first banks were probably in religious temples of the ancient world. Greek temples as well as private and civic entities conducted financial transactions such as loans, deposits, currency exchange, and the validation of coinage. Charging interest on loans and paying interest on deposits developed in ancient Rome.

A bank is a financial institution that provides banking services such as accepting deposits and making loans. There are also financial institutions that provide certain banking services without meeting the legal definition of a bank that are called non-banks.

The main functions of a bank include raising funds by attracting deposits, borrowing money in the inter-bank market, and issuing financial instruments in the money market or a securities market and then lending out most of these funds to borrowers including companies, individuals or government. Other services rendered by banks are facilitating international payments, issuing credit cards, provisioning safe locker facilities for valuables, project financing, merchant banking facility, online banking, personal banking, and investment banking. Typically, a bank generates profits from transaction fees on financial services and the interest charges on its loans.

There are several different types of banks including central banks, investment banks, merchant banks, private banks, savings banks, offshore banks, commercial banks, retail banks, and universal banks.http://banks-banking.blogspot.com

Present day banks need highly qualified, dedicated, and reliable staff because of intense competition from other financial institutions like insurance companies that provide some banking services to the public.Banking provides detailed information about banking, banking jobs, banking services, and more. Banking is affiliated with Swiss Bank Accounts.



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lockergnome asked:

http://live.pirillo.com/ - A couple of guys from the Justin.tv crew decided they needed to interview Chris.

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Australasian Investment Review asked:


The strength of Australia’s banks, especially the big four, is better than first seems, judging by comments in the International Monetary Fund’s latest report on the Australian economy.

Buried in the Fund’s latest report is a big vote of confidence in the health and stability of the Australian banking system.

The IMF also reckons Australia’s big four banks are so well capitalised that they could withstand a surge in home loans going bad and still maintain their capital levels at the minimum required by regulators.

That’s a big difference to the US, UK, Ireland and several other countries where plunging home prices, mortgage sales and falling property values have wreaked havoc on capital levels and forced big capital raisings

The information in this report from the IMF is likely to underpin the analysis and commentary in the RBA’s semi-annual Financial Stability Report to be released later this morning.

Australian banks and their health have been questioned by investors and commentators since the credit crunch erupted over a year ago, with nerves getting very frayed last week as the US financial system shook under rising pressures and soaring short term rates for cash.

As well a shortage of US dollars (hard to believe) caused short term interest rates to spike in the UK and Europe and forced the Fed into over a quarter of a trillion dollars US in currency swaps with central banks around the world (including Australia).

Some commentators fret about the level of debt in Australia and the house borrowing boom and the still high levels of prices and have warned of a debt binge driven slump.

But not so the chaps from the IMF.

They did admit that “Australia’s banking system is sound, but some vulnerabilities remain.” The banks were on the rollover risk in wholesale funding markets overseas with banks being forced to pay a lot more for new funds as existing loans rollover and have to be renewed.

But the IMF said “The authorities’ response to the credit market turmoil has been timely and fitting, with the RBA providing liquidity support and APRA intensifying its monitor of banks.

“The four large banks remain profitable and well capitalized, but the turmoil highlighted their vulnerability to rollover risks arising from short-term wholesale funding.

“The planned introduction of liquidity guidelines will be helpful to reduce the risk of disruptions arising from loss of access to offshore funding.

“Requiring the publication of more detail on the maturity structure of banks’ funding, especially from offshore markets, would also encourage banks to reduce their exposure to rollover risk.”

“APRA plans to introduce liquidity guidelines with a focus on improved disclosure and stress testing.

“The aim should be to encourage banks to reduce the risk of disruptions from restricted access to wholesale markets by diversifying their funding sources, lengthening the maturity of their funding, and holding sufficient liquidity.

“The staff advised that requiring banks to publish more detail on the maturity structure of their funding, especially from offshore markets, would impose additional discipline.”

(That’s a good news story on moves by the key regulators to force the banks to upgrade their disclosure on liquidity and funding.)The IMF said that “Banks are exposed to households, but appear resilient to an increase in default rates on mortgages. Households have become increasingly indebted, with debt reaching almost 160 percent of disposable income and debt-servicing costs at about 14 percent of disposable income.

“As more than half of banks’ loans are mortgages, banks’ asset quality would likely deteriorate with a large increase in interest rates, rise in unemployment, or fall in house prices.

“Staff analysis show that a very large increase in default rates (to 10 percent of all housing loans) would be required to reduce capital ratios of the four major banks below 8 percent.

“Moreover, staff estimates suggest that house prices are only moderately overvalued (5-15 percent) and that continued strong immigration and household income growth could increase equilibrium house prices.”

The IMF points out that to get a 10% default rate on all housing loans would require “a default on about half of mortgages with loan to value ratios of over 80 percent”.

House loans with an LVR of 80% or more are among the most stretched, but at the moment Australian banks have an arrears rate of 0.2% for impaired assets (including housing) and small banks a rate of 0.50%.

But in the most interesting stress test, the IMF says that its staff “using extreme stress test scenarios applied to the large banks suggests that they could suffer a significant fall in profits from an increase in funding costs associated with loss of access to offshore markets for 90 days, but that their capital would remain adequate.”

“This scenario is more severe than anything that Australian banks have had to face to date. As a result of the loss of access to offshore markets, banks have to refinance their offshore liabilities due in less than 90 days domestically.

“In the most severe case where all wholesale funds (domestic and offshore) due in less than 90 days have to be refinanced at an interest rate that is 500 basis points higher than before the shock, the aggregate capital ratio for the system only falls to 8½ percent.

“The worst affected among the four large banks has the capital ratio drop to 7½ percent.

“Banks’ profitability suffers a more serious hit, which is not surprising, given their heavy reliance on short-term wholesale funding. Nevertheless, it takes a 500 basis points increase in interest rates on liabilities to generate losses for banks.”

In other words, if that was to happen now, wholesale interest rates would have to rise to well above 12% (indicating mortgage rates above 15%) for three months for there be any significant damage to bank capital levels and the amount of capital in the financial system as a whole.

“That assumes the banks can’t get any money from offshore in that period, which hasn’t happened so far.

Even when the stress tests were applied at even more intense levels, the IMF team said the results showed the resilience of the system

“Even in a more extreme case where the interest rates on all deposits (including checking) also rise by 500 basis points, the aggregate capital ratio drops to 5¾ percent for the system, and to 5 percent for large banks.

“While this is a significant reduction in capital, the fact that the banks are able to maintain their capitalization ratios above 5 percent under a shock of that magnitude (and under a number of conservative assumptions that were made) underlines the resilience of the system.

“All four large banks were analyzed individually, and were shown to be sufficiently sound to handle a large interest rate shock. Small banks, however, were only looked at as a group.

“Some of these banks have smaller deposit bases, rely more heavily on securitization, and could be more vulnerable to certain shocks. Nevertheless, given their small size and the strong aggregate results, they are also not likely to present a threat to systemic stability.”

IMPORTANT: AIR reports about financial markets and investment products in the widest sense possible. The AIR website and all its contents is prepared for general information only, and as such, the specific needs, investment objectives or financial situation of any particular user have not been taken into consideration. Individuals should therefore talk with their financial planner or advisor before making any investment decisions.



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Lucy Caudle asked:


NHS or National Health Service is a UK-wide agency that provides healthcare to UK residents. The agency needs a varied mix of skills to meet the large variety of healthcare demands placed upon its centers. At the same time, the individual centers of the agency cannot be expected to be staffed with all kinds of specialists to meet needs that might arise infrequently.

The result has been that there could be unfilled vacancies in shift rosters. Traditionally, these had been filled with the help of outside agency staff. In fact, agency staff expenses have been estimated at nearly 5% of total payroll costs at NHS.

Agency staff is not only expensive but also might not come with the exact skill set required by a center for a shift. Additionally, the center might face problems complying with working time regulations if it employs outside agency staff.

NHS Staff Banks

NHS has created staff banks with specialist skills, such as nursing skills. It is possible to control the quality of their work as the bank staff can be provided necessary training.

Whenever there is an unfilled vacancy in a shift, it can be communicated to the NHS bank calling for applicants. In such a scenario, recourse need be made to outside agency only if there is no suitable NHS bank staff available.

NHS Bank Administration

Even NHS bank staff is comparatively expensive compared to in-house staff. NHS bank administration systems should hence exhaust internal resources fully before seeking bank staff. This would require highly efficient rostering systems that fully considers availability of internal staff and skills and matches them optimally to healthcare requirements.

A manual rostering system cannot hope to do this as well as a custom-developed NHS rostering software. The latter can employ very complex programming algorithms to generate the best possible matching of skill sets and healthcare requirements, and produce shift rosters that utilize internal resources to the maximum extent possible.

If internal staff is just not available, the system can be configured to use the NHS bank resources next. There are systems that can even confirm availability of bank staff before rostering them to shifts.

Only if NHS bank staff is also not available do the system seek to use the most expensive external agency resources.

Cost Effective Solution to the Issue of Temporary Staff

NHS Bank Administration module of NHS healthcare rostering systems can thus provide a cost effective solution to the problem of vacant shifts. Instead of immediately resorting to external agencies, whether they are NHS bank staff or external agency staff, an attempt is made to utilize internal resources fully.

Whereas human schedulers cannot hope to consider all the complex variables and available alternatives, that too in the short time available, computer programs designed specifically for NHS healthcare can do so. Such programs can also accommodate sudden changes necessitated by last minute change requests from staff.

NHS Bank Administration and NHS Healthcare Software together can thus provide the best of possible options to provide quality healthcare at lower costs.



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Rasmus Nielsen asked:


What is BPO?

Business Process Outsourcing is hiring external businesses to deliver a task that you otherwise had to do inhouse and has been around for many years, but has with the introduction of the Internet and globalisation taken a new dimension. Many large businesses have chosen to outsource some of the activities, simply so they can focus on their core business. Companies such as Microsoft have outsourced not only much (if not nearly all) of their high end jobs such as software architecture and development to outsourcing companies in India, but also their customer service. Large companies that operate in Australia are also using BPO to a large extend. Hutchinson, Vodafone and Telstra have outsourced a great deal of their customer service to call centre locations in India and there are too many other examples to mention.

The trend is very clear, many if not all large companies choose when possible to outsource and they all have one thing in common. Cost of labour. No Australian, American or Western European call centre can compete with labour costs of less than $10 AUD an hour. Sure, the customer may experience an operator who speaks with an accent, but when you can save over 50% in costs, it is worth while.

Why should small business outsource

Clearly the large companies benefit from this, but why can’t medium and small businesses copy the large companies? They can, but for some reason they choose not to.

Business owners who have spend their life building their business may not see outsourcing as a viable option for their business, because it will not fit into their business model, which is very similar to the way many business owners were regarding the Internet and email some years ago. Outsourcing may not reach the same level of popularity as the Internet, but there is little doubt that the businesses, who chooses to focus on their core business and outsource the non core activities to experts will become more competitive, simply because they do not have to allocate time, money and dedication to activities that does not contribute to the bottom line.

The dangers of outsourcing

Outsourcing is not always the right answer and it is important to choose the right outsourcing provider with care. The biggest danger is if both parties expectation does not match each other. It is therefore essential that the processes are properly defined (and subsequently followed) or it is a recipe for disaster. It is important to find a BPO which knows what it is doing and a good indicator is to ask for references, (though these can be rigged as well).

A more reliable indication is to analyse the process documentation and ask for a testing period, prior to going live. This serves several purposes:

1) Process documentation indicates the level of quality, which can be expected

2) Testing period is always required as there will always be teething problems, when two organisations are starting to work together. Always allow for enough time to test and do not be afraid of asking for additional tests if you are not convinced.

En essence, outsourcing can be very beneficial for any business, small or large, but it is vital that proper research is done prior to commencing to outsourcing.



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Jamie Liddell asked:


SSON: Oscar, what is the purpose of BPA/P, and how does the Association operate to achieve that purpose?

Oscar Sañez: The Business Processing Association of the Philippines was created in 2004 by members of the BPO industry, in order to present a single face of the industry to the world. Prior to this, there were several organisations that had been representing various sectors in offshoring and outsourcing in the country. It was apparent that there was a strong need to have a single industry body representing all the interests of these organisations in terms both of marketing the industry externally, and internally to be able to address many of the common challenges and opportunities that the industry was facing at that time. So there was an effort to consolidate several of these small organisations, and a single umbrella organisation – BPA/P – was formed.

Quickly after that the BPA/P board elected to create a full-time management team to do a couple of things: one, to develop and own a strategic plan to guide the growth of the industry short- and long-term; and the second was to have a fully dedicated team to be the leaders responsible for getting all the stakeholders committed to executing the strategic plan as it was developed. This is now called the “roadmap” for the industry which BPA/P is leading and working on with all the stakeholders.

SSON: BPA/P is running a successful scholarship program for advanced post-graduate training. Can you tell us a little about this and why it will benefit foreign companies looking to source to the country?

OS: Basically the BPA/P roadmap covers three major subjects, of which talent development is one. The scholarship programme falls under the initiative of ensuring talent development sustainability over the next several years, and is a programme that we have created in partnership with the government. We found there was a significant segment of the graduate pool that needed some kind of a completion course or supplementary training programme to ensure that we have a large available pool of talent, particularly in a couple of areas: English-language proficiency; and IT proficiency.

The industry tested a training programme a year ago to supplement the recruitment programme that was already in place. We had a very good experience with supplementary programmes that were being run in vocational schools as well as in independent training companies that were members of BPA/P. We approached the government and asked for support so we could train a lot more young people into the programme and convert them into full-time hires. The government responded positively by providing a budget of close to $10million this year, to be able to train about 50,000 young people into the programme: of course we don’t foresee all of them passing the completion course but at least 40,000 should pass and therefore get recruited into our pool this year, so if we’re able to convert them into full-time employment that is at least 40,000 additional available to us.

SSON: You’ve mentioned a degree of official support there: how closely does BPA/P work with the Filipino government?

OS: We work very closely and very collaboratively with the government, particularly on three levels. One is with the educational agencies of government, and the scholarship programme is a good example of how we have collaborated with TESDA [Technical Education & Skills Development Authority] which is the vocational institute government body coordinating group which works with us in providing supplementary training for young people here.

Another agency that we work with is the Board of Investments, which is the government’s investment-promotion group, as well as the attached agency to that which is the Philippine Economic Zone Authority: the body which supervises the IT parks for setting up BPO sites in the country. What we have done with them is work together on streamlining our investment promotion processes, including trade missions abroad as well as with investors who come to the Philippines, so we have a simplified communication process – a one-stop-shop mechanism if you will – so that when investors come in we have the private sector (which is BPA/P) working closely with key representatives of the board of investors on our overall presentation of industry opportunities. This is done very well; we have received a lot of positive responses.

Then lastly we work with the Office of the President through the Commission of ICT. This is the government body that coordinates with various telecommunications and software companies to support the overall regional development of what the government calls the Cyber Corridor: the ICT infrastructure which links Manila with the rest of the key cities in the country. Part of what we have in the roadmap is a way in which we can accelerate the development of new sites for expansion of BPO companies outside Manila, and we’re able to work with various ICT bodies within local government councils outside Manila to prepare them for investment. These ICT councils have simplified for us the work in getting all the key stakeholders in one place; property developers, the telco companies in each region, local government units and academia are able to work together to create new sites for expansion - and get investors to consider these places as potential new sites. So we have worked very closely with government on this effort and it’s given us a lot of positive gains for investment promotion.

SSON: So significant collaboration with government – but BPA/P is a purely private-sector organisation?

OS: We are purely a private sector group consisting of BPO players themselves as well as key vendors in the industry. The support we’re getting from government is more for collaboration and coordination, as well as the scholarship support - which is not only financial support, but also the way by which we are able to distribute scholarship vouchers to young people: the government then reimburses them directly on those expenses.

SSON: Moving on: the BPO sector in the Philippines is a great success story - but it’s not all plain sailing. What do you see as being the biggest challenges to the sector and how do BPA/P and big industry players intend to overcome or avoid those challenges?

OS: OK. There are a couple of big ones as far as we’re concerned. Firstly, though we have been able to successfully promote the Filipino BPO industry because of our available talent and the quality of our talent, we’d like to be able to accelerate our growth and the big challenge for us is how fast we can make our talent available in front of us because of the remarkable growth-rates that we have seen and will continue to see over the next few years. There is a big, straining demand for talent and we would like to make sure that we’re able to sustain that talent both in terms of quantity and quality - and not only in Manila but outside as well. And the challenge lies in making sure the system is responsive enough to the demand.

Right now we do face competition from the growth of other sectors - for example tourism and medical services – and the demand from outside the Philippines for OFWs [overseas Filipino workers] is also increasing. So we’re competing in the universities for talent that is required by other countries poaching talent from the Philippines, and by other fast-growing sectors. So a challenge for us is ensuring that we’re able to promote career prospects for the industry in many of these universities.

The challenge also lies in increasing access to more universities beyond the traditional sources that we recruit from, as well as being able to tune the curriculum programmes of many of the universities to be more in line with the requirements of our industry; for example, ensuring that we do have high-quality English-language and IT proficiency programmes made available early on in the university years. This is why in BPA/P we do have a director who is devoted to talent development challenges; she leads university partnerships to ensure that we’re able to get universities to respond more closely to industry requirements, as well as developing new training standards and skills-assessment methodologies that we’d like to implement at university level, so that we are able to sharpen our recruitment much more. That is our biggest challenge.

Another area would be related to what I said earlier about assimilating new site development. Right now most of our BPO population - about 80 per cent of the activity - is in Metro Manila. We would certainly want to see a lot more activity happening in new cities. In the same way that India has created Bangalore and Hyderabad and Chennai, we certainly are looking forward to at least ten more cities outside of Manila and Cebu to be able to host new companies. This will create a lot of positives: one, we will be able to access more talent available in those places; and secondly we should be able to have a lot more support from a wider range of resources available to us, whether it’s local government units or chambers of commerce in those places, or universities and the academic sector. So we do face strong challenges but at the same time we know that because of our roadmap we’re already able to implement a lot of initiatives to be able to address them.

SSON: Conversely then, what do you see as being the biggest assets of the Philippines in terms of BPO and how does your organisation leverage those assets to expand and enhance the sector?

OS: Certainly the most important asset is people. We are hearing more often from our locators here that they’re discovering a lot more capability in the Philippines than we had seen initially. For example, we are already very well known for our voice services in BPO: the quality of English-language proficiency and of the Filipino customer service agents is very well talked-about in the industry now, and I think part of that is the training as well as the culture and the western orientation of the Filipino people. But we have seen a lot of growth beyond that: it’s been particularly very evident in areas such as finance outsourcing, IT, engineering services and creative arts - particularly in animation and gaming - and we are seeing double-digit growth as well in those sectors. The captive centres here (the HSBCs, the AIGs, the P&Gs, the Citigroups, the JP Morgans) are expanding over the next two years particularly in areas like finance and HR outsourcing. And this is already booking a lot of new office space, even in the Metro Manila area.

Another important asset for the country is the strong infrastructure, and a cost-model that is very sustainable. We’re able to sustain talent with the developing progress we have there in combination with the quality infrastructure we have in terms of telco, and new expanded office sites, and we’re able to at least maintain the cost model in a way that does not create unnecessary inflation in wages or in office-space rentals because we’re able to create more capacity. So the combination of talent and an attractive cost structure, as well as new opportunities we’re seeing in the other new sectors which I mentioned, are all strong points for the Philippines with huge potential for growth in the future.

SSON: Is it realistic to expect the Philippines to compete against bigger players (in particular, obviously, India) in outsourcing sectors other than BPO: KPO, LPO for example? And if so, what is required for the country to compete on those terms?

OS: Certainly we do recognise that India will continue to remain very very strong, particularly in areas like IT and software development. But certainly there are also niche areas that will continue to be providing growth opportunities for the Philippines. Voice and non-voice BPO will continue to be big. We certainly don’t think that we can beat India in the strong points that it has, but we see the opportunities around new niche areas like KPO, legal outsourcing, and engineering outsourcing – in which India will remain really huge but in which the Philippines will start gaining some foothold. We see great value in being number two or number three in those sectors; they’ll continue to be contributors for growth in terms of the kind of overall credibility and capability that the Philippines has in the BPO space. So there will be a place for the Philippines, a continued strong position moving forward.

SSON: To what extent have recent currency fluctuations impacted upon BPO in the Philippines, and how far can foreign companies looking to source to the country truly rely on the stability of the peso?

OS: We were seriously affected last year when we saw an 18.5 per cent currency appreciation. That affected us - particularly the small players who did not have a lot of financial leeway to be able to support that gap. But many of the big operators were actually able to improve and grow their operations because we saw a lot of room for improving operational efficiency here. The peso is largely going to stay within what you would call a single-digit fluctuation, given the kind of interventions we’re seeing currently in ensuring that there’s enough investment going on in the right places of the country.

We see that last year’s appreciation was more of a correction - one that is not going to affect us in terms of being an annual event. What we are seeing is that because of better projections around FDI and foreign remittances we’ll see a more stable peso over the next three, four, five years. Plus we’re more conscious now of making sure that our operational efficiencies are in place to be able to withstand fluctuations over the next few years.

SSON: Are you confident of the security of data and intellectual property rights in the Philippines?

OS: We are confident that we are addressing the issues of data privacy and intellectual property very well. For one, we have in place data privacy guidelines drawn up by industry in partnership with the Board of Investments; as well, the multinationals that are here are guided very much by US laws on data privacy and recognise the importance of these principles. The other thing is that BPA/P is leading a very active effort in partnering with Congress to pass a single Data Privacy Bill that supports the APEC Privacy Principles. This is at an intermediate stage of development already and we see the bill passing late this year or early next year. We are also actively communicating with all the key stakeholders on the APEC Privacy Principles to make sure that we support the principles and ensure that our people are trained and our contracts are safeguarded because of the kind of accountability and responsibility that we do have in processing data.

In terms of intellectual property we work closely with the BSA [Business Software Alliance] group to ensure that our member-companies sign off on the intellectual property rights agreements - and at the same time we are also working with government on strengthening the IP law, as well as on a new bill that will ensure a stronger penalty provision for intellectual property rights violations. So moving very actively in this area, we feel that this will all contribute to strengthening our data privacy and IP requirements.

SSON: Finally, what are your ambitions for BPA/P over the next ten years?

OS: We think that we will continue to see strong growth over the next ten years in a couple of areas. We’ll continue to be strong in the BPO space, both voice and non-voice. The other thing that is happening is that we still see growth in higher-value services and that we will play a very important role in supporting the requirements of not only the US market but even many of the European and Australian markets that today are still largely untapped. The good thing about the Philippines, like I said earlier, is that while we’re seeing dramatic growth at the moment we’re able to create a lot of continuous capacity. It is very important that we maintain our cost structure as well as our capacity model.

We’ve seen what has happened in India and that there is benefit in being number two, and because of India’s experience we are able to anticipate issues like overheating growth - issues that affect things like supply - and to anticipate the requirements of investors so we don’t get into an inflationary situation, whether it’s in one city or many cities in the Philippines. We know that there are still a lot of untapped niches, as well as the trend towards multi-sourcing that will allow the Philippines to participate in a lot more geographies as well as a lot more verticals and horizontals in the BPO space.



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Dave Poon asked:


The history of banking dates back to the ancient times; in fact, the earliest banks were the ancient religious temples. People then stored their golds and other precious belongings in the temples because these places were strongly built, were always guarded, and most of all, were sacred. In ancient Greece, financial transactions were also done in temples and credit notes were already being used to reduce risks in carrying and carting money from one place to another.

Since those times, banking evolved in many aspects. Banking regulations were formulated, additional services such as lending became part of banking and things such as adding interest to loans became common bank practices. Now with the emergence of the latest technologies and the Internet, banking has taken a new face. People can now access bank account online and transact business with the bank with greater convenience and security through the Internet. Online Banking

Performing bank transactions through the Internet is generally referred to as online banking or Internet banking. This form of banking allows consumers to directly access their bank account online (usually savings account) and obtain any information about their account. This direct-to-consumer system is faster and more convenient for consumers compared to traditional banking systems. Especially if you are to withdraw money after banking hours, this banking system may be your easiest and sole solution. You just have to connect to the Internet trough your personal computer and access your bank account in an instant.

Online-only banks

Many popular banks offer online banking as one of their services; however there are also some banks that transact businesses solely online, so you have no other choice but to access your bank account online and avail of other bank services through the Internet. The latter are referred to as online-only banks. These banks virtually exist yet they provide services traditional banks offer, only that they are done through the Internet.

Benefits

Today as more and more time are consumed by people in using the Internet in several activities, including getting access to their bank account online, online-only banks proved to be more convenient and beneficial. Aside from the fast transactions, one may also benefit from the bank’s high interest rates and budget-friendly transaction fees considering that online-only banks operate only online. Cost of processing bank transactions are relatively lower so the bank can afford to give consumers high interest rates on savings account.

Online Banking Industry

Although a lot are using the Internet, online-only banking industry began to grow only sometime in 2000 when a popular online bank devised much simpler and more convenient banking transactions online and paid consumers high interest rates. Earlier banks that tried this form of banking did not succeed because of their expensive transaction fees and lower interest rates. Moreover, procedures in getting access to bank accounts online were more complicated and consumers were afraid of Internet fraud. The industry eventually grew bigger and more stable beginning 2003 as the use of the Internet got more commonplace, prevalent and secure.



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jaya sinha asked:


Knowledge Process Outsourcing – A viable option for business success

When outsourcing is Knowledge intensive and requires extensive information gathering, it is termed as knowledge Process Outsourcing. In any KPO firm, the firm gets the work done from outside by hiring knowledge experts. Knowledge Process Outsourcing is different from BPO in that it enables business success in specialized arena requiring domain expertise by the Knowledge Process Consultants.

While with the use of BPO, the industries underwent a huge change, KPO surpassed BPO enabling industries to take one step ahead. KPO is utilised not only in area of information technology but into the health care sectors too like the clinical research and Intellectual Property Rights.

One of the main reasons why the companies outsource knowledge process is the low cost factor. Other reasons include

• Improved organisation value and image.

• No cost on capital or infrastructure required.

• Reduces the workload of the employees in a firm.

• No cost on manpower required.

• More guarantee of success as firms pay for the knowledge outsourced.

All the above finally contribute towards enhanced customer satisfaction.

Considering the KPO in IT industry, India has emerged as one of the top outsourcing destinations because of the highly skilled software professionals. KPO industry is poised for a big leap in terms of financial assets. According to data released by NASSCOM (National association of Software and Services Companies), KPO industry would soon be creating a market of USD 17 billion out of which India will occupy 70% of the KPO share by 2010. Other countries which are set to outsource in the knowledge process are China, Russia, Israel etc.

Knowledge Process Outsourcing industry (KPO) is expected to reach USD 17 billion by 2010, of which USD 12 billion would be outsourced to India. Another report predicts that India will capture more than 70 percent of the KPO sector by 2010. Apart from India, countries such as Russia, China, the Czech Republic, Ireland, and Israel are also expected to join the KPO industry

Where all KPO has been effective –

• Medical Research and Development

• Investment services, accounting and investment research

• Business and market research

• Legal research

• Publishing

• Web development applications

• Technology research and sometimes for

• Better brand management

When the firms outsource the knowledge experts, the main objective is to move up the value-chain. When doing so, the firms undergo evolution process lending credibility to its products, processes and systems. A large number of Indian firms have off shored KPO services and they include leading healthcare companies like Astra Zeneca, Glaxo-Smithkline. In the area of embedded systems and chip design, Motorola, IBM, Cisco, Cypress, Nokia, Philips, Intel and many more have set up their design centers in other countries. Apart from the organizations being benefited, there is huge opportunity of jobs in the area of KPO. Any professional who is an expert in his area, medical, technical, management etc expect to reach the pinnacle of success by getting involved in KPO



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Lihu Gelem asked:




About Our Service

Many people ask themselves the question how to open a bank account in another country, in many cases, Switzerland. Offshore banking services are usually available for citizens around the world, most of the time it means that you will have to go to the bank in person in order to open a bank account. Our service offers to open a Swiss bank account in a major Swiss bank without having to make a trip to Switzerland that would end up costing a lot of money and time. We are specialists in Swiss banking and have opened over a hundred Swiss bank accounts for clients all over the world. And in four years in the business, we can gladly say that our company had never failed to open a Swiss bank account for any client. Find out how to open a Swiss bank account in Switzerland Online!

Why a Swiss bank account?

Swiss bank accounts are offering the client full privacy regarding his business and transactions, any bank in Switzerland have to obey the rule of banking secrecy and if they fail to obey it then they had committed a crime and could be on trail for that. Swiss banks are very professional and have experience with major companies and personal clients around the world for dozens of years.

What is a numbered Swiss bank account?

There are serveral types of account, such as high yield savings bank account, student bank account, business bank account. All these bank account types could be a numbered swiss bank account. Numbered Swiss bank accounts are not anonymous bank accounts as many people make a mistake. The idea behind numbered Swiss bank accounts is that the client does not have to reveal his name or personal information in order to accept or send payments and for other various of transactions. Nevertheless, the bank will have all the information of the bank account owner like any usual bank account.

Tax Evasion

Tax evasion does not considered a crime in Switzerland, and therefore if you are not paying tax in the country which you residents in, then you didn’t commit any crime from the Swiss government point of view. If the country which you live in finds out that you evaded tax, Then you are vulnerable in your own country, depends on the local rules. BUT, still, you can rest assured that the Swiss bank will not reveal any of your private or financial information as they are not allowed to according to Swiss secrecy rules.

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