Training Course - Migrant Worker Remittances - Issues & Opportunities

Join us in Johannesburg, South Africa on 25 & 26 January 2010 for our 2-day course “MIGRANT WORKER REMITTANCES - ISSUES & OPPORTUNITIES.”

Money sent home by migrants constitutes the second largest financial inflow into many developing countries, exceeding even international aid. Remittances contribute to economic growth and to the livelihoods of needy people worldwide. Moreover, remittance transfers can also promote access to financial services for the sender and recipient, thereby increasing financial and social inclusion.

Although African workers send home more than US$40 billion to the region each year, restrictive laws and costly fees hamper the power of remittances to lift people out of poverty, according to a recent report by the UN's rural poverty agency, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Even if your organization already has a Remittance Program or Product, this course will be of immense value to you and your staff.

Remittances are not as simple as a monetary transfer from A to B. It is the fine details of the remittance processes and the subtle nuances of being a stranger in a foreign land or simply a receiver in a remote location in one’s own country that constitute the major problems for remitters and receivers.

Get to grips with these and other uniquely African problems faced in providing remittance services in this region.

Understand how new technologies - such as the mobile phone - and existing infrastructure - particularly post offices or small retail outlets - could vastly increase the reach of remittance services.

Learn about the unique problems being faced by both Remitters and Receivers – problems that banks and other financial institutions are uniquely placed to help solve.

Remittances represent a huge business opportunity for banks and other organizations to satisfy the needs of this huge and growing market.

Cement your position in the Remittance Market by attending “MIGRANT WORKER REMITTANCES - ISSUES & OPPORTUNITIES” in Johannesburg on 25 & 26 January 2010.

For full details including a Course Brochure e-mail us at courses@citadeladvantage.com Please state REMIT-JHB in the subject line.

How to Fit a Password - Learn about the Most Popular Passwords on the Internet

A fascinating view of a total lack of security consciousness. You need to read this article in the Ecommerce Journal. Access it by clicking on the article title below.

How to fit a password, learn about the most popular passwords on the Internet Ecommerce Journal

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Technology is Revolutionizing Payments and Remittances

Are you thinking outside the box? I have come across this video on YouTube by Dr. Patrick Dixon. Patrick Dixon is a Futurist, author 12 books including Futurewise, conference speaker who works with many of the world's largest corporations on global trends, new technology forecasts, biotech, health care, marketing, risk management, product design, innovation, motivation and customer insight.

Here he talks about mobile payment systems, micropayments, mobile phone credit card transactions and loans. This is thinking outside the box at its finest. As a bank or financial institution are you up to the “Technology Challenge” or will you lose you advantage to those bold enough to seize the day and step into the future?

Computer Programmers Charged in Madoff Affair

The Securities and Exchange Commission has accused Jerome O’Hara and George Perez of provideing the technical support necessary to produce false documents and trading records, and took hush money to help keep Bernard Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme going.

Last week the two computer programmers were charged for their role in helping Madoff cover up the fraud for more than 15 years. The SEC alleges that the two provided the technical support necessary to produce false documents and trading records, and took hush money to help keep the scheme going.

“Without the help of O’Hara and Perez, the Madoff fraud would not have been possible,” said George S. Canellos, Director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office. “They used their special computer skills to create sophisticated, credible and entirely phony trading records that were critical to the success of Madoff’s scheme for so many years.”

According to the SEC’s complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Madoff and his lieutenant Frank DiPascali, Jr., routinely asked O’Hara and Perez for their help in creating records that, among other things, combined actual positions and activity from BMIS’ market-making and proprietary trading businesses with the fictional balances maintained in investor accounts. O’Hara and Perez wrote programs that generated many thousands of pages of fake trade blotters, stock records, Depository Trust Corporation (DTC) reports and other phantom books and records to substantiate nonexistent trading. They assigned file names to many of these programs that began with “SPCL,” which is short for “special.”

A separate computer internally known as “House 17” was used to process BMIS investment advisory account data at the direction of Madoff, DiPascali and others. The SEC alleges that O’Hara and Perez knew that the House 17 computer was missing a host of functioning programs necessary for actual securities trading and reporting. According to the SEC’s complaint, they recognized that the trades being entered into House 17 and the account statements and trade confirmations being sent to investors did not reflect actual trades.

The SEC alleges that O’Hara and Perez had a crisis of conscience in 2006 and tried to cover their tracks by attempting to delete approximately 218 of the 225 special programs from the House 17 computer. But they did not delete the monthly backup tapes. O’Hara and Perez then cashed out hundreds of thousands of dollars each from their personal BMIS accounts before confronting Madoff and refusing to generate any more fabricated books and records.

According to O’Hara’s handwritten notes from the encounter, one of them told Madoff, “I won’t lie any longer. Next time, I say ‘ask Frank,’” meaning that Madoff should rely on DiPascali alone to create the false data and reports.

The SEC’s complaint alleges that Madoff responded by telling DiPascali to offer O’Hara and Perez as much money as necessary to keep quiet and not expose the misrepresentations. O’Hara and Perez considered the offer and demanded a salary increase of nearly 25 percent along with one-time bonuses in late 2006 of more than $60,000 each. They stated to DiPascali at the time that they did not ask for more because a greater amount might appear too suspicious. DiPascali then managed to convince O’Hara and Perez to modify computer programs so that he and other 17th floor employees could create the necessary reports themselves.

This is the SEC’s latest enforcement action concerning the Madoff fraud since the scheme collapsed last December. The Commission previously charged Madoff and BMIS, DiPascali, and auditors David G. Friehling and Friehling & Horowitz CPAs, P.C. The SEC also charged certain feeders with committing securities fraud through a Ponzi scheme perpetrated on advisory and brokerage customers of BMIS. Madoff, DiPascali and Friehling have all pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to their conduct.

Among other things, the SEC’s complaint seeks financial penalties and a court order requiring O’Hara and Perez to disgorge their ill-gotten gains.

“Quants” say their bosses don't understand them

A staggering two thirds of quantitative analysts (Quants) think their supervisors do not understand the work they do, according to a survey from training firm “7city Learning”.
The poll of almost 400 active quants and risk professionals reveals a significant gap in understanding between them and their supervisors.

Quants and risk managers have been pointed to by many economists as one of the principle reasons the global financial crisis escalated so precipitously.

Yet 86% of quants feel their supervisors' level of understanding of the job of a quant is the same or worse than it was a year ago. In addition, 70% feel that the level of understanding of the role of quants within their institutions has decreased or has not changed at all from a year ago.

Paul Wilmott, director of 7city's Certificate in Quantitative Finance course, says: "These numbers are alarming. They indicate that even with the events of the past year, financial institutions are still not taking the importance of financial education seriously, especially as it pertains to improving relationships and understanding between quants and their managers."
A recent report by financial regulatory agencies called on financial services firms to make substantial and sustained investments in IT infrastructure if they are to overcome severe underlying weaknesses in their risk management capabilities.

The Senior Supervisors Group (SSG) that comprises watchdogs from seven countries (United States, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, United Kingdom) says that underlying weaknesses in governance, incentive structures, information technology infrastructure and internal controls require substantial work to address.

RBI Proposes New Payment Systems

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has proposed an action plan on payment systems which have been targeted to be achieved in the next one-to-three years. This includes putting in place alternate settlement arrangements in the event of non-availability of RBI as a settlement bank.

Additionally a road map for the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is to be finalized. NPCI has been set up as an umbrella organization by the banking community to take over the retail payment system activities.

All large-value and time-critical payments will be processed only by electronic means. All bank branches will be enabled with Indian Financial System Code (IFSC) and MICR codes. The intention is to leave the user with the choice of payment product for retail and small-value transactions.

The RBI document ‘Payment systems in India — Vision 2009-12’ is available on the central bank’s website for public comment. The document may be downloaded at http://rbi.org.in/scripts/PublicationReportDetails.aspx?UrlPage=&ID=573

New projects and major initiatives listed in the plan include;

• Implementing a new and feature rich RTGS system – The need to migrate to a new version of RTGS that could leverage on advancements in technology, provide for scalability in volumes, parameterize more features in line with similar facilities available in other countries, result in more flexibility in operations, better liquidity saving features, etc., would be pursued.
• India MoneyLine – A 24x7 system for one-to-one funds transfers – The existing NEFT system operates during weekdays from 9 am to 5 pm and on Saturdays from 9 am to 12 noon. The Bank would pursue the suggestion to consider the need to extend NEFT to function on a 24x7 basis or to develop a new system akin to the Faster Payments Service in the UK which operates on a 24x7 basis.
• India Card – A domestic card initiative –The concept of a domestic payment card (India Card) and a PoS switch network for issuance and acceptance of payment cards would be looked into. The need for such a system arises from two major considerations (a) the high cost borne by the Indian banks for affiliation with international card associations in the absence of a domestic price setter (b) the connection with international card associations resulting in the need for routing even domestic transactions, which account for more than 90% of the total, through a switch located outside the country.
• Redesigning ECS to function as a true Automated Clearing House (ACH) for bulk transactions – Currently, Local ECS (to facilitate bulk electronic transactions with one-to-many and many-to-one variants) is operational at 76 centres. Centralisation of this process is already underway with the launch of credit variant of NECS at Mumbai (and RECS on a pilot basis). The debit variant is also being planned for implementation. The ECS / NECS solution is internally developed and has been in use since long and the need for building a technology and feature-rich ACH network by totally redesigning the existing ECS to provide end-to-end processing in a straight-through manner would be examined.
• Mobile payments settlement network – Mobile phones are expected to emerge as an important channel for transmission of payment instructions. Efficient mobile payments would require real time transfer of funds with adequate security. Currently all inter-bank mobile transfers are payment instructions for settling funds through existing payment systems. This would require building a national infrastructure for facilitating real time mobile payments.

Mobile Money Africa

Mobile Money Africa has just published their November edition. The focus is on 'Banking the unbanked African'. Mobile Money Africa is available as a free PDF download at http://mobilemoneyafrica.com/free-emag?did=2