Risk Management

For the goldfish amongst us and those who are too young to know and, especially, those who simply don't think history has anything to tell us, here is something to note: crises hit us every few years. The superficial causes are viewed as significant but in truth, most crises result from one thing: overstated balance sheets and the fact that those who have naively accepted them suddenly discover that not one, not two but many companies are not worth the paper they are written on. Literally.

Pay attention

We are back in the times of asset value restatement with several examples in the past month alone.

Last month (see here) LEE Jae-Yong, officially number two at Samsung Electronics Co Ltd but, due to his father's infirmity, the de facto boss was questioned by police in connection with the alleged bribing of South Korean President PARK Guen-Hye. Prosecutors sought an order for an arrest warrant from a Seoul court but the court refused. However, that decision has been overturned on appeal and, in separate proceedings, the President has been suspended. Now LEE is held on remand in case he runs away or tampers with evidence.

A startling report published by Malaysia's state media company and widely disseminated raises questions over the granting of loans and the checks made on borrowers. It also raises the question of what problems might follow.

I've just caught up with the third episode of the genuinely excellent "Mars" on the National Geographic TV Channel.

The programme contains significant input from genuine rocket scientists and people who have studied as much as is currently possible about Mars, how to get there and how to deal with what they find.. But, seemingly, they forgot to ask someone with common sense to join the team.

Purported sender: admnsh @ ccu.edu.tw
Standard Bank
Subject Receipt Of Deposit Transaction 6th Of October, 2016
Originating IP address: 140.123.206.217
Attachment: ATTACHMENT...E_NOJS.htm

A spam-scam, phishing exercise is circulating and it is unusual in that the purported outgoing e-mail address appears genuine.

In the past few hours, a high-volume phishing scam, purporting to be from Bank Negara Malaysia, has hit inboxes. That is it a scam is without doubt: the outgoing addresses are all, in common with many such scams, .edu addresses. They contain a PDF file, BNM.pdf, as an attachment which does not trigger anti-virus warnings when it is delivered to inboxes.

Basheer Ahmad Maula Sahul Hameed was jailed on 20 May 2015. the 24 year old mechanic conspired with his wife, Nur Shila Kanan, a bank officer to access, the bank accounts of several people who are missing aboard flight MH370.

The USA's Securities and Investment Commission has commenced administrative (i.e. civil) proceedings against Linda Dianne Alexander, a 70 year old living in California, alleging that she has conducted a prime bank investment fraud since 2004 - and in doing so was offering securities despite being unregistered or associated with a registered broker-dealer.

The Securities and Exchange Commission obtained, on 25 June 2012, a temporary restraining order and asset freeze against Wayne L. Palmer and his firm, National Note of Utah, LC alleging that he operated a real estate-based Ponzi scheme that bilked USD100 million from investors nationwide. Yet banks continued dealing with him.

The Philippines Central Bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, says that is has seen continued growth in remittances from Filipino workers overseas as the effects of the global financial crisis are factored out - but in March, the rate of growth was slower than in February.

When a private investigator approached a "friend" who worked in a bank and asked for information relating to the accounts of a politician, the clerk was willing to help. She says she thought she was helping the police when "Ramesh" asked for the information. It's the first prosecution of its kind in Malaysia.

Australia's Bendigo Bank is following California State, Singapore Airlines and Malaysian bank CIMB in asking its staff to take unpaid leave to help tide it over the current crisis.