Thought of the Day

Financial institutions are faced with a number of new and emerging risks — high consumer debt, record low interest rates, cyber threats, housing market uncertainties and geopolitical pressures, to name a few. In this environment, it is increasingly important for financial institutions to demonstrate that they have the necessary controls in place to manage the unexpected,

- Jamey Hubbs, Assistant Superintendent, Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, Canada, June 2017

The moment [regulators] begin to over-prescribe, which is what regulation has been doing, then you begin to take away the power of businesses to be able to respond effectively to threats as they evolve"

-- Nigel Morris-Cotterill, counter-money laundering strategist, in interview, May 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Rules on combating money laundering and terrorist financing in correspondent banking clarified by the Basel Committee

-- http://www.bis.org/press/p1706...

"Some bankers are under the wrong impression that once they have reported an account as [a non-performing asset] to their controlling offices and they, in turn, have reported it to the regulator and to investigating agencies such as police, CBI, Enforcement Directorate, etc., their job is over.

"It should not be felt so."

-- India's Vigilance Commissioner T M Bhasin

Facebook is a place where people can express their views and discuss things in an open way as they can and do in many other places, and as such we sometimes find people discussing topics others may find distasteful, however that is not a reason in itself to stop a debate from happening.

"The site has measures in place which allow people to report any material they find offensive and each complaint would be investigated on an individual basis."

-- un-named Facebook spokeswoman telling the BBC that it would not take down a fan-page for triple murderer Raoul Moat (July 2010)

Treating the absence of a conviction of a body corporate as a bar to convicting its officers can lead to absurd results.

Chan Seng ONG, J in the Singapore Court of Appeal

Using the native predators that will attack our pest insects is one method of controlling the pests on the crop other than using broad spectrum insecticide sprays

-- NT Farmers CEO Greg Owens, in Australia's Northern Territories.

UK consumer credit has been growing rapidly. Loss rates on consumer credit lending are low at present. Partly as a result, banks’ net interest margins on new lending have fallen and major lenders are using lower risk weights to calculate the capital they need to hold. Other things equal (sic), these developments mean lenders have less capacity to absorb losses.

-- Bank of England, Financial Stability Report

'We will continue to work with ASIC to ensure that Outlaw Motorcycle Gang members are not using companies and businesses as a front for criminal activity,'

- The Taskforce Maxima Commander, Detective Superintendent Mick Niland. New South Wales Police.

[Vettel] disgraced himself today. Imagine all the kids watching Formula One today and seeing that kind of behaviour from a four-times world champion.... I think it says it all.

-- Lewis Hamilton after Sebastian Vettel deliberately drove into him in the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

When we say "Happy Holidays" we're not avoiding Christmas. We're going on holiday.

Think of it as Wakes Week - and if you don't know what that is, it's because you're a softy southerner or from outside the UK.

A shutdown is common in France (have you ever tried to get parts for your Renault when the factories are closed?), China and many other places. And so we're honouring it, too.

From today, 13 June 2017 for two weeks, i.e. until 27 June, we're taking a break.

Happy Holidays to all of you, too.

“one of the worst manifestos in history”

--George Osborne on the UK 2017 Conservative manifesto

The waste had to go somewhere, though, so it was dumped near the airport, but this attracted flocks of seagulls, which became a hazard for aircraft. Attempts to shoot the gulls brought howls of protest, so machines were brought in to play loud music that would frighten them away.

-- BBC on efforts to handle Beirut's rubbish