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Sammy Wilson visits Fisher Engineering, Co Fermanagh. Finance Minister Sammy Wilson is welcomed to the company by receptionist Diane McCutcheon.
Finance
Image by Northern Ireland Executive
Finance Minister Sammy Wilson visits Fisher Engineering, Ballinamallard, Co Fermanagh© picture by John McVitty, Enniskillen, Co.Fermanagh, N. Ireland – 07771987378 ©

FINANCE MINISTERS MEETING, DECEMBER 19, 2011, VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA
Finance
Image by BC Gov Photos
Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty meets with provincial and territorial finance ministers, including British Columbia’s Minister of Finance, Kevin Falcon, on Monday, December 19, 2011.

choosing-car-finance
Finance
Image by natloans
Choosing car finance – How to choose car finance

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securitization and subprime investment?

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Question by hetbh123: securitization and subprime investment?
I don’t really understand this concept and how these two are related are are causing the financial crisis it is today. the ethical issue that is imposing on companies such as AIG….Can someone explain to me? thank you very much.

Best answer:

Answer by Ed Atun
In 2003 bank accounts were paying 1% interest. Many people had their life savings in the bank. Merrill Lynch was investing money in mortgages that paid 6%. Merrill said they would pay people 5% which was great compared to 1% at the bank. Merrill made 1% profit and people got 5% on their life savings. Everyone was happy. So Merrill started loaning to people with bad credit (subprime) at 8%. The people could now get 7% on their money. Much better than 1%. Merrill still made its 1% profit on every mortgage. This worked great. Merrill was not selling mortgages to the citizens of the USA. They were selling investments in a giant pool of mortgages. When a citizen received their 7% interest, they did not own a mortgage. They owned a “security” that was invested in mortgages.
But the people with bad credit did not pay their mortgages. People quickly realized that they might not get their 7% interest. They might not get anything at all. All of a sudden, the old 1% in the bank looked very safe. So everyone pulled out at once. The money disappeared. Merrill Lynch had no money to pay employees; no money to buy new mortgages; no money to do anything. So it all folded…

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Can someone summarize this book for me?

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Question by rmz_usa: Can someone summarize this book for me?
Can someone summarize the book “The business of Investment Banking, A Comprehensive overview” for me in 1 or 2 paragraphs? It is a large textbook, so I would appreciate it very much.

Best answer:

Answer by cactusgene
Synopsis

The business of investment banking has become intensely competitive. With a growing number of clients who prefer to deal with a single financial adviser for all their capital needs, firms must now engage in all major capital-market activities in order to meet this demand. Rapid advances in information technology have closely linked the international capital markets and, as a result, major securities firms have gone global to better serve their clients. To fully understand this changing environment and remain players in the game, new and seasoned professionals alike will require detailed, in-depth information on a broad scope of banking operations.

The Business of Investment Banking: A Comprehensive Overview, 2nd Edition is a complete guide to the major banking activities in today’s global marketplace. This convenient, one-volume reference identifies and analyzes key trends worldwide, allowing banking and finance professionals to effectively manage deals and incorporate trends into operations. In The Business of Investment Banking: A Comprehensive Overview, 2nd Edition, Professor K. Thomas Liaw goes beyond traditional banking topics and includes extensive coverage of rarely discussed subjects that are integral to investment banking, such as emerging markets, proprietary trading, repurchase transactions, operations, money management, and how foreign firms list on Wall Street.

Beginning with an overview, covering everything from underwriting to M&As to global presence, Liaw provides a thorough and rigorous analysis of the current market practices in all relevant business segments. He presents an investment banker’s perspective on the current environment, with a detailed description of the strategic decision-making process that is crucial to successfully managing the investment bank.

This thorough guide is divided into four main sections:

Basic Business-explores venture capital investment, mergers and acquisitions, underwriting, and asset securitization
Global Perspective-detailed information about foreign listing on Wall Street, international capital markets, and emerging markets
Trading and Risk Management-extensive data on proprietary trading, repurchase agreements, financial engineering, and money management
Special Topics-discusses clearing and settlement, securities regulation, ethics, major trends, and Section 20 subsidiaries

Comprehensive, unparalleled coverage of a wide range of topics makes The Business of Investment Banking: A Comprehensive Overview, 2nd Edition an invaluable, one-stop resource for all practicing investment banking professionals and for graduate students interested in a career in capital markets.

Here are 22 more customer reviews of people who have actually used it. Half of them say it is a 5-star book (the best) and give you what they liked or learned from it:

http://www.amazon.com/Business-Investment-Banking-Comprehensive-Overview/product-reviews/0471739642/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

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Finance Minister at Young at Heart Exhibition 25 May (L-R) Mary Hall, Ena McKeown and Grace Minnis

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Finance Minister at Young at Heart Exhibition 25 May (L-R) Mary Hall, Ena McKeown and Grace Minnis
Finance
Image by Northern Ireland Executive
25/5/11 Mandatory Credit Darren Kidd/Presseye.com
Over £13million rates assistance provided to lone pensioners in Northern Ireland.

Finance Minister Sammy Wilson pictured at the Young at Heart Exhibition with Holywood ladies (L-R) Mary Hall, Ena McKeown and Grace Minnis. Since 2008 over £13 million has been distributed to pensioners by Land and Property Services through the Lone Pensioner Allowance, which entitles persons aged 70 or over who live alone to a 20% discount on their rate bill.

DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE AND PERSONNEL

25 May 2010

Over £13million rates assistance provided to lone pensioners in Northern Ireland

Finance Minister Sammy Wilson has welcomed the take up of almost £13.5million of assistance to pay rates by lone pensioners across Northern Ireland.

£13,488,820 has been distributed to pensioners since April 2008 by Land & Property Services through the Lone Pensioner Allowance, which entitles persons aged 70 or over who live alone to a 20% discount in their rate bill.

Welcoming this, the Minister said: “The Lone Pensioner Allowance is an example of the tangible help that the Executive is providing to one of our most vulnerable groups in society. It is encouraging that nearly 25,000 people have availed of this assistance which I am sure is of particular use in this current economic climate.”

The Minister, who was attending the Young at Heart Exhibition at St George’s Market for retired people in Northern Ireland, encouraged all those who qualify for the assistance to apply.

The Minister continued: “If you are aged 70 or over and are living alone, I urge you to apply for the Lone Pensioner Allowance. If you are eligible you will receive this help irrespective of income or savings because this allowance is not means tested. Therefore you don’t have to tell us about your savings or income when you apply.

“Older people, who do not live alone, may also be eligible for help with paying their rates. I would encourage all older people to check out what help they are entitled to.”

Getting help to pay your rate bill is not exclusive to older people. People on low incomes may be eligible for a reduction in their rates through the Housing Benefit Scheme or Rate Relief Scheme. The Disabled Persons Allowance scheme entitles a household to a 25% reduction in their rates if the property has been suitably adapted or has additional facilities to meet the special needs of a resident disabled person.

Full details of all these reliefs are available at www.nidirect.gov.uk/rates or by telephoning 101 (028 9151 3101). Calls cost 10p.

Notes to editors:

1. Media enquiries only to DFP Communications Office on 028 9052 7374 or 028 9052 7375. Out of office hours please contact the Duty Press Officer via pager number 076 9971 5440 and your call will be returned.

Ciarrai Conlan
Information Officer
Marketing and Communications
Land & Property Services
Queen’s Court
55-66 Upper Queens Street
Belfast
BT1 6FD

Tel: 028 9054 3988 ext 43988
Mobile: 07879557528

Finance Minister Supports Marie Curie Shop Challenge
Finance
Image by DUP Photos
Finance Minister Sammy Wilson spurs staff from DFP on as they participate in the Marie Curie Shop Challenge on the Lisburn Road. Pictured (L-R) Martine Faloon, DFP, Jenny Burton, Assistant Manager, Marie Curie Finance Minister and Annette Hutton, DFP

The challenge involved generating extra stock, helping to raise the shop’s profile locally, attracting more customers on the day and ultimately increasing sales and money raised.

Picture taken by: Heather Thompson (DFP) – 27/09/2012

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Q&A: Do you agree this is what caused the economic crisis?

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Question by what?: Do you agree this is what caused the economic crisis?
I found this on fact check

The Federal Reserve, which slashed interest rates after the dot-com bubble burst, making credit cheap.

Home buyers, who took advantage of easy credit to bid up the prices of homes excessively.

Congress, which continues to support a mortgage tax deduction that gives consumers a tax incentive to buy more expensive houses.

Real estate agents, most of whom work for the sellers rather than the buyers and who earned higher commissions from selling more expensive homes.

The Clinton administration, which pushed for less stringent credit and downpayment requirements for working- and middle-class families.

Mortgage brokers, who offered less-credit-worthy home buyers subprime, adjustable rate loans with low initial payments, but exploding interest rates.

Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, who in 2004, near the peak of the housing bubble, encouraged Americans to take out adjustable rate mortgages.

Wall Street firms, who paid too little attention to the quality of the risky loans that they bundled into Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS), and issued bonds using those securities as collateral.

The Bush administration, which failed to provide needed government oversight of the increasingly dicey mortgage-backed securities market.

An obscure accounting rule called mark-to-market, which can have the paradoxical result of making assets be worth less on paper than they are in reality during times of panic.

Collective delusion, or a belief on the part of all parties that home prices would keep rising forever, no matter how high or how fast they had already gone up.

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/who_caused_the_economic_crisis.html

Best answer:

Answer by new mom
uh, yep that about sums it up

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What is an investment banker and what does he/she do?

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Question by HeavenlyBliss: What is an investment banker and what does he/she do?
In addition, is the position very lucrative?

Best answer:

Answer by heart_and_troll
There are numerous job functions in investment banking. Yes, the positions can be very lucrative, but they are also very time consuming kinds of work – long hours, 90 hrs a week, and hard to get hired into, because it’s so competitive.

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What is the value of 750,000 pounds in Great Britain converted to us dollars amount to?

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Question by Ms. TAM TAM: What is the value of 750,000 pounds in Great Britain converted to us dollars amount to?
I keep getting this email that I have won a contest from the Coca Cola company from the UK that is worth 750,000 pounds and they need me to claim it right away…what kind of bogus thing is this>>>has anyone else received or heard of an email contest>>>>

Best answer:

Answer by rarguile
Obviously you didn’t enter a contest in Britain, so I am very confident that this is a well-known scam. Why would any legitimate enterprise give away $ 1.5 million to a complete stranger? It isn’t exactly a brilliant publicity stunt by “Coca Cola” to just email a winner. If you had won, there would be TV vans and reporters on your doorstep!
It is a junk email!

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The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of The World by Niall Ferguson Epsd. 1-5 (Full Documentary)

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Niall Ferguson follows the money to tell the human story behind the evolution of finance, from its origins in ancient Mesopotamia to the latest upheavals on …
Video Rating: 4 / 5

Micro Credit, Micro Finance is ideal for families with low income to make their lives more comfortable and better for studies or to create small business. Do…

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What’s the main purpose of john bellamy foster’s monopoly-finance capital article?

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Question by Roberto Alvarez: What’s the main purpose of john bellamy foster’s monopoly-finance capital article?
Capitalism?

Best answer:

Answer by BeachBum
You can find your answer from an interview with the author provided in the link.

Interview of John Bellamy Foster for Norwegian Daily, Klassekampen

Klassekampen: Is the credit crisis a symptom of overaccumulation of capital? It seems to me that investments worldwide, but especially in the United States, were funneled into the traditionally “safe” housing market following the bursting of the dotcom-bubble. This overinvestment in turn generated a new bubble, thus causing today’s havoc. Is this correct?

JBF: Yes, I agree that this is due to what might be called an overaccumulation of capital in a number of senses: an overbuilding of productive capacity (physical capital) in relation to a demand constrained by monopoly within what economists call the “real” (as opposed to financial) economy, an overamassing of profits and wealth at the top of society, and a hypertrophy of financial claims to wealth. In terms of the financial crisis itself, there has been a massive, highly leveraged expansion of money claims to wealth, creating a huge debt overhang, and forcing, at this moment, a massive devaluation of capital. All of this is related, however, to the breakdown of the capital formation process, accumulation proper, in an increasingly stagnant real economy. These are contradictions of what I have called the phase of “Monopoly-Finance Capital” (Monthly Review, December 2006).

The bursting of the dot.com or New Economy bubble in 2000 resulted in what has been dubbed “the great bubble transfer” whereby the bursting of the New Economy bubble compelled the Federal Reserve to lower the main interest rate it controls (the Federal Funds rate), leading to a new and more massive bubble based in home mortgages, the dangers of which were apparent early on (see “The Household Debt Bubble,” Monthly Review, May 2006). This involved an enormous expansion of consumer debt despite the fact that real wages had been stagnant in the United States since the 1970s creating an unstable situation. It also involved the need on the part of capital to book ever increasing profits from finance, achieved through securitization of every form of what had previously been individual debts — especially home mortgages. This in turn led to the extension of mortgage financing to riskier and riskier customers under the theory that new “risk management” techniques had devised the means (hailed — bizarrely — by some as the equivalent of the great technological advances in the real economy) with which to separate the weaker from the stronger debts within the new securities. These new debt securities were then “insured” against default by such means as credit-debt swaps, supposedly reducing risk still further. This was the ideology behind the housing bubble. (See “The Financialization of Capital and the Crisis,” Monthly Review, April 2008.)

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Q&A: What does securitizing an asset mean. Asset securitization? In plain english please. Thanks?

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Question by ivette s: What does securitizing an asset mean. Asset securitization? In plain english please. Thanks?

Best answer:

Answer by puremonopoly
Financial cash-flow producing assets that are pooled together and sold to investors in packages. These asset packets don’t hold high yielding returns.

Sub-prime lenders use this technique when issuing a loan. They’ll secure the loan from many lenders that contribute partial amounts of money so as to lower the total risk of each lender, thereby allowing each lender to partially secure loans for more than one party. Its a form of risk management that didn’t do so well in the mortgage industry recently because of bad investment techniques.

Its advised to risk no more than 15% of your total assets in Asset Securitization if you do choose to go down that investment route.

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Securitization: Understanding?

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Question by kehoejck: Securitization: Understanding?
”
Consider a bank, ABC Bank. The loans given out by this bank are its assets. Thus, the bank has a pool of these assets on its balance sheet and so the funds of the bank are locked up in these loans. The bank gives loans to its customers. The customers who have taken a loan from the ABC bank are known as obligors.

To free these blocked funds the assets are transferred by the originator (the person who holds the assets, ABC Bank in this case) to a special purpose vehicle (SPV).

The SPV is a separate entity formed exclusively for the facilitation of the securitisation process and providing funds to the originator. The assets being transferred to the SPV need to be homogenous in terms of the underlying asset, maturity and risk profile.

What this means is that only one type of asset (eg: auto loans) of similar maturity (eg: 20 to 24 months) will be bundled together for creating the securitised instrument. The SPV will act as an intermediary which divides the assets of the originator into marketable securities.

These securities issued by the SPV to the investors and are known as pass-through-certificates (PTCs).The cash flows (which will include principal repayment, interest and prepayments received ) received from the obligors are passed onto the investors (investors who have invested in the PTCs) on a pro rata basis once the service fees has been deducted.”

I am trying to understand exaclty what the bank does to free up more cash. I would really appreciate help with this.

What I understand
Ok, banks give out loans to their customers and the properties are assets on balance sheet.How exactly by securitization does the company actually get in more funds> A very simple explanation would be appreciated.
What exactly are these investors getting?? Who do they make money from it?

Best answer:

Answer by frak1a12345
The investors gave money(puchased) for these PTCs. That money goes to the bank. The bank now has its money back and the investors have the PTCs.

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Explain how AAA assets may be created from pools of risky mortgages?

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Question by : Explain how AAA assets may be created from pools of risky mortgages?
Explain how AAA assets may be created from pools of risky
mortgages each of which individually may be rated as riskier than
AAA. When so many AAA securities defaulted was it because the rat-
ing agencies were corrupt, incompetent or unlucky? To what extent
was this process of the creation of structured products responsible
for the 2007 …financial crisis?

Best answer:

Answer by I didn’t do it!
The process is known as ‘credit enhancement’. There are various ways how this can be achieved.

For example, a Company A whose overall credit rating is BB sells its assets to a special purpose vehicle (SPV). The SPV funds the purchase of these assets by issuing asset backed securities to investors. The investors rely on the performance of the particular assets in the SPV and not on the performance of Company A; and this is a major difference: if the transaction is properly structured, a bankruptcy of Company A will not interfere with the payments of the assets, now isolated from the BB rated company. A rating agency, for example Standard & Poors, rate the ability of the company to pay their debt. If the assets are held in an SPV, isolated from Company A with its BB rating, the SPV can have a higher rating if the assets are considered good quality. If this is not sufficient, a bank may issue some form of guarantee, for example a letter of credit issued by a bank for a fee, which guarantees the payment.

Another argument for risk reduction goes as follows: diversifying the risks by pooling and repackaging them into a series of bonds, would reduce the overall risk. For example, the total potential loss amount is higher if you are exposed to the mortgage of one borrower, than if you are exposed to two or more borrowers for the same amount: it is less likely that all different borrowers default at the same time.

However, there is one major flaw, among others, in this concept, which proved to be fatal in the recent financial crises: the buyers of securitized debt instruments do no longer have transparency and understanding of the underlying risks of the instrument that they hold. A holder of a bond which is the result of securitized credit card receivables, for example, does not need to and cannot have a complete understanding of the credit quality of the individual credit card debt that makes up the bond. All he relies on is an abstract mathematical concept of aggregate default probability, which is partly the result of a rating issued by a rating agency exposed to a potential conflict of interest: the rating agencies had an incenticve to issue high ratings because they were paid by the issuer (risk of moral hazard!).

In summary: in theory, securitization of credit should result in a reduction in the overall risk through diversification, compared to the individual components of the asset pool. However, this risk reduction was more than offset through the risk of mispricing the individual risk component and the risk of moral hazard in the origination of these instruments. All this made such instruments much more vulnerable to external shocks, such as an interest rate hike, which ultimately led to the recent collapse of the financial markets.

The securitization of credit and the mispricing of the risks did significantly contribute to the financial crisis, although on their own they would not have been sufficient; other ingredients, such as regulatory imprudence or massive capital inflows into the economy were necessary to create a financial crisis of such a magnitude.

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selling bonds backed by payments from tobacco settlement funds to private is called?

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Question by Tbaby: selling bonds backed by payments from tobacco settlement funds to private is called?
a. securitization. b. robbery c. conservatism gone wild d. unreimbursed health care expenditures

Best answer:

Answer by iTroll
e) CRAZYYY

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What exactly does an Investment Banker do?

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Question by evil cookie: What exactly does an Investment Banker do?
and would you have any tips for an IB interview?

thanks

Best answer:

Answer by Nathiya
Investment banker’s duty is to advise their clients on high level issues of financial organization. They handle issuance of bonds, recommend and execute strategies for taking over and merging with other companies, and handle selling a company’s stock to the public. Work weeks of 70 hours or more are common, and all night sessions before deals close are the rule rather than the exception. Most commonly, investment bankers who leave the profession go on to financial jobs in-house with a client of their former banking firm, as financial officers and analysts. Bankers who have become sufficiently established, with clients who trust them and reputations for expertise in their fields, can become entrepreneurs, leaving their firms to set up their own investment banks.

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Q&A: When a commercial bank lends money lends money?

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Question by Chris: When a commercial bank lends money lends money?
When a commercial bank lends money through a checking account the money the bank lends comes from or belongs to?

Best answer:

Answer by John Bradley
The money comes from one of two places:

1. The bank’s deposit base (the money customers deposit with the bank).

2. Other funding sources, such as debt securitization (the selling of bonds backed by loans the bank makes).*

Option one is the “old” way of getting money to lend.

Option two is the “new” way of getting money to lend, though bank’s overreliance on alternative funding sources was recently shaken up quite a bit with the recent “credit crisis,” as many banks saw the market for debt-backed securities shrink (in other words, the number of people willing to buy these securities got smaller, and the ones that remain weren’t buying as many as before).

Banks are now increasingly relying on good old fashioned deposits as a source of money to lend, though debt securitization is here to stay.

*When you apply for a loan, the bank may require that you put up an asset of yours as security. This asset may be cash, a car, real estate, or anything else of value. Debt securitization works the same way. To the bank, a loan it issues is considered an asset, and as with all assets, this assett has a market value. Bank can raise money in the financial markets by selling bonds (loans payable by the bank) that is backed by the bank’s total portfolio of loans, in case the bank defaults on it’s debt.

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