Owing to the idisyncratic Searching Finance system of classification, some books appear in more than one section ... hey that's showbusiness!

Banking and Finance

Are Bankers Good or Bad for Society? BankRUPT: Why Banking is Broken. How it can be Transformed, Bank to the Future: Protect your Future Before Governments Go Bust, City of London: How It Developed into the World's Leading Financial Centre, The Castle and The Sandbox, Effective Bank Regulation and Supervision, Future of Banking after Global Reregulation, Liquidity Strategies for Financial Institutions and Corporates: The Art of Cash Management, Lipstick on a Pig - Why Bail-outs Fail and People Power Will Succeed The Smartphone Wallet - Understanding the Disruption Ahead, The Extraordinary Madness of Banks and the Extreme Folly of Governments, Money for Nothing and your Cheques for Free, Socialising the Anti-Social Bank, It's Banking, Jim, But not as we Know It, Not Every Bank is Goldman Sachs

Banking and Finance - Humour

Bernie Madoff: the Part I Didn't Play in his Downfall, Socialising the Anti-Social Bank, It's Banking, Jim, But not as we Know It, Not Every Bank is Goldman Sachs

The Lingua Franca of The Corporate Banker

Disruption, Innovation and Transformation (Finance)

The Castle and The Sandbox, BankRUPT: Why Banking is Broken. How it can be Transformed, Bank to the Future: Protect your Future Before Governments Go Bust

Lipstick on a Pig - Why Bail-outs Fail and People Power Will Succeed, The Smartphone Wallet - Understanding the Disruption Ahead

Economics and Politics

The Courageous State: Rethinking Economics, Society and the Role of Government, The Red Book, The Euro in Danger

Economic History

Chronology of a Crisis, Loan Sharks - the Rise and Rise of Payday Lenders, "Saving the World"? Gordon Brown Reconsidered, The City of London: How It Developed into the World's Leading Financial Centre

Economics, Politics and Society in the UK

"Saving the World"? Gordon Brown Reconsidered, The Euro in Danger: Reform and Reset, What Sort of NHS Do We Want?, The Courageous State: Rethinking Economics, Society and the Role of Government, Solving Britain's Personal Debt Crisis, Sorry, We Have No Money: Britain's Economic Problem, The Red Book

Europe

EU Financial Services Regulation: Key Events 2010/2011, The Creation of an EU Financial Regulatory Framework, Understanding the EU Budget. The Euro in Danger

Personal Finance

Loan Sharks - the Rise and Rise of Payday Lenders, The Roundabout has Stopped: What We Fail to Teach our Kids about Money

Reference

A Practical Guide to Social Media in Financial Services, Be your Own CFO: The Art of Cash Management for SMEs, Channel Innovation in Financial Services, Liquidity Strategies for Financial Institutions and Corporates: The Art of Cash Management, Sales and Sales Management in Financial Services

This Financial Crisis

 Chronology of a Crisis, "Saving the World"? Gordon Brown Reconsidered , The 7 deadly sins of capitalism, The Euro in Danger: Reform and Reset, The Courageous State: Rethinking Economics, Society and the Role of Government, The Red Book, The EU Fiscal Crisis: Forcing Eurozone Political Union

(Economics and) The Environment

TANSTAAFL (There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch), The End of Abundance: Economic Solutions to Water Scarcity

In a credit-squeezed market, cash and liquidity rule - find out how to drive the effectiveness and efficiency of your company's and your own cash

Banks are running a zero tolerance policy towards your bank account. Go overdrawn, for whatever reason, and you’ll be punished financially. The banks are rebuilding their capital position, trying to cover years of questionable loan practices and to meet new global banking regulations. A source of cheap deposits and fee income is the SME (Small and Medium Enterprise) and the individual. In the past you may not have concerned yourself unduly with managing your cash, but today if you do not pay (pun intended) attention then the banker may take it all.

Be Your Own CFO: The Art of Cash Management for SMEs is a best-practice guide that makes liquidity understandable and demonstrates how better cash management can help you and your company weather the current financial storm.  

With greater insight into banking, payment and trade infrastructures, better decisions can be made to drive the efficiency and effectiveness of cash.

The book asks you to look at:
•    You direct debits – 1 in 10 are usually for something you don’t now need;
•    Earning money on money while staying liquid – take a look at currencies and gold;
•    Payments - get paid faster, ask for electronic transfer instead of paper;
•    Accounts receivable – figure out how much working capital you are lending out;
•    Accounts payable – how it is affecting your credit rating.

Written by John Bertrand, a veteran banker with 30 years' experience in banking, cash management, payments and technology at Citibank, IBOS, ALLTEL, Misys and Admertec/Ceptum in the US and the UK.

Review

“Be Your Own CFO is superb. For the first time there is a book that explains banking and finance in every day language. Easy and simple to read and understand. It is ideal for people needing a practical understanding of finance and how it affects them and their companies." Thomas E Jones, former Vice Chairman of the IASB

"Actually, it is very good, concise, and I wonder who you got to write it." Gerry English, past President of the Irish Association of Corporate Treasurers

Publication date: October 2012
ISBN 978-1-907720-49-9

For full list of Contents, click here

To see sample pages, click here

Order your copy now
Print:£9.99//€11.95/$15.60 plus p&p; PDF/e-book: £7.99+ VAT/€9.60+ VAT/$12.50

Contents

Each chapter starts with Key Questions for SME directors and a Key Points Summary

 

 

Chapter 1    Stages of Cash Management

Domestic Cash Management

International Cash Management

 

Chapter 2    Bank Accounts -  New Rules and Regulations

Mandate

Know Your Customer (KYC)

Anti Money Laundering

Deposit Insurance

Value Dating

3^rd Party Management

 

Chapter 3    Liquidity/Cash Cushion

 

Chapter 4    Savings

Bank Accounts

Interest Rates

 

Chapter 5    The Investment Pyramid

Base

Appreciating cash investments

Bonds, equities and property

Speculation

 

Chapter 6    The Credit Pyramid

Overdrafts

Unsecured Credit

Secured credit

Credit Agencies

Credit Default Swaps

 

Chapter 7    Investment versus Credit

Net Interest Income

 

Chapter 8    Payments

Cheque

ACH

Direct Debit

SEPA Direct Debit (SDD)

Epayments

Mpayments

Warehouse Accounts

Correspondent Banking Payments

Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS)

 

Chapter 9    Foreign Exchange

 

Chapter 10  Supply Chain

Invoice Financing

eInvoicing

Asset Based Finance

Personnel Guarantees

 

Chapter 11  Illiquid Management

Bankruptcy

Pre-pack Administration

 

Chapter 12  Case Studies

Nordea

Citi

HSBC

Wells Fargo/Wachovia

 

 

About John Bertrand

John's expertise in banking, cash management, payments and technology was gained over 30 years at Citibank, IBOS, ALLTEL, Misys and Admertec/Ceptum in the USA and UK.

 

In this time he created and implemented technology in front, middle and back offices of banks, in addition to developing electronic access options for the needs of corporations and retail customers.  This included redefining core banking for Misys  (300 banks), ensuring long-term revenue. He has provided and developed cash management consulting, netting schemes, third party cash management, pooling and foreign exchange.

 

John has been involved in mergers and acquisitions in more than 10 banking/software transactions that included cloud-based solutions. One transaction in the cloud now represents 9% of Misys profits.

John raised capital, added mezzanine financing, leasing and invoice factoring together to create Ceptum Limited, a potential bank, now with $10 million in profitable assets and with no debt.

He has worked with the UK (FSA) and Swedish (FI) banking and finance authorities to create a de nova bank.

The surprise star of the London Olympics and

''the nearest thing to a national religon.'' (Nigel Lawson).

What sort of NHS do you want?

From the introduction to David's book:

' The area I live in provides a microcosm of the problems facing our health service. 

Economic decline has brought bad health and the resulting bad habits.  There is also a large, and growing, population of the elderly for whom care has to be provided. It seems to present an enormous challenge.

But things are not as bad as they appear at first.  There are many good people in the community who are trying to do something about the situation. There is a lively health centre, with innovative and dedicated GPs and a go-ahead manager. There is a thriving garden association which has 250 gardens and a waiting list.  There is an impressive and proactive community Health Forum, entirely run by volunteers who cared about their community and its health.

So there is hope. 

A community which has been on the sharp end of recession and economic decline, and has experienced their effects at first hand, is doing something about it. It made me think.  What sort of role do we see for the NHS in the future?   The NHS will be financially constrained whichever government is in power, and we cannot expect it to solve all our problems alone.  Communities must do something to help.

In this book I attempt to set out my ideas about how a community-based, democratically run health service will function in the future. 

If we are to deal with bad health, it is a job for all of us.  Despite our problems, we have some examples of very good practice that provide some idea of what sort of health service we could have in this country in the future.' 

ISBN: 978-1-907720-60-4

Publication date: October 2012 (paperback)
Order your copy now - £9.99/€11.60/$15.55 plus p&p

Buy What Sort of NHS Do We Want? together with Loan Sharks and save 20%

£15.98/€19.80/$25.59 plus p&p

Buy What Sort of NHS Do We Want? together with The Red Book and save 20%

 £15.98/€19.80/$25.59 plus p&p

"William Keegan is a great columnist and an entertaining and authoritative chronicler of the economic and political history of our times."  

David Smith, The Sunday Times

In this new book, Wiliam Keegan of The Observer builds on his earlier best-selling examination of the political career of Gordon Brown, 'The Prudence of Mr Gordon Brown' (2003). A book that expressed some unfashionable concerns about the conduct of New Labour's economic policy and seeked to temper the copious praise that was then being lavished on Brown.

"Saving the World"? takes a fresh look at the later years of Gordon Brown as chancellor and prime minister.

The book, no hagiography, draws equally on the accounts of those who worked closest with him as well as those who he fought and feuded with and provides a balanced view of Brown the leader, arguing that, for all his acknowledged flaws, and policy errors, the degree to which 'it was all Gordon's fault' is much exaggerated.

Brown is widely acknowledged, certainly outside of Britain, to have been the right leader, in the right place at the right time to rescue the world economy in 2008-09, a view supported by amongst others Paul Krugman and Amartya Sen; given the current absence of such impressive leadership in global macro-economic policy, it is a loss that Brown has largely withdrawn from policy issues. 

On the home front, his famous 'prudence' was always for a purpose, and as time goes on, it will be seen that he and his colleagues did more for public services in health, education and relief of poverty than has been recognised, although as Keegan shows they did not do enough, with social housing a particular failure.

'Saving the World'?

It's time for a reassessment.

Publication date: October 2012 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-907720-56-7
Order your copy now: £9.99/€11.60/$15.55 plus p&p

Buy "Saving the World?" together with The Courageous State and save 20%

£19.99/€24.77/$32.02 plus p&p

Buy "Saving the World?" together with The Red Book and save 20%

 £15.98/€19.80/$25.59 plus p&p

Overview

After the nadir of the banking crisis of 2008, the business of banking is undergoing massive change as governments and regulators strive to return stability to the banking system and avoid the future provision of taxpayer support to failing banks.  

The multiple issues raised by the crisis are converging into one core and very fundamental question: what will be the future shape of the banking business in the developed world?  Faced with a raft of untested new initiatives, uncertainty over the direction and effectiveness of bank regulation, a potentially very uneven global playing field, the possibility of drastic restructuring, and the prospect of much reduced profit levels, banking is facing a very challenging future. Add to the mix the impact of this 'new normal' of profitability on investor sentiment with its increasing appetite for risk, and the need to nevertheless operate in a political climate of public anger and retribution, and you have a unique set of conflicts that mean that banking is facing a perfect storm of uncertainty and threat.

But one thing is certain: bankers, investors and others need to plan now for the future, and key strategic decisions to ensure a sustainable future have to be made. The Future of Banking after Global Reregulation defines and analyses the core issues, balances and weighs  conflicting views, and assesses likely impacts and outcomes to provide unique and insightful strategic input in troubled times.

Published September 2012
ISBN 978-1-907720-29-1
100 pages
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