Christopher Hunt
As seen in:
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ABC News (Australia),
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Monocle,
Lexology,
Euromoney,
GlobalCapital,
The Oldie,
Med Device Online,
Journal of the American College of Radiology
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emerging markets, fixed income, transaction services, foreign exchange, derivatives, banking, capital markets
Euromoney is the leading authority for the world's banking and financial markets: euromoney.com
Articles by Christopher Hunt
Evidence for funerary behaviour and lethal trauma in a new Neanderthal individual from Shanidar Cave
Abstract Shanidar Cave has long featured in debates concerning Neanderthal cognitive capacity and behaviour, including evidence for care and intentional burial. By identifying additional individuals, including Shanidar A reported here, new excavations have expanded a burial cluster first identified in 1960. Shanidar A, an older adult, was deposited around 75,000 years ago, decayed, and their skeletal remains were subsequently disturbed by a flash flood.
07.11.23 -- Breeze Through Surprise Audits — Take These 5 Actions Now
By Erika Roberts, ELR Lab Services LLC Summer is here! That means you might hear the dreaded words, “Surprise! We are coming to audit you!” Whether it’s a client, supplier, or regulatory agency calling for an audit, those words can strike fear in even the most organized companies — but not if you're prepared by taking these five action items now.
05.09.23 -- Effective Project Leadership In The Medical Device Industry
By Eric Hinrichs (retired), Ethicon, part of the Johnson & Johnson Medical Device Companies This author draws on his 31-year career in the medical device industry to share what is involved in good and effective project leadership.
What Is Micro 3D Printing
By Christopher Hunt Additive manufacturing (AM) and micro 3D printing has disrupted the way micro-sized parts are designed and manufactured for engineers worldwide. Advances enable faster prototyping, faster production, more complex geometry, and smaller sizes. The continuous development of materials and technology has created distinguishable tiers within the AM market.
Colchester man fined £433 for failing to renew £20 vehicle licence
Christopher Hunt, of Moss Road, Stanway, was docked the sum of money by magistrates in Colchester earlier this month Colchester man fined £433 for failing to renew £20 vehicle licence p 0 Comments Costly – the vehicle licence cost £20 to renew, but after Hunt failed to make the payment for more than a year, he was fined £433 (Image: Daniel Rees, Newsquest) COLCHESTER magistrates have fined a man who was found to be driving an unlicensed vehicle.p 0 Comments Get involved p the news Send your...
I Once Met... Pope John Paul II
Christopher Hunt remembers saving Pope John Paul II from embarrassment on a flight in 1982 British Caledonian Airways had been awarded the fixed-wing and helicopter contract to fly His Holiness and party round the British Isles on his visit in 1982. We used two Sikorsky S-61N helicopters, normally based in Aberdeen in support of offshore oil and gas operations: one crewed by Frayne Coulshaw and me, and the second by Mike Webber and David Babbington.
Letter: Trojan Horse theocracy
Regarding Reverend Douglas Brower’s campaign advertisement of May 20, Mr. Brower’s declaration to bring Biblical principles to governance smacks of Trojan Horse theocracy hiding in plain sight. The First Amendment of the Constitution begins, “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion.” This is also known as the Establishment Clause.
Laterality Errors in Radiology Reports Generated With and Without Voice Recognition Software: Frequency and Clinical Significance
Purpose The aim of this study was to determine the incidence, types, and clinical implications of laterality errors and the effect of voice recognition software on the frequency of laterality errors. Methods All radiology reports generated between January 2007 and April 2011 were retrospectively evaluated to identify revised reports containing laterality errors.
World at your feet - The Entrepreneurs 1 - Magazine
B Business toolkit / Global Whether they’re grand business behemoths or single-person start-ups, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to entrepreneurs. We’ve traversed the globe and searched across industries to bring you the stories of where, how and why people have decided to go it alone.
EU and Japan formally sign economic partnership agreement | Lexology
On 17 July 2018, the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) was formally signed during the EU-Japan summit in Tokyo. The EPA – the largest free trade agreement ever negotiated by the EU – has been years in the making and took significant time and effort to get to this stage. You can read more about the steps to date in our earlier post here. The EPA aims to remove trade barriers between the EU and Japan, making it easier for firms to sell goods and services between the two economies.
Derek Jeter's Dating Diamond
For about 20 years, New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter has been a star in Major League Baseball. He was a star again at Tuesday night's MLB All-Star Game. The star. It started with a standing ovation when he walked onto the field for his first at-bat and continued when he left the field to another standing O in the fourth inning with two hits.
Westpac raises home loan interest rates, follows NAB
Westpac will raise its home loan interest rates for investors and owner-occupiers, following a similar move by National Australia Bank. Westpac has raised its standard variable mortgage rate for owner-occupiers by 0.03 percentage points to 5.32 per cent for those who are making principal and interest repayments, while investor loans in that category will increase by 0.23 percentage points to 5.79 per cent.
Financial inclusion: Fintech & fraud – microfinance faces balancing act in Africa @Euromoney
It happened four years ago, but the memory of the fraud hangs heavy on Rupert Scofield, co-founder and president of The Foundation for International Community Assistance (Finca). "He worked for us for 10 years; we thought we could trust him," Scofield recalls of the accountant at Finca’s Ugandan outfit, who he says embezzled $200,000 from the group. The story, which Scofield now describes with regret but disarming openness, is one of collusion and poor supervision.
Bond market shoots first, asks questions later @Euromoney
Working in the bond markets can be pretty exhausting. If a burned out trader had decided to take a year-long nap on December 1, 2015 with the 10-year US treasury at 2.24%, he or she would have woken up on December 1, 2016 with the UST 10-year at 2.34%. So, nothing much happened last year, right? Wrong. So much happened it is hard to know where to start.
Bond markets: Two cheers for rising rates @Euromoney
The Bloomberg Barclays global aggregate bond index fell by 5.6% from the eve of the US presidential election to mid-December, hitting bondholders with mark-to-market losses of $2.4 trillion. While investors in bank equity were celebrating the rise in interest rates that bank management teams have told them will bring higher earnings – bank share prices on both sides of the Atlantic rallied in lock step with rising bond yields – Euromoney could not help worrying where these losses may yet pop out.
An alternative review of the year 2016 @Euromoney
One outstanding candidate remains: the chairman of struggling Deutsche Bank. Jaws hit the floor when it was announced at the end of November that Deutsche’s supervisory board would recommend a renewed term for Paul Achleitner as its chairman, after an internal probe cleared him of wrongdoing in relation to how the bank dealt with an official investigation into the Libor affair. If only that was the single item on the charge-list against Achleitner.
Brazil extends successful offshore wealth amnesty @Euromoney
Senior private bank professionals in Brazil expect that the extension to the amnesty on undisclosed offshore assets will lead to further inflows – for the government and private banking industry – in 2017. The initial deadline of the end of November this year raised R$46.8 billion for the Brazilian government, with 15% fines and 15% tax on a total of R$132 billion declared by Brazilian nationals.
Brazil begins micro reforms in attempt to end recession @Euromoney
The Brazilian government and central bank is examining changes to financial services regulation in an attempt to boost consumption and help to pull the country out of a seemingly endless recession.
Country risk expert insight: Georgia is the most resilient player across Black Sea territories @Euromoney
ECR data shows the country on a positive wave, with a stable economic and political outlook. Euromoney spoke to Panayotis Gavras, head of policy and strategy at the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB). He says: "Georgia has been something of a positive outlier. Among the 12 members of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation it is the best-performing country cumulatively since 2008, slightly ahead of Turkey. " Ukraine has suffered a severe recession it is only now getting out of.
CRD IV creating regional divides on notional pooling @Euromoney
Changes required under the capital requirements directive IV (CRD IV) to bank capital are hitting banks' capacity to conduct notional pooling, but not all jurisdictions are being impacted in the same way.
Fed rules insufficient to lure new primary dealers @Euromoney
A tough post-financial crisis regulatory climate that has prompted banks to scale back bond-dealing operations has left the US Treasury with a growing headache: the institutions it has traditionally relied on to buy and sell its debt may not be able to provide the same depth of liquidity as they have in the past.
Myanmar could be a high-risk gamble worth taking @Euromoney
Preliminary results from Euromoney’s country risk survey reveal another increase in Myanmar’s risk score in Q4 2016, extending the rise to almost 1.5 points this year, which is more than most other emerging or frontier markets in the region.
CSR: SRI assets hit $8.72 trillion @Euromoney
The amount of professionally managed assets invested in sustainable, responsible or impact investment products has risen 33% since 2014. According to data released at the end of last year from US SIF: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment, $8.72 trillion is invested in such products – that is more than one fifth of all assets professionally managed in the US. Of that, impact investing is the smallest sector.
FX: Fed indicates steeper path for US rate rises in 2017 @Euromoney
Some had speculated the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) might surprise the markets with an aggressive 50 basis point rise. Few predicted they would be left on hold again. In the end, the Fed’s decision to hikes rates by 25bp, only the second raise of the cycle – and of the past 10 years – surprised nobody, though it did push USD to a 14-year high.
FX options a tempting solution – but problems persist @Euromoney
For companies looking to take advantage of favourable currency moves or seeking a hedging alternative to forwards when exposures are uncertain or risk is asymmetrical, FX options are a handy solution. The problem is they have traditionally come at a price that has prohibited their use on a more regular basis. The options market has evolved in recent years, but this development has not delivered the lower costs that aspiring market participants might have hoped for.
CSR: The alpha female effect @Euromoney
While the gender gap in education may be closing in the US, it has yet to translate into pay equity or senior positions for women in the workplace. According to a UBS white paper on gender lens investing, in 2015 among 25- to 34-year-olds, there were 20% more women than men with at least a bachelor’s degree in the US. Furthermore, women now account for almost half of all students in JD (juris doctor), MBA, and MD (medical doctor) programmes – up from 10% in the 1960s.
Spirit of TLAC broken as regulators mark their ground @Euromoney
The spirit of international rules on bank capitalization is being broken by rules implemented in the US and UK, and proposed by the EU, that amount to protectionism, market players fear. UK government officials and bankers have been taken aback by a last-minute addition to proposals from the European Commission that could cause some banks to rethink keeping their European headquarters in London after the UK leaves the European Union.
One-stop research shop launched in Asia @Euromoney
A December agreement between Société Générale and Asia-based equity research platform Smartkarma could provide a blueprint for research distribution in the post-Mifid II world. If successful, the concept could be rolled out globally. " Mifid II is not the only catalyst for changes in research," points out Stephane Loiseau, head of cash equities and global execution services, Asia Pacific at Société Générale.
Making Markets Great Again in 2017 @Euromoney
Gary Cohn thrills Goldman Sachs employees with a final podcast of life lessons before stepping down as number two at the bank and becoming president Trump’s head of the National Economic Council. "As a dyslexic boy in Cleveland, Ohio I never dreamed I could make it to the top in Wall Street then take a senior role in Washington.
Lebanon: Banks perk up as Hariri picks cabinet @Euromoney
The political crisis in Lebanon, which left the country without an elected president or a cabinet for more than two years, was partially resolved late in 2016 with the election of a president and the appointment of a prime minister. The changes lifted investor sentiment about Lebanon, but the country’s bankers say there is still a long way to go before the situation is normalized.
UniCredit shakes off Italy tag with NPL fire sale @Euromoney
Jean-Pierre Mustier will try to end UniCredit’s label as the biggest of Italy’s bad-debt crippled banks by taking €8.1 billion of fourth-quarter provisions, ahead of a €13 billion rights issue. To demonstrate just how easily UniCredit can now sell its legacy exposures, the CEO and his team are already cutting risk in €17.7 billion of securitized Italian bad loans, through two new agreements with US asset managers Fortress and Pimco, in a project called Fino.
Principal, agency and hybrid models for FX @Euromoney
Accessing liquidity for all order sizes Author Khorrom Hussain Head of EMEA eFX sales, Bank of America Merrill Lynch Despite narrowing top-of-book bid-ask spreads in FX, our volume-based analysis shows market liquidity has materially worsened. Increasingly fragmented markets, less risk-taking by dealers, rising volatility and falling volumes on major platforms have all reduced deep liquidity in the market limit order book.
2016: A rollercoaster year for foreign exchange @Euromoney
Thursday, June 23: Britain made history by voting to leave the European Union after 43 years of membership and a bitterly fought referendum campaign. The result – which came as a shock to many in the City – wiped value off the pound in a matter of hours. Sterling plunged against the dollar from a high of 1.49 on the day of the referendum to 1.36 the next day, before falling even further to around 1.26 today.
Huge rights issue at heart of Mustier’s new plan for UniCredit @Euromoney
Just after Jean-Pierre Mustier rejoined UniCredit as its CEO in July, he attended an event organized by a leading Italian entrepreneur. He told Mustier that he did business with UniCredit not only because it was an Italian bank but because it had a large international network and was therefore able to support his development outside the country. On another occasion, Mustier heard a slightly different story, although no less positive.
Federal Reserve raises concerns over blockchain @Euromoney
At the TechCrunch Disrupt event in London in early December, David Rutter, chief executive of R3, declared that wholesale financial markets will see substantial activity on distributed-ledger technology in the next three to five years. He announced that R3 will have a first product in the market by the end of 2017.
Barclays caps stunning year in own-account corporate finance @Euromoney
When Barclays set up its non-core division in May 2014 with about £115 billion of risk-weighted assets (RWAs), the task of selling them down in an orderly way by the end of 2017 looked a tall order. However, the bank has had a blistering 2016, completing or agreeing at least 18 publicly announced deals (see chart below).
Goldman Sachs: Post-truth personal loans @Euromoney
Little league windscreen accidents and a puppy wrecking a couch are the sort of apple-pie America stories that feature constantly in advertising anything from washing powder to heart medication that blankets US TV broadcasting. But something about this particularly soothing personal loan campaign jars because it comes from the vampire squid that is Goldman Sachs. Hearing the voice over for the Wall Street giant coo that: "Debt happens.
CSR’s blue sky thinking @Euromoney
Indeed, it ran on a loop through the coffee breaks and is still stuck in Euromoney’s head now. The song in question – Blue Sky Mine – is an interesting choice for a corporate and social responsibility (CSR) conference, for more than one reason.
The pinstickers’ guide to data analysis @Euromoney
Among them is: Australia comes to a stop during the Melbourne Cup horse race. You know what? It’s true. Commonwealth Bank of Australia has released a chart showing all credit and debit transactions on November 1, the date of the race. At 3pm – the start time – transactions dropped almost instantly by 33%, before starting to rally up again at 3.06pm, with the race concluded. Elsewhere, Macquarie devised a complex formula to identify the most undervalued horse, analyzing 40,000 runners in 4,000 races.
EU finance post-Brexit: London, Paris, Frankfurt … Vilnius? @Euromoney
The question of which European cities stand to gain the most if financial firms leave London due to Brexit has fascinated policymakers and the media alike since the UK voted in June to leave the EU. Will it be Paris, with its unrivalled liveability but restrictive labour laws? Industrious but dull Frankfurt? Liberal but peripheral Dublin? Or Amsterdam, the compromise candidate?
Patience with global bank regulation wears thin @Euromoney
Given that his bank faces a potential US Department of Justice fine of $14 billion, it is hardly surprising that Deutsche Bank’s John Cryan should be unusually blunt when addressing the topic of US versus European bank regulation. "The regulations we are facing for the banking sector globally are only for the benefit of the US," he told a banking conference in Frankfurt in November.
Iran: Nothing cements treaties like money @Euromoney
The election of Donald Trump to the highest public office in the United States sent shockwaves through liberal America and much of the world last month. Iran is one of the countries that could be most immediately affected by that appointment. Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, promptly stated that the election result mattered not one bit for his country, which sets its own course regardless of US policy. "We neither mourn nor celebrate, because it makes no difference to us," he said.
MPS and state aid: Hope, or a slippery slope? @Euromoney
It’s often been said that money, like water around rocks, will always find its way around regulation. But the focus of that statement has usually been on the practices of private market participants. It’s becoming clear, less than a year after the implementation of the rule barring the use of public funds to prop up troubled banks, that the adage applies just as much to states and regulators.
Fintech sandbox risks creating unofficial endorsements @Euromoney
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) first announced plans for a safe space in which financial products could be tested outside of regulatory constraints at the launch of Project Innovate in 2014. The aim was to promote innovation and help emerging fintech companies aiming to disrupt the discredited incumbent banks to navigate the strict regulatory landscape.
Banks' single-dealer strategy might have limited shelf life @Euromoney
Although multi-dealer platforms account for the largest share of FX trade volumes, banks are pitching their single-dealer platforms as an entry point into the wider market for their clients. Analytics is now available to help a trader decide what order type to use and when to cross spread or work orders for a particular trade, explains Tom Robinson, head of sales at MahiFX.
Thomson Reuters offers clients TCA via BestX @Euromoney
Thomson Reuters is working with FX analytics specialist BestX to enable buy-side participants using Thomson Reuters FXall and FX Trading to streamline analysis of transaction costs, helping them define, achieve and demonstrate best execution. BestX is designed to be highly customizable so that trades can be analysed according to any criteria desired, from asset class to liquidity venue.
In Latin America, a changing of the guard @Euromoney
Visitors to this year’s Felaban conference in Buenos Aires might have been surprised by the overall upbeat tone. For, despite all the positivity surrounding the new, business-focused administration of president Mauricio Macri, Argentina’s banks still have to contend with a stringent and punitive regulatory environment. Some of Cristina Kirchner’s basic rules have gone (interest rate caps and floors) but others, such as...
Inside Italy's circle of NPL hell @Euromoney
A private-sector solution to Italian banks’ bad-debt problems could be impossible to find. What would that mean for the European Union’s recently constructed pan-regional resolution regime? By Louise Bowman Italy stands at a crossroads: the direction it chooses to take will have a profound impact, not just on its own banks, but potentially the entire construct of European banking-sector resolution.
Monte dei Paschi di Siena: special focus @Euromoney
That Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena’s July plan to raise €5 billion via a rights issue before year-end is unworkable seems to have come as a surprise to no-one but the bank’s own shareholders. When the plan, led by JPMorgan and Mediobanca, was revealed the feasibility of the capital raise was immediately questioned – not one of the bankers and investors that Euromoney spoke to at the time felt that it would happen.
Italian banking: special focus @Euromoney
Sofferenze loans – literally, 'the suffering' – make up 60% of Italy’s non-performing loan stock. At €200 billion, that’s some 11% of the country’s GDP. Fears about the fate of Europe’s fourth-largest economy as its banking sector stands on the brink have centred around the world’s oldest bank – Monte dei Paschi di Siena. The European Central Bank has had Monte’s feet to the fire to clean up its balance sheet.
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