Following on from the success of our pilot festival in New York last December, DATAx is proud to present the next instalment of our global series of data-driven festivals, DATAx Singapore, offering 4 stages, 50 speakers & 450 Innovators. As one of the leading players in smart city technology, with autonomous vehicles, smart sensor platforms and applications of artificial intelligence (AI), it’s a rarity that the city-estate doesn’t make headlines in technology news regularly.

Global consulting group McKinsey estimates that 70% of businesses are expected to rely on AI to automate functions by 2030, adding $13 trillion growth to the global economy. Contrary to popular belief, the World Economic Forum has stated that the shifting dynamics between machines and humans will add an estimated 133 million new roles to the workforce.

The total impact of AI for business remains a looming question for many companies; DATAx aims to remedy this uncertainty by preparing business leaders to address topics like machine learning, analytics, data talent and big data.

With a worldwide community feeding into the series, DATAx remains dedicated to connecting delegates with the latest research, cutting-edge technology and the hottest startups to share highlights and breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) and data science reshaping the world.

Luke Bilton, Managing Director of Innovation Enterprise, commented: “While AI has now become a real opportunity, it also brings real 'survival of the fittest' challenges – only fast-moving businesses are most likely to succeed.

“DATAx is a new style of event, designed to arm early adopters with the tools they need to move fast. We are excited to welcome the world's most innovative brands and partners to build something unique.”

In less than 2 weeks’ time, over 500 data leaders, from tech giants, financial innovators, emerging startups, government bodies and many more will gather at DATAx Singapore. Confirmed speakers from leading brands include American Express, Citi Bank, Visa, Boston Consultant Group, IBM, Netflix, Oracle, AIA, Axiata, Dyson, Singapore Exchange Limited, Google and many more.

The agenda features 50+ speakers covering Asia's critical data solutions in business practice. Grasp the chance to access to the unparalleled learning opportunities and get the latest AI and Machine Learning applications in Technology, Finance, Marketing, Smart Cities, across 5 stages.

SESSION HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE

• ‘Omnichannel Personalisation Like You've Never Seen’, Client Team and Global E-commerce/Data Lead, WPP
• 'Leveraging analytics for more efficient media attribution and allocation', Group VP, Head of Analytics, Axiata
• 'Combining human and artificial intelligence: how creatives and data scientists work in concert at Netflix to craft a personalized experience.' Senior Data Scientist, Netflix
• 'Creating a data-driving go-to-market strategy', Head of Applied Data Science, Dyson
• 'Deep learning and computational grapy techniques for derivatives pricing and analytics', Head of Data Science and Visualisation at Singapore Exchanged Limited
• 'Ready or not: does your organization have a sound data strategy to run successful AI projects?', Big Data & Analytics, ASEAN, Oracle
• 'Organizational cultural changes required for success in Artificial Intelligence', CDO, Head of Science, Visa
• 'Machine learning and AI in American Express risk management', VP, Fraud Risk Decision Science, American Express

Don't miss out: Click here to register

Business telecommunications provider, 4Com has looked into Britons’ attitudes towards their co-workers to reveal just how willing the nation is to create meaningful relationships with those they spend so much time with day-to-day.

According to the research, our willingness to be social in the workplace differs from industry to industry. Finance comes in as the friendliest occupation with a huge four in five (81%) of workers saying they have made lifelong friendships with colleagues, refuting the idea that work is merely a place to get a job done, then go home.

Based on the percentage of people (per industry) who said they have made meaningful friendships at work, 4Com can reveal that the top five friendliest industries in the UK, are:

1. Financial services (81.1%)
2. Business to business (80.8%)
3. Health/healthcare (79.5%)
4. Education (77.9%)
5. Retail (77.9%)

But is having close friendships at work a help or a hindrance?

According to Consultant Psychologist and Clinic Director Dr. Elena Touroni from The Chelsea Psychology Clinic, close relationships at work can actually be good for productivity. She says: “When people get on well and develop friendships, there is a greater supportive and positive energy, which ultimately makes the experience of going to work more pleasant. Although it can be more complex in some instances, being in an environment that you enjoy generally has a positive effect on your overall productivity. Long story short: happier people work harder.”

This tallies with the experiences of financial services workers as the majority of those with close friendships agree that the relationship makes them more productive. Their top reasons for this are:

1. Because they make me enjoy my job more (72%)
2. Because I know I can ask them questions about things I’m not certain on (51%)
3. Because I can turn to them for advice  (40%)

Speaking about her best friend, Rachel from Leeds says: “I met my best friend two years ago at work. A few weeks after starting at the company, I went to the Christmas party where I met the other newbie, Charly. We clicked straight away, couldn’t stop talking and literally cried with laughter. We quickly became inseparable in and outside of the office.

“As we were both new to working in the industry, we helped each other tremendously. We had talents in different areas of the job and felt comfortable asking each other for help without the fear of judgment on things we weren’t yet confident in. This helped to ease any anxieties or worries about our own abilities and learn new skills. We stood side by side throughout the (many) ups and downs, in and outside of work, and although she’s moved to a different country, I know we’ll be friends for life.”

On the other hand, almost one in five (19%) of finance workers say they have never established a relationship with colleagues that go beyond the normal small talk. For them, the most common reason is simply that they are at work to do a job, not for friendship (40%), while a further two in five (40%) admitted having nothing in common with their workmates. This is most true however, for those in the public sector, of which one in four (25%) have never made meaningful relationships at work.

Consultant psychologist Dr. Touroni provides some insight: “Some people can find vulnerability in a work environment threatening, so preserving a boundary between personal and professional life helps them feel more secure. This self-protective mechanism is especially relevant when one is in a position of authority. Close friendships become a lot more complicated when a power dynamic is introduced, so it is often easier to maintain a level of distance with lower-level colleagues if you are in a position of seniority over them.”

Commenting on the research, Mark Pearcy, Head of Marketing at 4Com, said: “We spend a lot of time with our colleagues, more so than with our other friends and family, so it’s nice to see we’re building strong and meaningful relationships with these people. To help you make the most of your work relationships, we have put together a blog post with more findings from the study and some helpful tips.”

(Source: 4Com)

Here, we will look at 3 challenges not for profit organisations are facing and how they can be overcome.

1. Property challenges

Charities are allowed to own property, but it is important to realise that any trustees listed on the registry understand they cannot benefit personally from the property. There are challenges relating to buying and disposing of a charitable property. For example, when purchasing a premise, trustees need to be aware of any restrictions which might impact the non-profits use of the property.

To avoid falling into difficulties while acquiring property, it is recommended non profit organisations consult a professional real estate firm with experience in the sector, such as Avison Young. They will be able to advise you throughout every step of the process, as well as help the organisation to find the perfect premises.

2. Lack of resources

Resources are another major challenge not for profit organisations face; particularly in today’s economic climate. However, many charities have discovered the benefits of connecting with similar organisations to pool their resources.

Finding key partnerships is key to running a successful not for profit business. Charities should ask themselves which types of partnerships they can make. Find similar organisations which share the same values and beliefs. The more not for profit organisations you can partner with, the more resources you will be able to pool.

Not for profit organisations can also reach out to local businesses. Today, businesses are focused on becoming greener and doing their part for the community. Therefore, they may be more open to partnering and contributing to local not for profit organisations.

3. Funding

Finally, funding is another key challenge faced in the not for profit sector. As governments continue to seek ways to cut costs, funding has been held back for numerous not for profit organisations. There has also been a substantial increase in the number of not for profit organisations set up. The increased competition for funding has also presented problems, particularly when it comes to attracting new donors.

The above are 3 of the most common challenges faced by not for profit organisations today. In order to ensure they are running a sustainable charity, these organisations need to be aware of the challenges, and come up with an action plan to overcome them. Pooling resources is a great way for charities to reduce costs and continue operating even during the toughest of climates.

China's economic growth is slowing down. But what's really going on in the world's second largest economy? In this video, Dharshini David takes a look at the figures behind the headlines for Reality Check.

This is why Dean McGlore from V1 believes that in 2019, we’ll see CFOs switch their focus from AI to automation.

In 2019, automation – also known as Robotic Process Automation (RPA) – will move from the shadow of Artificial Intelligence. And rightly so. Like AI, it can relieve teams from mundane and repetitive work to focus on higher-value and strategic activities. But, unlike AI, automation is easier to access, expand. It’s a forecast echoed by experts around the world. Forrester, for example, predicts that the RPA market will reach $1.7bn in 2019 while Advanced has found that 65% of people would be happy to work alongside robotic technology if it meant less manual processes.

Over the next year, we will especially see RPA climb in popularity within the finance function. Teams will use it to automate the data capture and processing of supplier invoices, sales orders and other accounting documents. By automating these manual and usually administrative heavy processes, finance teams can drive unprecedented productivity and efficiency levels as well as benefit from increased visibility into the entire organisation and better data for reporting to the board.

RPA will help with a host of other external factors too. With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) now in place, it will help the finance department (and indeed other areas of the business) get their data in order. RPA is a good starting point for GDPR compliance, as businesses can store, manage and track electronic documents and electronic images of paper-based information in one place and in real-time. This ensures compliance requirements by providing traceability on all documents.

Automation technologies will only be effective if the people using them understand how they work, appreciate their true potential and recognise the value they bring.

And then there is Brexit. Because RPA helps free up time for the finance team, more resources can be devoted to planning for when Britain leaves the EU in March. RPA provides an opportunity for businesses to scale up or down volume to meet demand from outside of the EU, for instance, as well as to assist the development of new products and services for new markets – all of which is essential for business growth. Moreover, with the threat of other countries hiking up tariffs after Brexit, RPA has the potential to replace the need to hire more employees and it can also help keep production costs to a minimum.

Regardless of the reason behind RPA adoption, CFOs will need to make sure that there will be a change in culture among the workforce. Automation technologies will only be effective if the people using them understand how they work, appreciate their true potential and recognise the value they bring. Arguably, investing thousands on pounds on technologies such as RPA won’t be effective if users don’t believe in them. A robust upskilling and training programme is necessary to ensure future digital success.

However, saying that businesses will turn their backs on AI in 2019 was never my intention – Artificial Intelligence will still play a key part of many organisations’ digital transformation plans. What RPA does is allowing businesses to test the water. Planning and testing automation software to see the impact it has on your operations and staff is a great indicator of the benefits that large-scale AI deployment could bring in the future – minus the fear of large-scale failure.

Planning and testing automation software to see the impact it has on your operations and staff is a great indicator of the benefits that large-scale AI deployment could bring in the future – minus the fear of large-scale failure.

In the future, we will see RPA and AI working together to transform the finance function like never before. With a combination of the right technology with AI handling decisions and chatbots managing customer queries, completely unmanned Accounts Payable (AP) for example is perfectly achievable by 2020 as a result of invoice automation.

RPA will be the first step for many and businesses looking to realise the power of automation over the next 12 months should take the following steps:

• Audit your processes and identify which involve low-skills, manual and repetitive tasks, such as many of the core, yet daily finance functions of invoice processes;
• Determine the key technologies that your business needs to become more agile, competitive and productive. RPA and AI have different capabilities, so decisions must be made based on need, rather than hype;
• Understand which new technologies are best placed to modernise or integrate with your organisation’s existing legacy systems;
• Ask yourself what the potential benefits of RPA and AI are to your finance team. Understand employees’ pain points before deciding which digital tools will help;
• Appoint a digital pioneer – someone that will drive positive technology change and that has the backing of your CEO and the rest of the C-Suite;
• Engage with your younger workforce. Typically, they are more digitally savvy and open to change. Find out what technologies they think will make a real difference.

RPA has the potential to change the face of finance for good. And, eventually, it will become ubiquitous among all key processes.

Reed Finance asked senior finance professionals what they thought and Rob Russell, Director of Reed Finance, shares some of the key findings with Finance Monthly.

The need to invest in the development of staff should be a top priority for any organisation. Employees who feel supported and have the opportunity to extend their skill sets are more likely to remain with a business, which in turn can benefit from a stable and committed workforce.

Skills development within the finance sector is a current hot topic with the acknowledgement of a growing skills gap, not helped by the uncertainty surrounding Brexit’s impact on the labour market. A skills gap that is not addressed will lead to a lack of competiveness as companies struggle to fill important roles with qualified staff.

We polled 600 senior finance professionals to gauge their opinions around staff development, what could be holding firms back from investing further, and the important areas requiring a skills development and training focus.

However, it is important to look at the type of skills needed for a successful career in finance. Our recently published interactive report ‘State of Skills’ analysed Google and O*NET data from the past 10 years for typical accountancy and finance roles. It found that written and verbal communication is prized by employers of finance professionals. This could be due to the future strategies of companies wishing to see finance executives take on leadership roles which entail not only technical soundness, but also an ability to inspire and work as a leader of teams – with ‘active listening’ and ‘oral comprehension’ some of the most important skills for a CFO to have.

We were also interested in where finance leaders thought skills gaps were, and how they were planning to tackle them. We polled 600 senior finance professionals to gauge their opinions around staff development, what could be holding firms back from investing further, and the important areas requiring a skills development and training focus.

1. Current status

When asked to describe their organisation’s current status when it comes to investment in skills and training, about two thirds believe that the level was adequate for their company needs.

However, 35% of those questioned said that the investment levels were not high enough, and when asked why this was, they answered that there were ‘other business priorities’ to take care of first. This could be a false economy for such organisations, as this direction of travel will inevitably lead to an under skilled and, perhaps, demotivated workforce and all the subsequent issues this would create.

2. The training barriers

Questioned on the potential barriers that mean training investment is not what it should be, a number of constraints were cited. Chief among them was the belief that budgets are tight and training resources under pressure within their organisation. This was followed by an admission that time pressures were too great to allow more focus on staff development.

Interestingly, a quarter said there is no guarantee that staff would remain with the organisation once they had been trained and the investment in time and resources would be effectively wasted. This is a pessimistic outlook when the converse could be argued. Employees could be more predisposed to stay with a business that is prepared to help support and develop them. Unenthusiastic employees and apprenticeship levy issues were also highlighted as barriers, but only by a few finance professionals.

Interestingly, a quarter said there is no guarantee that staff would remain with the organisation once they had been trained and the investment in time and resources would be effectively wasted.

3. Areas of focus

The current advancement in new technology and software across the sector was identified by respondents as a vital area for training. As more organisations invest in growing technological capabilities, the need for employee training to optimise their potential needs to increase. This area of employee development was, by some distance, the most strongly articulated in the research findings, outstripping the more traditional areas of skills training such as accounting information, auditing, financial accounting and tax accounting.

It would appear that a focus on supporting staff as new technology enters the sector should become a top business priority both to meet business need as well as employee demand.

4. The role of training

Asked what they believe the role of training to be within an organisation, three views dominated the answers. There was general consensus that the purpose of training is to improve overall company efficiency, as well as enhance individual skillsets for the general good of the organisation. These two opinions were closely followed by a need to retain staff and to have better career progression internally.

With the current uncertainty around Brexit and its potential threat to the availability of skilled migrant workers, there is a pressing need for British business to develop and nurture its own talent pool.

Some stated that a proactive training-centric business philosophy leads to the creation of a positive company culture. This not only retains staff, but can act as tangible attraction when it comes to the task of attracting new talent in the face of increasing competition.

With the current uncertainty around Brexit and its potential threat to the availability of skilled migrant workers, there is a pressing need for British business to develop and nurture its own talent pool. By valuing employees and supporting them to grow in their roles, businesses can enhance their reputation, become an employer of choice for those seeking new positions, and be rewarded with a lower employee turnover that creates a more stable platform for the rest of the company.

Finance Monthly hears from Colin Rowland from Apptio who asks the question: “Is this a trustworthy way to manage spend that is often billions of dollars across thousands of vendors and contracts, hundreds of employees, and more?”

Since the spreadsheet was popularised in the 80s, it has become the tool of choice for CFOs managing data and tracking costs across businesses. But in today’s digital age, spreadsheets are too cumbersome, slow, complex and constantly changing, to provide truly comprehensive oversight of costs and data in business.

Nowhere is this more evident than in managing technology spend, and it is abundantly clear that the IT department needs to upgrade its approach in order to properly provide CFOs with the monetary direction necessary to make smart, informed and strategic budgeting and investment decisions.

CFOs are required to oversee budgets across the whole business, yet while sales and finance have a wealth of tools such as CRM and ERP to assist them, there has been no purpose-built system for the technology department. With Gartner predicting that by 2022 businesses will be spending more than $3.9 trillion on IT, there is a huge level of pressure on finance professionals who need to track and manage these outgoings.

CFOs are required to oversee budgets across the whole business, yet while sales and finance have a wealth of tools such as CRM and ERP to assist them, there has been no purpose-built system for the technology department.

Kickstarting the culture change

To kickstart a move away from managing spend in static spreadsheets, organisations need to implement a culture change when it comes to technology, tracking spend, and understanding value of investments. Once viewed as simply a running cost of the business, technology is now a key deliverer of business value and revenue generation. That means the way investments are tracked, managed and communicated needs to be clear, open and transparent between IT and the business in a way that was previously unnecessary.

One method some organisations are adopting is the discipline of Technology Business Management (TBM). It focuses on providing a practical framework for finance and IT leaders seeking to manage and communicate the value of technology spend. It encourages translating IT usage and cost data from a list of bills into a source of business intelligence that can drive digital innovation. This allows the CFO to make more informed decisions when it comes to IT spending.

However, legacy tools simply don’t provide the added value needed to enable the communication and discussion needed around technology costs. It’s effective for data input and manipulation, but that’s no longer enough when complex technology costs need to be given to finance leaders in a digestible manner. Where this budgeting data is stored in various spreadsheets that are all siloed from one another, it can be nearly impossible to settle upon a single source of truth for the overall figures.

Spreadsheets do not enable actionable insights and cost analysis needed in the modern technology landscape for several reasons: they’re clunky, they’re rigid, and they’re slow.

Managing technology costs using… technology

This is where custom tools come in. They can provide additional capabilities and processes that enable businesses to not only accurately track their IT costs, but analyse them quickly and effectively, providing insights which are intelligible for those not well-versed in technology. And the more advanced technology solutions will be able to leverage machine learning to make this automated and free up employee time and resources for more value-additive work.

IT and finance leaders can then work together to drive forward business strategy based upon this knowledge. Spreadsheets do not enable actionable insights and cost analysis needed in the modern technology landscape for several reasons: they’re clunky, they’re rigid, and they’re slow.

Take the complex nature of public cloud spend, for example. A pay-as-you-go costing structure generates masses of data in by-the-minute billings that need to be tracked; meaning there is no guaranteed regular monthly spend to budget against. Even the most finely-tuned spreadsheet would struggle to track the thousands of lines on a cloud bill from separate business units, especially when many businesses are now embracing cloud services from multiple vendors.

The agility that disciplines such as multi-cloud bring also means that businesses must be prepared to adapt their cloud strategy quickly to suit their needs. Approaches that work now may be obsolete in three months’ time, and it is necessary to have a solid framework and the right tools to allow such changes to progress smoothly. For example, using Apptio’s TBM solutions, Unilever was able to move away from legacy infrastructure to cloud and increase the company’s digital innovation budget by more than 20% to provide consumers with an ‘intelligent’ buying experience online and in-store.

When it comes to technology, using spreadsheets to track and manage spend is holding businesses back.

Another complicating factor is the staffing cost associated with manning spreadsheets. Consolidating various spreadsheets to get a transparent view of IT spend can be a painstaking task, taking many hours and potentially resulting in human error. Custom tools can work to streamline and speed up these processes, while ensuring that errors do not occur. This allows IT teams to spend their time more effectively elsewhere, improving the overall efficiency of the department.

When it comes to technology, using spreadsheets to track and manage spend is holding businesses back. While custom tools may necessitate an upfront investment, they are undoubtedly worthwhile as a flexible long-term solution, providing agility, speed and clarity where spreadsheets cannot. By using such tools in conjunction with the principles of TBM, CFOs and the IT department can move away from spreadsheets and work towards a partnership in which insights into technology spend form a key part of the business’s ongoing strategy.

However, every owner of stocks, bonds and ETFs has the right to lend these - meaning that in this unrealised market there are around $40tn of assets collecting dust. Below, Boaz Yaari, CEO and Founder of Sharegain, explains everything you need to know about securities lending.

In short, securities lending is due a revamp so that it can be fit for purpose in a post economic crash, 21st-century financial world. This would result in a more efficient and regulation compliant process for large banks and assets managers; huge cash potential for private investors and wealth managers; and greater liquidity and long-term trust in capital markets.

Securities lending is a long-established practice in capital markets that has until now been largely confined to big financial institutions, even though every owner of stocks, bonds and ETFs has the right to lend them. As a consequence, most asset owners know little about this lucrative practice, which has become a global industry with a massive $2tn of assets on loan on a daily basis. Here are some of the intricacies that make this such an exciting space:

Securities lending is a long-established practice in capital markets that has until now been largely confined to big financial institutions, even though every owner of stocks, bonds and ETFs has the right to lend them.

1. Securities lending has been going on for over 40 years. The first formal equity lending transactions took place in the City of London in the early 1960s but it really took off as an industry in the early 1980s. The practice has evolved from a back office operation to a common investment practice that enhances returns for big financial institutions.
2. Securities lending plays an important economic function in capital markets. It brings greater liquidity and efficiency to the market, ensures the settlement of certain trades, promotes price discovery and facilitates market making. It also plays a critical role in derivatives trading, certain hedging activities and other trading strategies that involve short selling.
3. Securities lending is a great source of alpha, and a way to earn from the hidden value of your portfolio. Earnings from lending are dependent on the level of availability of your stocks. The more widely available stocks, known as ‘general collateral’, generally produce lower returns, of up to 0.5% (50 bps). Hot stocks, known as ‘specials’, can command much higher returns varying from 1.0% (100 bps) to over 100% (10,000 bps) annually in more extreme cases.
4. Sometimes short-sellers are right! For example, they spotted that there was trouble with construction company Carillion long before anyone else. A year prior to its collapse, Carillion was the FTSE 250 most shorted stock, which should have sounded alarm bells. However, at other times they are wrong. They can misunderstand the present or future business of a company, as we saw with online supermarket Ocado and a share surge in early 2018 which wiped out $382m for short sellers. At the end of the day it’s not the short sellers who dictate the long-term direction of the stock but the performance of the business itself.
5. Did you know that fund managers, active or passive, engage in securities lending to help boost a fund's performance or offset its costs? This has helped keep index fund charges down, which is hugely important in an age where the hunt for alpha has taken more importance - and where fees are under the microscope.
6. In general, securities lending has negative beta to market conditions, with all things being equal. When stocks rise in a bull market, demand to borrow securities wains and lending rates are lower, but you do enjoy the appreciation of your assets. On the other hand, in a bear market (when stocks depreciate), demand to borrow stocks increases and so do lending rates. This way you benefit from a new stream of income to mitigate the volatile times.
7. Demand for borrowing ETFs is growing exponentially, with the huge swing towards passive investing over the past decade or so, and currently there are over a 100 ETFs returning more than 2.0% (200 bps) to lenders.

There is a common misunderstanding about how tax brackets work in the US, and it’s causing us to have uninformed debates about taxes. In this video, Vox explains this misconception, where we’re going wrong, and how it actually works.

Below Steve Noble, COO at Ultimate Finance, offers insight into the potential changes ahead and the way these will impact business and financing.

Ongoing Brexit discussions may mean it seems much longer ago, but in November both Houses of Parliament passed legislation to end Bans of Assignment contractual clauses. This is great news that lenders and SMEs will have been celebrating since the announcement was made.

What’s the problem with Bans on Assignment clauses?

Bans on Assignment often blocks the provision of vital funding to SMEs as some financiers are hesitant to supply this where clients and their customers have agreed a contract containing this type of clause. If the financier IS prepared to provide funding, they will either have to find a workaround – such as requesting that the business approaches their customer for consent –or request additional security from the client. Each of these options proves time consuming, incurs unnecessary costs and makes it difficult for clients to obtain invoice finance. Unsurprisingly, this can cause SMEs to either struggle on without the support they need or rely on alternative finance options that aren’t right for their business.

What does the change mean?

This means that from 2019 SMEs will be able to access the funding they need more easily. It’s why I’m welcoming the news that after two previously unsuccessful attempts, Bans on Assignment clauses are now null and void in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. SMEs will therefore be able to assign receivables to invoice finance providers without having to spend time and money seeking consent from customers or trying to find workarounds to these clauses which can make things unnecessarily complex.

The legislation also makes clauses prohibiting a party from determining the value of a receivable and being able to enforce it ineffective. Again, this will increase the appeal of invoice finance for so many SMEs across the country.

Does the regulation impact your business?

Clearly, this is great news for SMEs and funding partners across the country. However, there are still caveats in place which will inevitably frustrate some.

• The regulations apply to contracts entered into on or after 31 December 2018
• They do not apply to receivables due to be paid to large enterprises – traditionally defined as businesses with more than 250 employees – or special purpose vehicles
• They exclude certain contracts from the scope of the regulations, for example those relating to land and for the provision of financial services
• They only apply to contracts governed by the laws of England, Wales and Northern Ireland

The final point will likely prove the most frustrating, as the current legislation doesn’t change anything for more than 345,900 SMEs in Scotland, leaving them to potentially continue struggling to gain access to vital funding next year.

Hopefully this won’t be a permanent issue however as the Scottish Government may follow in the Central Government’s footsteps and announce similar legislation to ensure SMEs north of the border aren’t at a disadvantage compared to the rest of the UK.

Onwards and upwards

Despite the caveats, the news that Bans on Assignment clauses will soon be a thing of the past is great news for SMEs and lenders alike. This should result in a simplified invoice finance process and therefore more small businesses gaining access to the funding they need to continuing thriving in 2019. If that’s not good news, I don’t know what is.

A decade after the global recession, the world’s economy is vulnerable again. Ryan Avent, our economics columnist, considers how the next recession might happen—and what governments can do about it

How has the wealth management landscape developed recently and what has influenced this?

The thing I love the most about our industry is that it is always changing. In addition to changing market conditions, there are new products developed and made available on an ongoing basis, and most significantly - clients’ expectations, needs and objectives are always changing too. For investors entering or being in retirement, there are more potential solutions available today than ever before. From low-cost and no-load insurance products to ETFs and separately managed accounts focused on paying a reliable income stream from high-quality dividend paying stocks. It takes a lot of research and dedication to sift through it all, determine the best in class solutions, tune out the noise from product salesmen and advertisements, all the while knowing that a changing market environment may require a complete rethinking of the current strategy.

What are common misconceptions you find that clients have towards wealth management?

One of the first discussions I try to have with clients is about what they want versus what they need. Wants are often heavily influenced by personal biases and predispositions towards one type of strategy or another. Needs are driven by circumstances and personal expectations. It’s rare that these two align, so one of my jobs is to make sure everyone is on the same page.

Secondly, I explain and illustrate to clients that predicting outcomes in the short-term is nearly impossible (or at the very least based on luck not strategy), and that in order to be a successful investor, one must have a consistent replicable process to guide us in the decision-making process. If you trust the process, then you won’t be distracted by short-term events that can derail a sound long-term strategy.

If you trust the process, then you won’t be distracted by short-term events that can derail a sound long-term strategy.

Can you outline how you go about auditing a client’s needs and then designing a successful wealth management plan? What would you advise the first course of action to be?

Naturally it starts with a discussion on what brings them to me. Understanding a client’s concerns, goals and objectives has to be the first step. Then, comes the review of their existing portfolio and understanding why they are invested the way they are. By gaining insights into their past decision-making process, their current objectives and needs, we are able to tailor a set of solutions that addresses these issues.

How does your parent company, Bruderman Asset Management, assist in enhancing GGFS’ services?

Bruderman Asset Management has been deeply rooted in the asset management business since 1879 and has worked with some of the wealthiest families in the world. Because of their broad expertise and our ability to tap into these resources, we are able to provide sophisticated solutions and money management services to investors who might typically not be able to access these services. Of course, sometimes the simple solution is the best solution, but if something more complex is required, we have access to the expertise and tools required.

Do you expect any changes in wealth management in the US in the upcoming years?

A lot of advisers are retiring, and that will impact both clients and the industry. One of the reasons I developed our firm’s mentorship program almost a decade ago, is because we recognise the need to develop talent and we want to ensure that in 10 or 15 years our clients will receive the same level of expert advice they are getting today.

Market conditions and product availability will change, but what shouldn’t change is a well-thought-out, consistent, replicable and reliable investment process.

What are your top tips for wealth management in 2019?

Same as always, trust the process! Market conditions and product availability will change, but what shouldn’t change is a well-thought-out, consistent, replicable and reliable investment process. Don’t allow short-term events and ‘noise’ from the media to distract you from your long-term goals.

You recently spoke about trade deficits in the US. Can you briefly summarise how they hurt the economy?

In the short and sometimes intermediate term, tariffs act like a tax on consumers, as they raise prices. The real question is what will the long-term result be? If, this time next year, the United States has been able to negotiate better trade deals with China and Europe, as we already have with Mexico and Canada, then the short-term pain may be well worth it. From an investment perspective, it simply means that your process should guide you towards investments that are less susceptible to the impact of tariffs or the trade war – that’s our approach.

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