Business

Branding Strategies that Inspires Customer Loyalty

One of the key facets of a successful business is a strong brand. Branding works side by side with marketing, which gets the word out about the product. Branding, on the other hand, is what inspires customers to stay loyal, and to keep them safe from leaping out and onto your competitors.

Your brand tells your customers what they can expect from you. When you have a strong brand, your customers know what value you provide. However, with a strong brand you must make sure to never disappoint customers – keep them satisfied with the quality of products and services that you offer. Acquiring the right branding strategies will help your business succeed.

Establish an online platform

Nowadays, having an online platform is necessary for any business. Creating a simple website doesn’t require great cost, but it can bring humongous benefits. With the internet exploding, most of your potential customers are online. People go to the web when they look for something, and that’s where your platform comes in.

When building an internet profile, you must also apply some SEO techniques that crafts your edge over your competitors. When customers look for a product or a service, your website must appear on the search engine results page.

Your site’s first impression counts as well. Your landing page must look professional, visually-appealing, and easy to navigate. Create quality content that captivates customer’s attention long enough for a conversion. You may combine your organic traffic with paid traffic to amplify target marketing.

Additionally, your online platforms must enable you to reach out and interact with customers. Create social media pages, where you can respond to customer inquiries in a timely manner. Respond as soon as possible. Answering customers’ inquiries weeks or months late won’t benefit your business, it may even damage your reputation. You may also want to encourage customers to give feedbacks and reviews. Customer reviews are important, which inform other people if your product or service is working or not.

Identify your target market

Before anything else, before creating your brand, one crucial step you should never miss is knowing your target market. Otherwise, all your effort will go to waste. You should know your target market before you launch your business. Allot time and effort researching extensively on your possible customers that would love and support your brand. When you have identified your possible customer base, only then you can create your branding campaign.

Perform market research, and see through gaps. Know what your market wants, then sculpt your branding that targets those needs.

Do the branding

Do the actual branding. Customers expect your brand; so you must able to make them visualize the value of your product or service. For instance, if you have a printing business, you must invest in high quality equipment that can assure the quality of your designs and printing work. Share with customers your vision of quality work that you can provide to them.

One step at a time

It’s impossible to master everything at once – so, do it one thing at a time. Be patient, and resist the temptation to hit all birds in one attempt. Don’t try to be the jack of all trades. Your purpose is to serve as a market leader of your product or service. Build your brand along that purpose, until customers see and like what you’re building.

For instance, if besides your printing business, you also have a shampoo gig, create a separate branding campaign for each one. Do not attempt to promote your shampoo on the side of your printing business. Focus on a single brand.

June 8, 2018 0 comment

Business

The Modern Boss: Leading People Through Coaching

written by ferasantoonreports

A real boss isn’t someone who puts up his feet on the desk, while his employees do the job. At least, that isn’t what a good boss does. It’s time to lose the old definitions of a boss. If you’re aiming to be one — an efficient, successful boss, you must know that good leadership involves standing up as your team’s coach.

Leading your people on the path where you want to go requires coaching. To be a coach, employees don’t need an often tap on the head, nor they don’t need you to guide them, hand-in-hand in every step of the way. To be successful in your goals, and turn your visions into reality, you need to give your employees regular and effective feedback, effective communication, drive and support.

More and Frequent Feedback

It’s typical for businesses to conduct an annual review among employees, where positive contributions and areas for improvement are being addressed. Leaders know putting down employees can never lift them up, neither it can sculpt productive and talented team members.

Giving frequent feedback to employees is critical for coaches. Soon Millennials will take over a large percentage of the workforce, and these young professionals will want regular feedback at work. Providing frequent feedback encourages openness in the office. Positive and constructive feedback helps build a kind of company culture that allows employees to evaluate their own work, their productivity, and their work-life balance.

Personal control is one of the aspects of positive psychology. When a person can take negative feedback, it provides an opportunity to practice personal control by analyzing his or her internal and external goals. Employers may provide external rewards like bonuses, but employees are also driven by internal goals such as, seeing the project they’re working on succeed, or having more time with their families.

Modern Boss & Employee Coaching

Both leaders and employees must look into their goals alongside their drives to make good use of the feedback they get. Giving regular feedback also allows people, both CEOs and staff, to grow each day of the year.

Leaders must also be open to the employee’s positive and constructive feedback. More importantly, bosses must be responsive. All professionals, whether a newbie or a CEO, have opportunities for growth, which they can use to improve and become better.

The importance of communication: trust and empowerment

Every coach knows that good communication builds trust between employee and employer; it can effectively empower others as well. If you’re a leader, have you thought about how your communication is like with your employees?

It’s a common situation where a boss feels superior, and uses tone for communication following this perspective. However, using a disciplinary tone makes employees feel like a child, especially if the boss reprimands in front of other staff or customers. For improved communication, leaders must use active listening and hear out employees. They must understand the situation thoroughly. Communicate your employees’ points back to them using your own words, and then follow up with some questions. Besides, bosses who are good listeners can be sound strategists.

Through effective communication, leaders can empower employees by letting them know, failures offer opportunities, too. Coaches can transform points of weakness into valuable lessons both in life and business. Provide optimal feedback that is given in a practical and timely manner. Given observations must be detailed to have a clear understanding for the both sides, avoiding miscommunication and negativity.

Employers must communicate with empathy, and work with the employee towards solutions if they’re having a hard time at work or in personal life. Great bosses see the person behind the employee, and not just a worker bee.

Encourage employees

Coaches encourage the team to innovate and experiment. Great coaches know, stagnancy hinders progress.

Leaders serve as a great example for employees, who they learn from the importance of the initiative of developing opportunities. Coaches and supervisors don’t sit back, do nothing, and wait for opportunities to knock; they create it themselves. Encourage your employees to grow, and go outside their comfort zones. Coaches empower employees to innovate, create, and experiment. Allow them to present new ideas, and let them propose about taking risks, especially if they have valid points to back up their claims.

To be an effective leader, it also means you should be the coach of your team. Coaching involves providing regular and frequent feedback, and helping them get outside of their comfort zones. Encourage them to experiment, and innovate. Focus on quality, rather than quality, when it comes to handling people. Most importantly, serve as a good example; someone your team can look up to, and follow steps.

Enjoy this video that discusses being a modern boss and the importance of good employee coaching:

May 25, 2018 0 comment

Financial Tips for Rising Interest Rates

Business

Interest Rates and Financial Tips You Can Use When They Rise

written by ferasantoonreports

Interest rates may have reached its end for US and Canada. Alongside is an imminent end of the bull market bond after 33 years in the economy.

A familiar pattern can be highly useful when joining the game of stocks: interest rates drop, bonds rise, and leads to the creation of a bull market. Lately, we’ve been seeing drops in bond prices, and rises in yields. These events are hints of the start of a bear market for bonds, and the rotation of soaring interest rates.

The cycle’s turnaround is a crucial and a significant event for individuals involved in the markets. Reversal of interest rate trends only happens three times in each person’s lifetime. Thus, it’s important to prepare for such events. Taking notes and creating strategies are the best moves one can take to be able to save their self from possible negative effects. Being cautious and aware of the situation can also help your business and portfolio to benefit from this trend.

Circumstances following the 2008 financial crisis led to a S&P 500 drop. After the crisis, banks all over the world have been printing money and have been following an “easy money” policy with the most minimal fear of inflation. On the other hand, while US and Europe undergo an anemic economic recovery rates, the Federal Reserve Board’s Open Market Committee (FOMC) showed hints indicating a start of reducing the quantitative easing (QE) program, which threatened North American equity markets. These events caused a 4.8% drop for the S&P 500 in just four days; the worst ever over a span of 20 months.

Financial Tips for Rising Interest Rates

The Fed’s announcement was released last year in September. However, no tapering activities have begun just yet. Many believe it’s just a matter of time before the tapering starts.

Although, markets are anxious about the end of the Fed’s easy money policy and bond buying program, it’s true that a better economy will emerge once these changes occur. It’s good news; an economy that doesn’t rely on life support means a stronger economy, and for stock markets, it means improved profitability for businesses.

A safe, steady market may sound enticing. For years, we have been accustomed to this type of economy that provides stable and low interest rates. For instance, Canada has the same rates since September 8, 2010. While US rates haven’t shifted since December 16, 2008.

Recently, an upturn in bond yields had turn apparent. After 10 years, when the U.S. Treasury bond yields dropped to 1.43% last year, it resulted in a 2.98% yield rise on September 5, 2013. It’s the highest surge since early 2011. Many financial experts believe that once the 10-year yield rises to more than 3%, it will be the start of the trend reversal.

Together with the recovering global economies, these are clear signs that short-term interest rates will rise, too.

Therefore, instead of wasting time being afraid of the upcoming reversal trend, what we need to do is prepare for this change. We can profit from this reversal through careful planning.

The rise of interest rates will bring impact to your investment portfolio, real estate market and corporate profitability. Placing fitting strategies for each of these areas will be anyone’s best tool to adapt and gain profits from the cycle turn.

Financial Tips for Rising Interest Rates

Interest Rates & Your Investment Portfolio

Reversal in trends would initially bring negative effects to markets. Rising interest rates may be taken as bearish signals for stocks. However, markets typically recover in just a few months, and returns could even improve because of better corporate profitability.

In 2007-2008, a bullish signal took place, which may happen again in the coming days. In 2009, a widening yield curve emerged, which can also be one of the bullish signals for stocks and the economy at this point. In September 20, 2013, the gap between US 2-year and 10-year Treasury yields expanded to 2.41%, or 241 basis points, which could be similar to a rising yield curve at 121 basis points last year.

We could be wrong, of course. The steeping yield curve last year could be short-lived, and can change when short term interests arise. But if the snowballing of yield rise end exceeds the short end rise, the growing yield curve may stay intact.

In 1897 and 1942, when rates reached a bottom after a long secular drop, it created a secular bull market in the stock market.

During 1897, interest rates reached a bottom after a 30-year drop. During the same time, a cycle of rising rates took place which clashed with the start of a secular bull market on Wall Street. These events lasted until the 1929 market crash, and the beginning of the Great Depression. All this happened again in 1942.

The change in the cycles requires you to have new strategies for your portfolio. You may hold on to short term maturities, and move to your GICs and bonds as they mature. This will allow you to invest the maturities at higher interest rates as they build up. Keeping the maturities short term will also help you avoid capital bond losses, which is quite inevitable in an environment with rising rates. The longer you keep maturity bonds, the higher the capital loss because of heightening rates.

Financial Tips for Rising Interest Rates

Interest Rates & Real Estate Market

The real estate market tends to suffer from negative consequences when interest rates rise. When interest rates go up, mortgages become less affordable, causing a cool down on the activities of the housing sector, which eventually leads to decrease in prices.

Although, there have been a buying spree in the real estate market when buyers wanted to assure their mortgage rates before further rate increases occur, it may end shortly when a consistent rising trend starts. Activities in the mortgage and real estate market may begin to cool down as a result.

Since 1996, the real estate market has experienced a bull run, which is longer the most of the previous bull runs in the US. Therefore, this is the best time to reconsider your real estate holdings, and begin gaining profits from properties that have good appreciation. You may also want to assure your mortgage rates at the on-going low rates before the trend reversal heats up.

This is also the time to reduce mortgage debts because higher interest rates mean higher costs. During a trend reversal, real estate rates go lower, which means it’s not the best time to sell properties. You must be sure that you can afford mortgage rates even if rates rise above 3 to 4% and higher than their current rates. According to cbj.ca, “While the interest rate rises in store may be more muted, rates did rise 4.25% from June 30, 2004 to August 17, 2007 and they rose 3% from February 4, 1994 to July 6, 1995.”

Interest Rates & Corporate Profitability

A better economy means a better environment for businesses. It also means consumer spending rises, as well as abundance in businesses’ capital spending. These are good news for corporate profitability.

One side effect of an improving economy is rising interest rates. When rates go up, financing costs rise, where corporations with high debts suffer due to bigger financing costs. The time that bond yields rise, corporations will have to offer higher rates on their bonds to attract more investors – a painful event for corporations.

The best move is to reduce corporate debts that will help you prepare for a new environment with high rates. If you are planning to start a new venture, the earlier you kick off and the longer guarantees you have for your financing rates, it may allow you to have a more secured, lower rates for financing.

On a positive note, it’s a good step to have new ventures in a growing environment. It could be more profitable as it can make up for higher borrowing costs.

Study the changes that happened in the history of interest rate trends, and make modifications based from it. Use them for your business, investment and real estate portfolio. Eventually, the changes will pay dividends in the long run.

May 14, 2018 0 comment

Business

Puertopia: A New Crypto Utopia in Puerto Rico

written by ferasantoonreports

Puertopia, is what the crypto world they’re creating was initially called. Then someone finally realized the Latin translation of this term means, “eternal boy playground”. So they just call it, Sol.

A new world is about to emerge; a crypto utopia in Puerto Rico, where tons of people, including entrepreneurs and investors, are seriously planning to settle. Wealthy individuals who found success in blockchain and cryptocurrencies are heading to Puerto Rico this winter. These people live in the US, and have started selling their homes, cars and properties, so they can transfer to their Caribbean dwellings to avoid the state, and the federal taxes on their mounting wealth, which some have grown into billions of dollars.

These people have a bright vision for the future. With their immeasurable wealth, they are planning to create a crypto utopia built in a Puerto Rican city, where money is virtual and all contracts are available to everyone. Their aim is to show the world what a crypto utopia looks like – the future. The basis of cryptocurrencies, Blockchain, can change how society works. Puertopians are taking the initiative to prove that to the world.

Why Puerto Rico? We asked that same question, too. For more than a year, the entrepreneurs looked for the best location to establish their paradise. In September, establishments in Puerto Rico got devastated by Hurricane Maria. During the same time, cryptocurrencies began to soar. Entrepreneurs saw an opportunity in these events, and felt a sense of urgency.

In just a short time, the crypto community flocked into Puerto Rico, and started their mission. Since then, the entrepreneurs are looking for properties where they can build their own docks and airports. They bought hotels and a museum called, Old San Juan. The entrepreneurs said they are near to getting the Puerto Rican government allow them to have their first cryptocurrency bank.

Puerto Rico Cryptocurrency

“What’s happened here is a perfect storm,” said the founder of the news site CNET, Halsey Minor, who is moving to Puerto Rico this winter together with his new blockchain company called, Videocoin. Referring to Hurricane Maria and the projects that pursued, he added, “While it was really bad for the people of Puerto Rico, in the long term it’s a godsend if people look past that.”

The most enticing perk about the Puerto Rican land is its unparalleled tax incentives. The government offers no federal personal income taxes, it has no capital tax gains, and offers favorable business taxes; most especially, they don’t require renouncing your American citizenship. For now, the Puerto Rican government seems docile to the entrepreneurs’ plans. The governor will speak in the upcoming blockchain summit conference, called Puerto Crypto.

Giovanni Mendez, the go-to blockchain tax lawyer of Puerto Rico, expected the expats to decrease in number after Hurricane Maria, but instead it has grown larger.

“It’s increased monumentally,” said Mr. Mendez, who handles about two dozen crypto clients. “And they all came together.”

The flock of new entrepreneurs in Puerto Rico alarmed the earlier expats. One of them is hedge fund manager, Robb Rill, who handles a social group for those who are taking advantage of the tax incentives.

“They call me up saying they’re going to buy 250,000 acres so they can incorporate their own city, literally start a city in Puerto Rico to have their own crypto world,” said Mr. Rill, who had been on the island since 2013. “I can’t engage in that.”

The Puertopians haven’t yet decided on how the new utopia would look like. Some of them wants to build a city; others said it’s enough to move into Old San Juan, while a few want to move fast.

“You’ve never seen an industry catalyze a place like you’re going to see here,” Mr. Minor said.

Puerto Rico Cryptocurrency

Puertopian Base: The Monastery

The soon as the Puertopians landed, they settled on the Monastery, a 20,000-square-foot-hotel that they leased as their base. The Monastery was barely touched by the hurricane.

Matt Clemenson and Stephen Morris were drinking on the rooftop of the Monastery one Monday afternoon. They wanted to make one thing clear: they want to help Puerto Rico after the hurricane, and they come in peace.

“It’s only when everything’s been swept away that you can make a case for rebuilding from the ground up,” Mr. Morris, 53, said.

“We’re benevolent capitalists, building a benevolent economy,” said Mr. Clemenson, 34, a co-founder of Lottery.com, which is using the blockchain in lotteries. “Puerto Rico has been this hidden gem, this enchanted island that’s been consistently overlooked and mistreated. Maybe 500 years later we can make it right.”

More Puertopians went to the roof. Most of them just got back from a property hunting bus tour. One of the pack was the leader of the Puertopia movement, Brock Pierce, 37. Mr. Pierce and the others reached the island last December.

“Compassion, respect, financial transparency,” Mr. Pierce said when asked what led them here.

Mr. Pierce is a major figure in the crypto community. He’s the director of the Bitcoin Foundation, as well as the co-founder of Block.One, a blockchain-for-business start-up.

Block.One has sold more than $200 million EOS, a custom virtual currency in an initial coin offering. Now the value of EOS token has mounted to around $6.5 billion.

Puerto Rico Cryptocurrency

Mr. Pierce is a child actor. He began his crypto journey as a professional gamer, where he mines and trades gold in the video game, World of Warcraft. Mr. Pierce has a controversial history where he has been sued for fraud, among other matters.

“The U.S. doesn’t want us. It’s trying to choke off this economy,” Mr. Minor said, while lounging on an alcove chaise. He was referring to the tough challenges that crypto investors have dealt with the US banks. “There needs to be a place where people are free to invent.”

The entrepreneurs were chatting that day in the same room where Mr. Pierce paces with his hands in fists. Mr. Pierce frequently plays a video on his phone with portable speakers for the group. Several times a day, he puts on Charlie Chaplin’s 1940 “The Great Dictator.”

“I’m worried people are going to misinterpret our actions,” Mr. Pierce said. “That we’re just coming to Puerto Rico to dodge taxes.”

Mr. Pierce shared that he plans to create a charitable token, he calls, ONE using $1 billion of his own money. “If you take the MY out of money, you’re left with ONE,” Mr. Pierce said.

“He’s tuned in to a higher calling,” said scion of the Canadian clothing company Nygard and crypto investor, Kai Nygard. “He’s beyond money.”

Mr. Pierce’s personality and spirituality have a huge impact to the crypto community, whose large part is agnostic. Mr. Pierce regularly does rituals, just like when the group was looking for property, and they had stopped at a historic Ceiba tree, known as the Tree of Life.

“Brock nestled into the bosom of it and was there for 10 minutes,” Mr. Nygard said.

While everyone stopped at the tree, Mr. Pierce walked around it, and said prayers for the Puertopians while holding a rusted wrench he found somewhere. Mr. Pierce has also kissed an old man’s feet, blessed a crystal clear water, and played Chaplin’s speech to everyone and to the tree.

Later that day, the group had dinner in a nearby restaurant, where they debated whether to buy Puerto Rico’s Roosevelt Roads Naval Station. It’s a 9,000-acre property adjacent to the airport, and has two two deepwater ports. The catch: the place is a Superfund cleanup site.

The entrepreneurs, in fact, have started turning their vision into reality. They began with a big pink building in an old town square. It was once a children’s museum, but they plan on turning it into a crypto clubhouse and outreach center, which will serve as the link “to bring together Puerto Ricans with Puertopians.”

Crypto Land: The Vanderbilt

The Condado Vanderbilt is an old hotel that Puertopians are working on. Bryan Larkin, 39, and Reeve Collins, 42, are working on this property occasionally with their laptops on a pool bar with frozen piña coladas.

“We’re going to make this crypto land,” Mr. Larkin said.

Mr. Larkin, the chief technology officer of Blockchain Industries, has mined about $2 billion in Bitcoin. Mr. Collins, has mined over $20 million from an initial coin offering for BlockV, an app he created which tokens are worth about $125 million. Mr. Larkin, also an internet veteran, co-founded Tether which tokens are worth about $2.1 billion.

“So, no. No, I don’t want to pay taxes,” Mr. Collins said. “This is the first time in human history anyone other than kings or governments or gods can create their own money.”

Mr. Collins moved to Santa Monica with just a few bags, and now he has started a local cryptocurrency incubator called Vatom Factory.

“When Brock said, ‘We’re moving to Puerto Rico for the taxes and to create this new town,’ I said, ‘I’m in,’” Mr. Collins said. “Sight unseen.”

As soon as they got back to work, they checked Coinmarketcap.com, a site where anyone can see the price of cryptocurrencies.

Puerto Rico Cryptocurrency

“Our market cap’s gone up $100 million in a week,” Mr. Collins said.

“Congrats, man,” Mr. Larkin said.

Is this the start of the Puertopia?

Locals have different insights about the flock of these crypto expats. Some welcome the arrival of infusion and ideas.

“We’re open for crypto business,” said chief business development officer for the Department of Economic Development and Commerce, Erika Medina-Vecchini. During her interview at her office, she said they are creating an ad campaign that targets the crypto expat swell. They came up with a tagline, “Paradise Performs.”

While others are concerned about the island being used for experiments, and a probable “crypto colonialism.”

Richard Lopez, 32, owner of a pizza restaurant, Estella, in the town of Arecibo said at a house party in San Juan, “I think it’s great. Lure them in with taxes, and they’ll spend money.”

On the other hand, 33-year-old worker at Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico, Andria Satz, who also grew up in San Juan, disagreed.

“We’re the tax playground for the rich,” she said. “We’re the test case for anyone who wants to experiment. Outsiders get tax exemptions, and locals can’t get permits.”

Mr. Lopez believes Puerto Rico needs something to kick-start its economy.

“We have to find a new way,” he said.

“Sure then, Bitcoin, why not,” Ms. Satz said.

Mr. Lopez and Rafael Perez, 31, his childhood friend are trying to setup a Bitcoin mine in their hometown. However, the electricity is a major obstacle in their goal due to its inconsistency. Mr. Lopez said, mining a single Bitcoin requires tons of power

May 9, 2018 0 comment

Business

$1.8 Billion Indian Bank Fraud Unraveled After 7 Years of Operation

written by Feras Antoon

The biggest question is: how this billion-dollar Indian bank fraud lasted 7 years? This greed-crime happened right under people’s noses, while all were sleeping soundly for many nights. Alongside this global fraud are $81 million cyber-heist in Bangladesh, lenders abuse, and a series of missed massive opportunities.

It all began in 2016 after an infiltration from hackers got detected in the Bangladesh central bank’s system. It was also when its Indian counterpart sensed a lurking danger. So, the Reserve Bank of India prompted all the lenders to check if their computer networks were properly integrated with Swift, the system used in the Bangladesh theft for sending transmit payment instructions.

Unfortunately, out-of-the-radar was a rogue employee of the state-owned Punjab National Bank who was allegedly taken advantage of this system flaw. RBI knew nothing about this person’s stealthy deed until 5 years later, which resulted in a $1.8 billion fraud swell.

“The biggest thing that didn’t happen was the linkage between Swift and the bank’s back-end software — they didn’t talk,” according to Abizer Diwanji, a financial services partner at the accountancy firm EY in India. “The ball was first dropped,” when PNB failed to settle the two systems together, he added.

Indian Bank Fraud

The incident had spread fast, then government agencies performed efforts to investigate. Above all the chaos and mishaps one thing came clear: the ones worth blaming were inferior technology, flawed risk management, and inadequate monitoring. An $800 million loss could’ve been dodged if the fraud had been discovered a year earlier.

Former PNB employee Gokulnath Shetty is being alleged of providing billionaire jeweler, Nirav Modi, and his associates guarantees of acquiring loans from abroad. According to PNB’s complaint, over 2011 to 2017, there had been guarantees issued without collateral worth 65 billion rupees ($1 billion), which was then followed by guarantees worth 49 billion rupees between March to May last year, the same time Shetty retired.

According to R. Gandhi, a former RBI deputy governor, we can link the incident to RBI not integrating the two systems back then, since many Indian banking systems were not compatible to Swift. However, Gandhi added, banks like PNB which didn’t integrate the two systems have been required to perform manual checks to compare Swift’s messages with the banks’ internal records.

According to Tim Phillipps, an Asia-Pacific financial crime specialist at Deloitte, reconciliation between Swift and other bank systems is crucial for banks since there’s a prevalence of fraud across global finance trade. He added that it’s not hard to create an interface that can link the two programs.

Indian Bank Fraud

“Trade finance operations at banks are one of the riskiest parts of the business they do and also one of the most profitable,” Phillipps said. “Most checks in a world structured environments don’t allow data to be entered directly into Swift because that is where many of the big problems have occurred over the past decade in terms of falsifying information.”

According to the director in the financial institutions group at Fitch Ratings, Saswata Guha, changing costs may have contributed to the continuous upgrades in the Indian bank systems. For years, indian lenders have been struggling from ceaseless rise of loans, and insufficient capital, which Guha believes can turn worse in the upcoming years after new regulations are mandated.

Discovering the billion-dollars Indian fraud

These incidents that took place over the four months played an important role in the discovery of this global crime.

RBI released statement on its site saying it cautioned banks about the misuse of Swift on at least three occasions. “Banks have, however, been at varying levels in implementation of such measures,” the RBI said.

Indian Bank Fraud

Has justice been served?

Shetty got arrested by federal officials, but shared zero comments on the allegations. PNB had nothing to say as well, and Swift comments none about any allegations or customers.

On the other hand, Modi’s lawyer Vijay Aggarwal told NDTV that Modi denies his involvement in any fraud incidents, although all his transactions with PNB are documented.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley reminded supervisors and auditors to make sure that any fraud activities must be detected early. According to Bloomberg, “the 10-member Bankex index rose 0.3 percent in Mumbai on Wednesday, snapping a three-day drop, as the main equity gauge advanced 0.4 percent.”

There are on-going efforts to reform India’s banking sector. For years, the Indian government and the central banks have been working together to set up panels, and suggest new recommendations. However, the progress has been sluggish, said Fitch’s Guha.

“If a few people, or connivance of a group of people, can take a bank this large down to its heels with the kind of capital market implications one has been seen, then it poses very serious questions,” he said. “At the core of it, it’s really governance.”

Have a look at this video that goes into more detail about this longstanding bank fraud issue:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-21/how-an-1-8-billion-indian-bank-fraud-lasted-seven-years

May 7, 2018 0 comment

Business

35 Cities and Their Visions of the Future in A Competition to Change Corners of the Globe

written by Feras Antoon

In the hope of moving towards a better world, Bloomberg philanthropists established a $200 million effort called, American Cities Initiative in June 2017 to fund the revolutionary visions of cities that can improve lives.

Tailoring and executing metro-level changes can be quite challenging nowadays, but we can’t deny it has become an unshakeable need. City officials may choose to make a step towards solutions for raising minimum wages, gun control or any typical city policies. The changing world has also contributed to reduce the efficiency of once-well-working fundamental services like transportation. With all these, still federal government appears to disown their responsibility in funding basic health and social services, as well as clearly brushing off the apparent issues regarding climate change.

Thus, Bloomberg makes a move. To solve the innumerable issues that cities face today, Bloomberg funded 2018 Mayors challenge. It’s one of the funder’s long-time running global programs that ask city leaders to compete for funding by submitting plans and solutions that can solve the most critical issues today.

35 Cities & Vision of the Future

Winner of the competition will receive $5 million to implement the most-fitting idea, while four runner-ups will also get an additional $1 million. From 320 applicants, Bloomberg has narrowed down the list to 35 so-called “Champion Cities,” who will all be given a grant up to $100,000 to turn their world-changing visions into prototypes.

The competitors will be given 6 months to create, test, and alter their applications before Bloomberg announces the grand prize winners in October.

Bloomberg probably didn’t see it coming, but they are the ones who are learning from this program. While reviewing the applications of the leading candidates, they are made aware of the issues and solutions of different cities. Head of Bloomberg’s Government Innovation programs, James Anderson, says the applications are an “incredible snapshot” of city leaders’ “priorities and what’s keeping them up at night.” Together with, of course, what can be the cure for their sleepless nights.

Most of the top candidates laid out solutions battling climate change, specifically, about the increased risks of natural disasters. One of these nearly one-third applicants, are officials in Charleston, South Carolina, who believe there’s a need for a uniquely tailored alert system when coastal floods soak up the city.

Healthcare is also a top priority, especially in Huntington, West Virginia, where opioid overdose is 10 times more common than any other city. According to Bloomberg’s compiled proposals, city leaders desire to incorporate mental health workers to emergency crews, so they can provide help to drug addicts, as well as to those who are suffering from “compassion fatigue” due to dealing with a lot of possible crises.

35 Cities & Vision of the Future

One of the attention-grabbing applications is Los Angeles’s novel plan to incentivize homeowners to build “accessory dwelling” units, which homeless folks and other people receiving support services, can rent for three years after construction.

“When you read these 35 applications, mayors are saying data matters, mayors are engaging citizens, and they are very focused on collaboration,” says Anderson. Those are three messages that I think America really needs to hear right now.”

The competition had already taken place in the US, and during that time, leaders have developed concepts, which other cities have expressed interest in, or have already copied. Included in those plans is Santa Monica, California’s Well Being Index, which grades residents if they feel “happy, healthy, and connected to the community” in their daily lives. It drives reforms that can target issues to improve the quality of life.

Another concept was from Providence, Rhode Island, which encourages parents with low-income to converse more with their young children that can patch verbal and word recognition gaps, which can be a hindrance in the kids’ learning curve. This project involved an actual word counting device that can determine the flow and recedes of conversation.

35 Cities & Vision of the Future

Throughout the program, Bloomberg learned to worry less about the city leaders walking away with prototypes in hand. They focus more on a “stretching and strengthening phase” which can fill the theoretical gaps in the implementation of concepts. Eventually, it crafted a learning-by-doing mentality among everyone involved in the program.

“Part of our goal here is to make sure that even those cities that don’t win the million dollar implementation award have a rock-solid proposal that they’ve field tested and prototyped with key constituents,” says Anderson. “So that they are well positioned to begin finding additional support.”

April 27, 2018 0 comment

Business

How Much S&P 500 Do We Need to Match The Great Recession?

written by Feras Antoon

Remember the Great Recession of 2008-09? Along with the evaporation of investment banks and the deeds to homes of thousands of Americans, this unfortunate economic phenomenon also affected the S&P 500. It was a one-two punch for S&P 500 that led to interests falling, and the Federal Reserve buying mortgage-backed securities. The Fed even helped bolster the bond market as well, which caused a constant decline for rates. The only place to go was the equities. Bonds were seen as stocks, and investors gave up on yield. They rather hoped that bonds priced at 110 would hit 120. This was the Great Recession 8 years ago – everything was sky high.

Since 2011, we have been experiencing a raging bull market. For 7 years, the US stock market only had one major correction, which was a 19% drop.

However, once the central banks abandon QE, and the interest rates normalize to the point the equity market steps back to pre-QE levels, you would likely think S&P 500 gets around 1500 points.

Before the Great Recession, the previous bear market happened after the dot-com bubble burst and the planes piloted by terrorists crashed into the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001. Shortly, the S&P 500 dropped 49% from a high ground of about 1510. After 6 years, it fell again to 666 in Intraday trading on March 6, 2009. It has been the lowest S&P 500 hit since 1996.

S&P500 and Great Recession

We could trace the slide that took place on the second week of February to the U.S. non-farm payroll report for January, which showed an increase in average earnings growth to 2.9%.

Wage inflation scared the bond markets. The expected inflation resulted in pricing in a 0.75% rate hike, then came a prospective hike for the fourth time.

“Powell Put” which thought to be less market-friendlier than “Greenspan-Bernanke-Yellen Put,” helped equity levels reach record levels, and inflated the financial asset prices.

ETNs, exchange-traded notes was revealed. These strategies of betting on low equity volatility caused the aggravation of inflation concerns. According to BlackRock’s chief investment strategist Richard Turnill, the retreat was somehow caused by the rapid run-up in government bond yields. However, investors who prefer to remain active just had to focus on the fundamentals of the economy. But the fundamentals are still changing, says Turnill.

On the second week of February, the US congress approved a budget deal that expands the government’s spending for defense by about $300 billion over two years. This approved bill and tax cuts will stretch out the federal deficit further.

“We could see net Treasury coupon issuance more than doubling this year,” he says.

S&P500 and Great Recession

That’s not good for the US Treasury bonds. The equity market is smaller than the bond market.

Turnill says, the combination of the government spending and corporate tax cuts can result in the addition of roughly 1% to GDP this year, in comparison to the 0.8 percentage point in the last report.

A strong economy can easily raise inflation, and allow the Fed to increase interest hikes faster. Along with that, the central banks will loosen up their QE programs that could drive the S&P absolutely lower than it is today. Only if the bears get what they deserve.

April 16, 2018 0 comment

Business

US falls off the Top 10 Most Innovative Countries for the First Time in Six Years

written by Feras Antoon

South Korea continues to thrive in the technology race, while US drifts away.

For the first time in six years, the US left the top 10 in the 2018 Bloomberg Innovation Index, falling to the 11th place from its previous 9th. On the other hand, South Korean and Sweden remained their No. 1 and No. 2 spots.

The countries acquired index scores using seven criteria, including spendings in research and development, the attention of technology companies.

The US rank dropped, mainly because of falling scores in a couple of categories, including post-secondary or tertiary, and education-efficiency, which covers the contribution of new science and the number of engineering graduates. The sum of highly valuable manufacturing also took a downward steep. Although there’s an improvement in the productivity score, it wasn’t enough to make up for what’s lost.

“I see no evidence to suggest that this trend will not continue,” Robert D. Atkinson, president of the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation in Washington, D.C., said.

“Other nations have responded with smart, well-funded innovation policies like better R&D tax incentives, more government funding for research, more funding for technology commercialization initiatives.”

Singapore, on the other hand, successfully landed to a higher, third place rank due to tertiary-efficiency category, leaving European economies behind like Germany, Switzerland and Finland.

According to Yeo Kiat Seng, professor and associate provost at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, when talking about science, technology, engineering and mathematics, “Singapore has always placed strong focus on educating her populace, especially in STEM disciplines.” Furthermore, the country has a “steadfast commitment to funding R&D and innovation,” added Yeo, who has 38 patents.

For five consecutive years, South Korea has been the gold-medalist of global-innovations. Samsung Electronics Co., has acquired more US patents in 2000 than any firms, except for International Business Machines Corp., which made them the most-valued tech company of the country. The ecosystem of Korea’s suppliers and partners consists mostly of semiconductors, digital media and smartphones. A very similar sight with Japan when the nation developed innovations around Sony Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp.

China continue to move upward, recently to two positions higher, landing the 19th place. The nation’s high amount of new technology, engineering graduates, and increasing patents by innovators like Huawei Technologies Co., all added to its strengths and index score.

“One common trait of the U.S., Korea and China is that people accept failure as part of the process,” according to Prinn Panitchpakdi, country head of CLSA Thailand, an Asian brokerage and investment group. “Innovation lags in countries where the culture emphasizes risk avoidance and where R&D is seen purely an expense, not an investment. That’s the mindset in Thailand.”

Countries in the lead

One of the top Asian countries, Japan, moved one slot upward to no. 6. France jumped from 9th to 11th place, enlisting with other European economies in the top tier. Israel was the only nation that has beaten South Korea in the R&D category, also reached the top 10 list.

Joining back the top 50 list were Iran and South Africa, which the last time they were included was in 2014. One of the biggest winners of this year was Turkey, which leaped four ranks to 33rd due to advancements in categories, tertiary efficiency, productivity, and two other.

On the other hand, the biggest losers, New Zealand and Ukraine fell four places lower because of the changes in productivities (New Zealand), and tertiary-efficiency (Ukraine).

Compared to last year, shifts in the list this year weren’t too dramatic. In 2017, we saw Russia fell 14-spots, while Ukraine received sanctions, and energy prices plunged.

This year’s ranking method began with 200 economies. All economies had 0-10 scale scoring in seven equal categories. Countries that didn’t pass the requirements for at least 6 categories were eliminated, cutting down the list to 80. The top 50 economies with their category scores is released by Bloomberg.

April 9, 2018 0 comment

Business

The Bull Market & Surviving its End: Your Potential Keys

written by Feras Antoon

This bull market will eventually end; we all know that. So before it does, we can some steps that can prepare us for stock market correction.

We can see it in the US stocks. It has been up and steady for quite a while. Not much has happened since the 1% drop in August that lasted until January. When Amazon.com AMZN, -0.89%, JPMorgan Chase JPM, -0.72% and Berkshire Hathaway BRK.A, +0.00% BRK.B, -0.03% mentioned they will be processing their own health insurance claims, Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.08% fell 1.4%.

Investors can easily earn $10,000 in stocks without lifting a finger, in this case. For the first time ever, gaining that much in a short time is a rare luck.

So what’s happening here? Here is not where we will observe about the economy. Rather, we’ll define a particular pattern that has been happening since February 2016: markets have tended to move three steps forward, and two steps back.

The question now is, what should investors do when such patterns occur and exist for a long time? What steps shall investors make when valuations dip toward their historical means? Strategist Sam Stovall at CFRA Research, offers answers. Stovall is a vigilant historian of stock market trends, who answers to the question, should investors keep betting on what has been winning or should they ride the recent losers?

The Bull Market & Surviving its End

Stovall’s response was: do a little bit of both. Apparently, the best approach is to focus on the sub-industries that performed the best and the worst in the run-up before the correction. Choose among the 145 sub-industries from the S&P 500, and pick the top 10 best and top 10 worst industries on CFRA’s rating scale. An investor now has 20 stocks to choose from. This strategy has been used since 1991, which every year is producing 13.6% annualized returns, has beaten the market by 5.5 percentage points, and top S&P 500’s price gain with 70% of the time.

“If history is any guide, for it’s never gospel, investors have done better buying both last year’s 10 best and 10 worst groups,” Stovall said. “Despite the lack of a guarantee that what worked in the past will work again in the future, one could say that the outcome of owning the good and the bad wasn’t so ugly after all.”

Last year, the top 10 sub-industries gained a combined 56.5%, which was led by casinos, home builders, technology stocks and wine/spirits companies. When choosing the industries that fit this market, Stovall said, you might want to choose Amazon.com from Web retailing, Adobe Systems ADBE, -0.69% as the leading application software stock, D.R. Horton DHI, +1.02% as for home builders, and MGM Resorts, MGM, -1.51%, as for the casino play. More of the top picks include Deere DE, +1.58%, Best Buy BBY, -0.19%, Electronic Arts EA, -0.36%, Constellation Brands, STZ, +1.22% and Caterpillar CAT, -2.31%.

Last year, the worst-performing sub-industries include advertising, automotive retailers, motorcycle manufacturers, brewers, oil and gas drillers, and energy equipment/services companies. The last two groups fell 23% and 17%, respectively, in contrast to what one might expect from rising oil prices.

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According to CFRA ratings, the top worst sub-industries include Molson-Coors TAP, -0.33%, Omnicom Group OMC, +1.86%, Helmerich & Payne HP, -0.41%, Baker Hughes BHGE, +1.49% and Harley-Davidson HOG, -1.03%.

This strategy, in some themes make sense. For instance, oil prices are expected to boost energy earnings this year by 53%. On the other hand, the home building’s revival is expected to last due to demographic and economic factors. Typically, construction collapse after the mortgage burst takes place for a long time that the demand backlogs. Caterpillar and Deere can also be good emerging-markets play.

At this point, it’s too early to detect whether a 5% or 10% has begun. Perhaps, and most likely, it hasn’t happened, yet. Although, a few companies are trying to cut off healthcare costs, which can spur health insurance competition, still, it’s hardly the end of profit growth for the economy.

However, financial gravity will still reassert itself if not in a correction or two, but eventually, it will because it always does.

April 6, 2018 0 comment

Business

How Failures Can Help Businesses

written by Feras Antoon

Decision-making in business can be nerve-wracking. Many entrepreneurs may have experienced it, too: heart beats turn wild, the palm gets sweaty before calling a huge decision that can either make or break the business, leading to abysmal failures. We’re about to make that next, risky step that can make us fall flat on our face.

It’s a similar situation for Stephanie Weichert, a Life and Executive Coach, Strategic Interventionist, published author, speaker, strategic director for START Fitness® and business consultant. When Weichert was about to release her motivational book, she said it was a moment of stepping into the unknown, just like a scene in the movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. In that scene, Indiana Jones had to cross an invisible bridge to find the Holy Grail, which will be the key to his Father’s healing. Taking that perilous path had no certain outcome.

“It’s a leap of faith,” Indiana Jones said. There was no other way. Thus, despite the risk, he took a huge leap forward.

The risk was worth it. Indiana successfully landed on the right steps. But that’s not always the case, especially in business. When the big leap in business results in failure, it usually produces two outcomes. The resilient entrepreneur will learn from his mistake, and try again. The non-resilient will be afraid to try again.

Failures Can Help Business

It’s easy to understand why the non-resilient throws the towel. Failing hurts, and not everyone can take the pain. However, knowing that there’s a good reason to stand up again, and climb the leap of faith once more, fills the fuel.

We have learned from public business failures that staying safe can also take a toll on the business in the long run. Safety cannot help us adapt to change, bearing fruits only for a season. If you remember Blockbuster, its story has a valuable lesson.

The Netflix innovator proposed his idea about streaming movies to Blockbuster, and got rejected. Sometime in 2008, Blockbuster’s CEO Jim Keyes told the online publication, Motley Fool, “Neither Redbox nor Netflix are even on the radar screen in terms of competition.”

Keyes turned down opportunities to explore out-of-the-box ideas. He only focused on the current technology during that time, instead of delving to possible, future innovations. His unwillingness to take a risk, thinking his current success would provide him assured long-term prosperity, led Blockbuster to its downfall – eventually facing bankruptcy.

‘Soloprenuers’ must learn a lesson from Blockbuster’s mistake: staying in the safety zone can also mean closing doors of opportunities where big ideas dwell. Choosing to be safe can also mean avoiding future success.

Most of the time, entrepreneurs know what they like to do, but they choose not to take the leap. For most of them, it’s not arrogance that keeps them rooted to indecision; it’s fear.

We tend to doubt our own business ideas, and think that our creativity will not help us achieve a different level of success. We tend to be fearful of that leap, thinking our credentials, and our business strengths are not enough. For many times, we use our past failures as the basis of what will happen to our future. Our negative beliefs and values about ourselves are preventing us from pursuing our business ideas. A lot of entrepreneurs don’t realize that staying small and safe can cause businesses to die on the vine over time.

Failures Can Help Business

The stories that we tell ourselves have a direct impact to us pursuing our dreams. If we continue to believe that we can’t make it, then we won’t. If we tell ourselves, our ideas are not good enough, then we will not make it happen. If we tell ourselves we’ll most likely fail than succeed, then it will stop us from reaching the top.

To build our momentum, we must remember these three keys:

What we tell ourselves about our failures can either help us make our wings or add a dead weight.
We can use our past failures as lessons to make a different, and more effective move next time.
Trying and failing is always better than not trying at all. Remember the story of Blockbuster.

That next big leap can be daunting. That step is crucial, and different for each of us. However, the only way to take that next step is to convince ourselves that there are good things in store for us; there are opportunities still heading our way. Our resilience dictates our ability to make that next move. We must be willing to be vulnerable and to risk, for us to have the courage to try again. That next step into the unknown can be our huge leap of faith.

Enjoy this video that talks more about how failures can be a positive thing in the grand scheme of things:

April 4, 2018 0 comment

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