Thursday, December 16, 2010

Banker Says Mauritius Strong on Rhetoric

That was Mike Rees last Tuesday night at the Four Points by Sheraton. He was invited in the speaker series of the Society of Financial Analyst of Mauritius to talk on Opportunities and Risk in a Rapidly Changing Economic World. Rees also added that other countries in Africa have gotten their act together and their prospects are looking good.

The MBC and the media were there but given that the guy was challenging the bean-counting wisdom it's not surprising that one of our major papers barely mentioned that he was there.

20 comments:

akagugo said...

lexpress.mu gives 3 questions freely, and asks you to pay for a subscription if you want more. Save money by going at Standard Chartered's website which links to (almost the same) questions brought to him by "the main National Newspapers & Business Magazine."

"Les stimulus packages devront, selon moi, être enlevés dans le temps." That's what he said in December 2009, and maybe that's why he's getting only the two lines in today's Le Mauricien...

The Banker said...

Know the guy, met him personally, not impressed at all, he wanted to be the centre of attraction, comparing unlike with likes, i.e, Mauritius with Dubai and Singapore but if he really wanted to impress, he should have talked on the economics of climate change as his analysis was based on a still 'monde merveilleux', for the years to come Married to a Mauritian but still that colonialism way of thinking, only westerners are good other are just bull shit, as Mr Rees pretending to show to us !!!

akagugo said...

@ The Banker
Donc, si mo comprend bien, ni Rees pas bon, ni Manou... Ki bon alors? Li parett ki standard bizin more than sky-high pou capaw impressionne ou, hein...?
Mo espérer bolom nwel donne bann kouma ou enn tiginn l'espoir pou 2011...

Kranti said...

SJ, Minister Pandit Baichoo stated he was not going to spoon feed road users by installing warning of speed cameras. It seems for him, making money gets precedence on prevention of speed control. Speed cameras are meant to be deterrents but the guy is really IL, what can we expect from him?

Kranti said...

Maurice Ile durable, my foot! The Police, the Traffic Management, Environment are unable to control smoke emission from vehicles, especially buses. Just take a drive anywhere with 2 or 3 buses, even minibuses in front of you. If you have aircon in your car and are not allergic to it, you are safe; but if not, start counting your days (well, in a way!). any solution, Minister Pandit Baichoo?

The Banker said...

@akagugo
seems for, you critics are not allowed and need to go with the wind, oops with Kozelidir's one sided view, poor chap, ki lecole ou fine aler, hein ??

akagugo said...

@ The Banker
Hello from the gutter... I'm proud to have been at (enn certaine manière) lekol en-bas-banc. Ti enn non-star school. Mais apré ki maja-la coummencer, dans lekol secondaire. Si ou pa ti habille / peigne sévé / mett mem kalité style linz / ecoute mem lamizik / pratik mem sport / faire mem commentaire lor bann tifi couma tou lezott / al mem prof lesson ki tou lezott / faire mem rol macho ar lezott collégien, bein ou ti enn outcast. Well, I was a very good outcast. Thank you for asking.
That's what forged by character of paying attention to criticism first before praise, listening to those who do not conform to ambient consensus, and respect those who are humble enough to be quick to admit a mistake.
Bon, mo pas capave expect discernement pareil pou tou dimoun, hein...?
Dans ou cas, franchement, mo pas comprend: si ni Manou, ni Rees pas bon at their respective posts, abé ki sann-la ki pou just good enough to impress you? You would be most welcome to give any constructive suggestion to these people as a way of making amends? Simple question. Which deserves a simple, direct answer, dear Sir... Else, criticising for the sake of criticising is merely intellectual masturbation.

The Banker said...

@akagugo
Well, knew well before that life has not been so happy for you, hence the frustration getiing out ... let me tell you one thing ... things do not always flow in a formatted sequence that is whereever there are bad we should be having good to compensate, same as in current situation, none of these guys are good enough to talk on economics and finance, based on their track records and non-sense comments, its just a situation that la perrle rare is yet to be found, alongside impressing me, as a chartered banker ...

Anonymous said...

@The Banker
You seem to be rather weak in Finance and Economics if we look at the type of comments that you have been leaving here. I would not be surprised one bit if you were one of those bank chairmen that had to be kicked out because they do not have a single clue what banking is all about.

akagugo said...

I totally agree with The Banker that "things do not always flow in a formatted sequence that is whereever there are bad we should be having good to compensate". Humans after all are born with capacity to adapt to changes from wherever they come, right? So what do we do if "la perrle rare is yet to be found"? Hiring the best that we can find in the meantime is a much better option than doing nothing at all and remain entrenched in the sterile weep/criticise/condemn/complain cycle, in my humble opinion.

So, asterr ki 'The Banker' décide pou touille suspense ek révèle nou ki li enn Chartered Banker... Is it the same academic qualifications that enables you to measure the level of my "frustration getiing out"... Nice! :-)

Now, the crux of the matter remains the fact that most of the 19 registered local banks are charging rates that are resolutely at usury levels. I would illustrate my point by taking the construction industry for example, where you can have your house built by small contractors, more structured ones or even the big ones, depending on your budget. What makes the difference in unit-prices (for example, cost per square metre of built-up floor area, or cost per column, beam or any other measurable item) is the level of overheads of each of these contractors: small ones have virtually no overheads, where the owner of the company himself being often the general foreman, the leading-hand, the purchase manager, the time-keeper, the QS and the negotiator all at the same time. When you have recourse to the big guns, all these tasks are devoted to specific persons, or even departments in some cases, and these overhead costs tend to inflate the general prices. For example, small independent contractors may claim up to 800 Rs/sq.ft for a one-storey building these days, but the same job may go up to 1,200 Rs/sq.ft for small registered building contractors, and even 1,800 for large construction companies. What kills the local entrepreneurs is that the small banks tend to copy rates being charged by large banks (which themselves are generously covered by all sorts of insurances and re-insurances and incredible amount of guarantees, without mentionning their margins) for their own. Samem ki appel 'lazy banking'. It's as if Tikis (a very small 'company' specialising in coule-dalle cuit-vidé) is charging the same rate as General Construction's (THE number 1 contractor) prices for casting a roof for a residential building.
The same applies for the local money changers.
Imagine if one day all of the customers of MCB and SCB (80% of the market, I hear) did what Cantona said...

The Banker said...

@Anonymous
'rather weak in Finance and economics' capave vine done toi lecons, to la capav acceptr different lopinion, bizin tt le temp rentre dan to zouer, nivo tolerance zero,montrer to vrai visage o lieu to p cachiete derrier anonymous, mo douter ki to ene sa ban fils a papa, frustrer ki pa fine gagne so bout are govt, parski govt ausi capv fair ignore ban poor chap categ 10 couma toi ...

The Banker said...

@akagugo
You seem to be trapped in a belief bordering excessive obduracy, that banks are disguised NGOs having for main mission to safekeep your cash, competing with your mattresses, no, its a buisness like any type of business and if you are not happy about rates like currently pretending, just report. Still recall the blablabla made at the beginning of 2010 which should have culminated in a completed shift in the way banks decide on their FX spread, but was just an effet d'annonce from some bloggers, using a forum to step in the limelight though by 'la petite porte' as comments are of no value at the end of the day, just open you eyes and look at facts, lots of talk on competition commission, but .... anne ma soeur anne ......

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

@The Banker
I don't think anyone needs your permission to express his/her opinion. And you seem to be quite upset by what anonymous said. I wonder why...

So here's your take: everyone is frustrated except you (a chartered banker) and FX spreads may be on the low side.

Btw, the first post about abusive bank FX spreads appeared in June... not exactly the start of the year, right? Unless you start to work only in the middle of the year. Maybe that's part of what Manou called lazy banking. Still I am happy to report that some folks started shopping around for the best deals. Don't you just love it?

Can't also avoid noticing that you sound a lot like that journalist who seemed to be jealous of the Forum page in Le Mauricien.

Why don't you start a private blog and sell subscriptions to broadcast whatever interesting stuff you may have to contribute?

Anonymous said...

@ The Banker
You seem very frustrated... like someone who has been ejected for incompetence from a political nomination. Despite being a chartered banker. Oulalalalalala! You also seem to beb already missing the limelight that the nomination offered.
Were you a runner up in the world's best business mind competition?

akagugo said...

This guy says: “The banking system destroys value”.

Who agrees? Who doesn't?

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

Mo penser tu dimunn pu dakor.. enfin apard Zee Banker.

akagugo said...

Some regulation in the way for UK bankers... What do you say about that?

akagugo said...

Enfin enn dimounn pé dirr for-for saki depi lontan pe soutirer:
Ena tro boukou bokers, la-bank ek assurans dans Dodoland.
Saki béz bann dimounn so poss, sé ki tou la-bank ki rentr dans marsé-la bann price-taker, péna absoluman aukenn initiative kass-pri ek conkérir additional market share (enn ti pé normal - avek sa-bann spreads-la, enn ti-poursan marsé-la assez pou couverr tou fixed and variable costs, non? Samem ki nombr la-bank pé réss ogmanté-mem, mé personn la-dan pa fermé malgré 'la crise'): wa-dir bann vanderr dal-pourri - saki Dewa férr, zott tou nék imité mém.
Mem soz pou bann lassurans - puiské zott sirr ki dimounn oblizé pran lassurans, zéro innovation.
Pou bann brokers, pa tro conné: capav sé bann pov ti-canar ki pé paiy poi ti-poul...

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

La usi pa zot tu ki ena kalite Dewa...

Ti bizin ena plis labank inovater ek diferan... Byen bizin enn Steve Jobs dan sa domen la...

akagugo said...

Jobs? Ou bien enn couma Yunus ki compran ki vedir 'trusting hard-working people'.