In the face of the impending global financial meltdown a year ago, world leaders found clarity: financial regulatory frameworks needed to be overhauled.

Indeed, there was “incredible consensus” among G20 nations to enact much needed reforms, says Rakesh Mohan, former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India. “At the peak of the crisis, it was very clear, there was consensus, there was intention, there were willing efforts.” Read more..

Which is more innovative? The global conglomerate with revenue of $363 billion or the entrepreneur whose ground-breaking DoubleClick software package revolutionised online selling and was ultimately sold to Google for more than $3 billion?

Answer: it’s a tie. Read more..

It would be difficult to find two financial institutions more indicative of the plus and minus sides of the financial tsunami that hit the world of banking this year: on the one hand, ING, the venerable international Dutch bank, forced to go to the government for a 10 billion euro bailout and now facing public evisceration at the hands of EU regulators. On the other hand, Standard Chartered Bank, a bastion of banking in Asia since the era of British imperial rule. Read more..

Indonesia’s two-tier board system works well and could be a model for other countries. That’s according to the president of the supervisory board of commissioners at major telco PT Telekomunikasi, Tanri Abeng, who says he’s “a little bit critical” of the single-board system used elsewhere. Read more..

While many countries are seeing unemployment rates rising sharply, Singapore’s has only gone up by about one per cent over the past year to 3.4 per cent and remains one of the lowest in the world, despite the global slowdown.

The secret weapon in the country’s arsenal is its tripartite approach involving the Ministry of Manpower (government), the National Trade Union Congress (labour) and the Singapore National Employers Federation (business).

Read more..