Brian Bollen's Blog

Short Selling Post-HBOS: Is A Ban Unthinkable?

I have been writing about securities lending and short selling for a number of years. I have never pretended to understand the nuances and subtleties of the arguments for or against either practice, let alone their everyday practice, but in the extraordinary circumstances of recent times I have been giving it rather more thought than I normally might.

In the current climate, I think a case is mounting for the banning of short selling. I am not saying that I am in favour of such a ban, or against it, but I find myself, as a journalist who has been writing about the international financial markets for nearly 24 years, wondering not so much why short selling is allowed in the first place, but why any shareholder would want to facilitate the destruction of value it can bring about by lending the shares the short seller needs.

Have We Gone Too Far?

Is it an appropriate moment to be asking some contrarian questions about the ongoing global economic financial situation?

Such as: 'Is the knee jerk reaction being vastly overdone?' 'Are the securities that are thought to be toxic actually going to prove to be toxic in the longer term?' 'Might we see substantial amounts being written back in future years when circumstances improve?'

Jungfrau Marathon: The Toughest In The World

A version of this article was published in the Financial Times International Edition on September 6

How do you make an already challenging race even more demanding? Run it up a mountain is what the organisers of the Jungfrau Marathon in Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland decided to do back in 1993, with huge success. The race, which styles itself the world’s toughest marathon, has grown strongly ever since the first event, which attracted around 1,800 runners of all abilities. Today, some 4,500 runners have registered for the16th Jungfrau Marathon, which starts at the Grand Hotel Victoria Jungfrau in Interlaken at 9am central European time. The winner is expected to cross the finishing line, in the shadow of the fearsome North Face of the Eiger, three hours later.

A Flight To Quality

A flight to quality. If there is one phrase which recurs time and again in discussing the asset services world and comparing it to a year ago, a flight to quality is that phrase. It is a form of words that is usually more associated with the investment management side of the equation, but has become ever more important over the past 12 months to those servicing that industry as the fallout from the credit crunch has continued to spread.