White Collar Work in Sydney
Changing suit from bathing suit, to neoprene, to "blue" work suit it was for the past two years. Then suddenly, back to the white shirt, suit and tie. Tie? Well, not so much in Australia as in Switzerland or other locations. A bit of surf dude needs to survive!
So while spending weekends on board, getting the varnishing back to look beautiful, it's back to banking organizations, processes, business cases and strategies and of course IT. As all over the world, the banks are struggling to move from legacy to up-to-date, cost-efficient system landscapes that allow quick time-to-market for services, enable the compliance organizations to do their job and last but not least make the clients' life a bit better. How so? Lower fees, lower spreads, better advice, easier payments, better access to their data.
As for the fees, the Royal Commission that analysed misconduct in banking did not reveal unexpected things - it's just shocking to get reminded of what happens all around: unwary customers pay too much for bad service, or none at all in this case. And again we are in the discussion of market versus regulation, clients' trusting brands and making it hard for the clean newcomers to prove their capabilities, at the same time regulators that crush the big guys that exactly know how to play. This time though, with fines getting "American volume", change is under way. Change to international standards with a very local flavor. There is a lot to catch up - we opened our bank account without having a copy of our passports taken. How will they ever find out if we were who we pretended to be? Welcome to money laundering and fraud. Looking forward to our first projects in the risk management and compliance domain. And did I mention the home bias? You have to shop around to have access to international shares trading - the standard retail bank does not provide that.
Home bias changed for Isa, as she is defining our new home. Style change! Thanks to our friends, the home we selected and a few purchased, we live in a very classic Aussie-British outfit. Wonderful! Quite a achange from our Maennedorf appartment - life is interesting, life is good!
Find some impressions of our new Drummoyne home, birthday and Sydney office here. And yes, the AirBnB is open for friends and family, we did get a mattress in the meantime.
So while spending weekends on board, getting the varnishing back to look beautiful, it's back to banking organizations, processes, business cases and strategies and of course IT. As all over the world, the banks are struggling to move from legacy to up-to-date, cost-efficient system landscapes that allow quick time-to-market for services, enable the compliance organizations to do their job and last but not least make the clients' life a bit better. How so? Lower fees, lower spreads, better advice, easier payments, better access to their data.
As for the fees, the Royal Commission that analysed misconduct in banking did not reveal unexpected things - it's just shocking to get reminded of what happens all around: unwary customers pay too much for bad service, or none at all in this case. And again we are in the discussion of market versus regulation, clients' trusting brands and making it hard for the clean newcomers to prove their capabilities, at the same time regulators that crush the big guys that exactly know how to play. This time though, with fines getting "American volume", change is under way. Change to international standards with a very local flavor. There is a lot to catch up - we opened our bank account without having a copy of our passports taken. How will they ever find out if we were who we pretended to be? Welcome to money laundering and fraud. Looking forward to our first projects in the risk management and compliance domain. And did I mention the home bias? You have to shop around to have access to international shares trading - the standard retail bank does not provide that.
Home bias changed for Isa, as she is defining our new home. Style change! Thanks to our friends, the home we selected and a few purchased, we live in a very classic Aussie-British outfit. Wonderful! Quite a achange from our Maennedorf appartment - life is interesting, life is good!
Find some impressions of our new Drummoyne home, birthday and Sydney office here. And yes, the AirBnB is open for friends and family, we did get a mattress in the meantime.