Markets of buyers and sellers will come “full circle”. Thousands of years ago, “transactions” between buyers and sellers were negotiated “under a tree” and face to face. As markets became larger and global, industry constructed proprietary and closed systems to match buyers and sellers. In an era of the internet, much of this infrastructure is redundant. A global internet displaces regional and proprietary communications systems. The internet will significantly impact many industries. We are likely to return to negotiating “under a digital tree”. The internet and the emerging “semantic” web will bring the people together in the global market place.
Read MoreArchive for ‘Stock exchanges 1.0’
30 July 2006 Category: A Personal Central Brain, Capital allocation and remote services, Economic development, Equity Market 3.0, Health 3.0 National industry and patient medical record collaboration, Private equity and venture capital, Specialist financial centres, Stock exchanges 1.0, Web 1.0 proprietary hierarchies vs. Web 3.0 community networks No Comments 
The key reasons that Europe and other regional economies have not developed a “Silicon valley” is not cultural and not lack of capital. There are enough entrepreneurs and the capital will mobilise. There needs to be predictable risk for involvement in early stage, greater transparency that reduce the costs of involvement and a significant reduction in the time/cost to find opportunities. Entrepreneurs and investors need to know who to call. The recipients of those calls need to be willing to get involved.
Is there a way to achieve transparency, without waiting for decades to pass and relationships to form in the conventional way? There must be a role for an online social network to assist each regional economy, company, advisers and investors with sincere early stage aspirations.
Read MoreThe Isle of Man is a world class financial centre. I recommend the Isle of Man Finance web site for more information. It is a very competitive offshore offering, but may have been less flexible and more expensive than other “offshore” jurisdictions. Amongst other requirements, an Isle of Man company had to have at least one resident director and a resident company secretary. This is about to change. The Isle of Man is about to introduce the “New Manx Vehicle” (“NMV”) company structure. The NMV has many of the attributes of the International Business Companies of the BVI and other offshore jurisdictions. With the NMV, the Isle of Man is a compelling offshore proposition (particularly for European E-Business). The opportunity to use “meeting rooms earmarked for use by Manx companies” in the Isle of Man’s London office is an innovative marketing tactic.
Read More“The Semantic Web (or Web 3.0) promises to organize the world’s information in a dramatically more logical way than Google can ever achieve with their current engine design.” The lack of metadata around information and closed information systems ensure financial markets remain a highly profitable industry. In Web 2.0, the information could be organised into structured databases from a single location made available over the internet. Web 3.0 must still be organised, but intelligent distributed agents could answer your question – “Which corporate adviser should I use to list my Web 3.0 company in Bermuda?” and “What are my chances of getting liquidity?”. It will be very interesting to see what type of answers Web 3.0 gives us?
Read More5 July 2006 Category: Boom then depression by 2012, Capital allocation and remote services, Central Brain assembly, Central Brain building blocks, Economic development, Equity Market 3.0, Industry collaboration (Central Brain), Private equity and venture capital, Specialist financial centres, Stock exchanges 1.0, Web 1.0 proprietary hierarchies vs. Web 3.0 community networks No Comments
The United States also driving companies away from their home market. Sarbanes-Oxley Act, increased regulation and complexity have increased the cost of raising capital and the risk of non-compliance. Offshore centres are attracting companies away from the United States. “23 of the 24 firms recently looking to raise more than a billion dollars in capital chose to list overseas rather than in the U.S.”
Read More“A true sea change is taking place in the capital markets industry worldwide. Driven by sociological, regulatory and technological developments, this wave will completely alter the face of the industry and the roles of current market participants over the next 10 years.”: Bearingpoint. Stock exchanges will move beyond order execution, to providing investment banking services and enhanced clearing and settlement. Smaller firms will follow Google’s IPO example and approach the public directly rather than through intermediaries.
Read More20 June 2006 Category: Capital allocation and remote services, Digital Ecosystems, Economic development, Equity Market 3.0, Private equity and venture capital, Specialist financial centres, Stock exchanges 1.0, Web 1.0 Intellectual property vs. Web 3.0 Community knowledge, Web 1.0 proprietary hierarchies vs. Web 3.0 community networks 1 Comment
The internet would appear to facilitate greater participation in the “listed company” market by the offshore stock exchanges. Offshore centres can list companies at a fraction of the cost of onshore exchanges. Onshore equity markets are expensive and can only be used by large companies. Does the current standard of compliance and regulation mean that small companies can not get capital for growth so that they become large? What does society gain from ensuring effective capital allocation to early stage companies? In the internet era, the offshore stock exchange may ultimately have a greater role.
Read MoreFor the year ending March 2006, the number of companies listed on the NYSE and NASDAQ fell 3.1% and 0.9% respectively. Could the decline in their home markets have inspired these major exchanges to acquire or merge? A combined NASDAQ / London Stock Exchange represents 15% of the number of global listed companies and 14.7% of global market capitalisation. A combined NYSE / Euronext represents 8.5% of the number of global listed companies and 25.7% of global market capitalisation.
Read More22 May 2006 Category: Stock exchanges 1.0 No Comments
During the period ending 31st March 2006, the market capitalisation of stock exchanges in the America’s, Asia Pacific and Europe grew 15.3%, 36.2% and 23.3% resepctively. This was driven by increasing valuations of listed companies, but was also influenced by changes in the number of companies. There were changes in the number of companies:- The America’s decreased 0.5%, Asia Pacific increased 2.5% and Europe increased 3.5%. Despite strong equity markets, there was a decline in the number of companies listed in key markets and specific exchanges that implemented niche strategies experienced growth.
Read MoreOn the 1st April 2006, the World Bank released a policy paper titled "Promoting access to primary equity markets : a legal and regulatory approach". The report is available from here. "Abstract: This paper examines legal and regulatory measures that can be taken to promote access to the primary market in emerging market economies. While capital market development depends on many factors including, primarily, a favorable macroeconomic environment, an appropriately designed and effective legal and regulatory framework can help to encourage market growth and to increase access to finance for all companies, including small- and medium-sized enterprises. In this paper we identify the basic necessities that underpin a regulatory regime that ... Read More
“Power will shift from the traders who have benefited from merely facilitating transactions to the buyers and sellers who take positions on either end of the trade, and that which is most highly prized in financial markets – the ability to create value – is likely to experience a renaissance as transformational as anything the industry has ever witnessed.” – IBM report. The opportunity for online social networks in financial markets is becoming clear.
Read More17 April 2006 Category: Boom then depression by 2012, Capital allocation and remote services, Economic development, Equity Market 3.0, Private equity and venture capital, Specialist financial centres, Stock exchanges 1.0, Web 1.0 Intellectual property vs. Web 3.0 Community knowledge, Web 1.0 proprietary hierarchies vs. Web 3.0 community networks 2 Comments
The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) examined the financial assets of more than 100 countries since 1980. The result is a comprehensive profile of the global capital market (GCM) and an in-depth analysis of its evolution across geographies and asset classes.
Read More“Shares in the London Stock Exchange (LSE) have jumped by 30% on Monday following speculation of a bid war.” Consolidation in this market is an inevitable consequence of the compeitive pressure from competing electronic networks which utilise lower cost technologies. The fundamental function of the stock exchange – matching buyers and sellers of shares – is not as lucrative as it was twenty years ago. “In the New Reality a complete minnow of a stock exchange will grow to be a world player.” A merger between the LSE and NYSE would produce a dominant exchange, but can it compete with the inevitable compeititon from the internet?
Read More14 March 2006 Category: Stock exchanges 1.0 1 Comment
Offshore financial centres had a reputation for being havens of criminal activity. The following five year old articles show this reputation is undeserved.They suggest that the “persecution of tax havens is not the fight against money laundering but the fight against low taxes”. The persecution of “tax havens” was simply an instrument of the nation state to protect domestic tax revenues from foreign tax competition.
Today, the majority of financial centres are well regulated and well respected. The also offer companies and investors the opportunity to reduce compliance costs and take advantage of countries dedicated to servicing their needs. Some countries are focussed on attracting a specific type of company. They enact legislation that is necessary to provide a respectable base for specific types of business. For example, the Isle of Man is focussed upon attracting EBusiness. These smaller financial centres are likely to be significant beneficiaries of the globalisation of financial markets. Business owners and entrepreneurs may choose to incorporate in these centres and derive significant benefits. They will need to pay taxes on any foreign income they derive or is attributed to them by their tax laws. The majority of financial centres are havens for business, rather than a means to reduce taxes.
Read More21 January 2006 Category: Capital allocation and remote services, Central Brain assembly, Central Brain building blocks, Climate stability 4.0, Critical path to Web 4.0, Declining markets, Democracy 3.0 and global governance 4.0, Equity Market 3.0, Peak oil water food resources and leadership, Private equity and venture capital, Specialist financial centres, Stock exchanges 1.0, Web 1.0 Intellectual property vs. Web 3.0 Community knowledge No Comments
Marcus Cake
Peter Elliott
Matt Taylor
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