European Expansion and Appointments for Financial Insights
January 29 2004
Research and advisory firm Financial Insights, an IDC Company, has announced further expansion in Europe, with two key appointments. Robert Giffords becomes Director of Research and Consulting for the EMEA Region, joined by Martin McKenna as Director of Sales.
Giffords is a thirty-year veteran of the financial services technology community and joins from EuroMTS Ltd. where he was CTO. His experience across banking and capital markets includes dealing room systems; bond exchange trading; STP and asset management systems; electronic funds transfer and payment systems; corporate cash management; consumer credit; and cards systems.
McKenna has more than twenty years of IT experience in developing business within the banking and insurance markets.
The expansion will give Financial Insights enhanced local coverage on the financial services market in the EMEA region. In particular, Giffords will direct the introduction of two new services:
- The European Retail Financial Advisory Service - covering the consumer banking sector in Europe, and
- The European Capital Markets Advisory Service - examining the impact of evolving trading and settlement technologies, risk management and regulatory changes on the sector.
Giffords says it is an exciting time for the financial services industry: 'At a global level we are seeing the continued consolidation of trillion dollar mega-banks and asset managers, while in Europe we have the race to achieve pan-European delivery. Given the cultural, economic and regulatory diversity we have to deal with here in Europe, institutions are struggling with a plethora of technology decisions and are looking for guidance'. He adds that the 1990s in Europe 'fuelled a consumer credit boom in conjunction with a taste for equity investment. Many institutions are only now learning how to deal with the operational and technical implications of this trend'.
According to COO Michon Schenck, 'Financial Insights' expansion into the European market further supports our efforts to provide our clients with not just global perspectives, but valuable regional views as well on the technology issues that impact them'.
The company has also issued two new reports focusing on Europe,
European Mobile Payments: Evolving Into the Next Generation and
European Cross-Border Payment Service Providers: Key to Pan-European Supremacy, the latter focusing on the race to dominate the online consumer market.
Financial Insights was formed in November 2002 by combining Meridien Research and the IDC Financial Services Advisory group, and includes Retail Financial Services, Capital Markets and Corporate Banking practices, each of which delivers reports on new issues and challenges as well as advising clients on technology related decisions.
Information on Financial Insights reports is available from
sales@financial-insights.com . The company's web site is at
www.financial-insights.com
All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.
