"Barely any clients know what their investment performance is, even those who say they are more investment-oriented. The number-one reason clients leave their bankers is not performance, but rather because their phone calls were not returned quickly enough"
Sallie Krawcheck, former CEO of wealth management at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, doubts that chief investment officers will be a game changer for private banks
(see Private banking: Rise of the CIO)
"Is Bank of Cyprus going to go down? I am not going to say no, because we have to work our way through the problems. I will be honest with the descriptions of the problems we uncover. I will be honest with everyone from the Troika to the staff about how we are doing. Any other approach is misleading"
John Hourican, former head of the investment bank at RBS, realizes he may have an even tougher job on his hands as the new CEO of Bank of Cyprus
(see Cyprus: Hourican looks to calm Cypriot storm)
"We should do more to make businesses understand and feel that they are free. We are very keen to have open, free markets in our country and it’s very important that the authorities perform. It should not be artificially declared, but genuine and real"
Nodar Khaduri, Georgia’s minister of finance, realises that a change of mindset, as well as regulation, is vital to his country breaking the shackles of the Soviet era and becoming an open economy
(see Emerging Europe: A free market for Georgia?)
"It’s an alpha-rich environment. And there is much less contagion from global economic turbulence because, as it stands, most sub-Saharan African currencies, excluding oil-rich countries, aren’t as susceptible to fluctuations in the dollar"
Antoon de Klerk, a portfolio manager at Investec, sees big opportunities in local-currency African bonds