Deloitte Financial Services Rising Star Awards 2008

Welcome to the CIOBS blog.

Well that's another interesting week coming to an end.

The Live final of the Deloitte Financial Services Rising Star Awards 2008 took place here in Edinburgh on Tuesday.

The judging panel comprised Stewart Stevenson MSP, Philip Grant, Rob Topley, Ewen Munro and Simon Thompson.

The finalist were:

Christine Cairns - RBS
Yvonne Collins - National Australia Group (Europe)
Ashley McCurdie - Abbey
Mark Mercer - Bank of Scotland

The winner and Rising Star 2008 as decided by the judges was ........... Mark Mercer.

Many congratulations to you Mark.

Mark was also awarded the Fairbairn Trophy for the best presentation.

This vote was decided by the audience.

Well done to all the finalists.

As the judges said the standard was remarkable and it was no mean feat to reach the final.

Mr. Brown was in fine form and managed not only to keep everything together but entertained the audience at the same time.

A bit of a rising star himself as you will find out over there in Belfast tomorrow.

Wednesday saw another Introductory Day here at Drumsheugh with a new group of students embarking on either the Certificate or Diploma in Financial Services in attendance.

Some new catch phrases emerged from Wednesday's session such as:

"It's a marathon not a sprint" or "Think long-term"

I managed to invent a new phrase last week.

After spilling some water on a document I remarked to a colleague

" I will let this dry out and then we can have a chat about it"

She thought this was some new business speak.

It wasn't, but, I think it could be in the right circumstances!!!

Michael (Time for a sprint)

110 not out

Yes, This is the 110th CIOBS blog. Who would have thought it?

A very warm welcome to your favourite blog.

It has course been a rather turbulent week in the Financial Services Industry and all events have been covered in great detail in the media, and we have some coverage of the week's earlier events in our weekly news podcast.

Yesterday here at CIOBS we had the pleasure of introducing a group of new students to their first experience of their Institute by way of an Introductory day.

It was a pleasure to meet you all and I wish you well in your studies. The students will be doing the Chartered Banker qualification or one of our Advanced Diplomas.

Next Wednesday brings another new group of students and they will be studying for one of the Certificate qualifications.

Next Tuesday night sees the final of the Deloitte Financial Services Rising Star Awards taking place here in Edinburgh and I can exclusively reveal that Raymond Brown will be playing a very high profile part in the proceedings!

I am sure it will be worth attending for that alone.

Good luck to all the finalists. We shall have a full report on the proceedings in next week's blog.

Look out Northern Ireland and particular Belfast.

The high profile person that is Raymond Brown will be in your city on Friday 26th September. I know that you are used to high profile visitors in Belfast. President Clinton amongst others in recent years and I am sure you will be rolling out the red carpet for your esteemed visitor.

Please make sure when you roll it back up that Mr. Brown is not inside it!

Michael (Keeping a low profile at present)

Hanoi to the Grassmarket

What an interesting week it has been and it is only Thursday. Can it get any better?

A warm welcome to the latest CIOBS blog.

Firstly, may I draw your attention to this week's podcast which can be found here http://www.ciobs.org.uk/home.html

There you will find an article about Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and some other interesting business news.

Monday saw a visit to CIOBS by representatives of the Ministry of Finance, Vietnam. The good folks brought a translator with them. Phew! I said as did Colin Morrison as we were about to do our presentations. The group are in the U.K. as guests of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland (ICAS) and Monday's treat was to spend the morning at Drumsheugh House.

The group were due to travel to London later in the week and spend some time at Canary Wharf visiting the FSA.

We had a lively discussion with subjects like the Credit Crunch and the Scottish Bank Note Issue being to the fore.

Talking about the credit crunch which I know is a serious matter, however, someone who shall remain nameless told me this week that two banks in the far east are in bother.

The Karaoke Bank is going for a song and....... Wait for it!

The Oragami bank has folded!!

Legal notice: The above was supplied to this blog by a Mr. X from Fife and he takes full responsibility for the contents.

This morning saw Raymond and myself along with many others at the Apex International Hotel in Edinburgh's Grassmarket. We were attending A seminar entitled "Treating Customers Fairly: Achieving the FSA'S December Deadline."

This was a very interesting event and the speakers were Jeremy Fraser of Brodies, Norrie Henderson of Bank of Ireland and Mike O'Hagan of the FSA.

The event was chaired by Richard Wyatt-Haines.

It was nice to see some former and some present CIOBS students in attendance.

Well it is time to get on and if next week is half as interesting as this week has been (so far) it will be super!

Michael ( Did I use the word interesting at all?)

Autumn

Well here we are again, a new month and a new season. it's time to use some of those great Scottish phrases such as "The nights are fair drawing in." This can be used as an ice-breaker or when you run out of conversation!

Another phrase widely used at this time of year in this part of the world is " Have you noticed that is turning a bit colder in the evenings?"

Once again this can used when you run out of conversation.

Someone who never runs out of words is your very own Raymond Brown.

Yes folks he is back and he is out and about already. Today saw him visiting an organisation in Edinburgh and he tells me that when he was introduced to the group the person introducing him said " Please welcome the man who gave us a highly entertaining and memorable presentation last year."

He then turned to Raymond and asked"What is your name again?"

Only joking on that one of course he knew Raymond's name - he had a name badge on!

What a welcome - no pressure or anything like that!

I am just glad the person introducing Raymond got his name right!

My moles tells me he was highly entertaining and he will probably be asked back next year.

Well done Raymond.

A memorable man.

Last week's outing to the farm was wonderful and if you are ever visiting Almond Valley Heritage Park in Livingston please take a close look at the duck pond.

What used to be a heavily overgrown area is now a haven for ducks. All thanks to the efforts of the CIOBS team.

The only serious injury to a member of the team was the broken nail sustained by Peter Moir.

Don't worry Peter it will grow back.

Next week sees a visit to CIOBS by a group of bankers from Vietnam. As far as I am aware this will be the first time we have received a group from this country.

We have had visitors from many parts of the world in the past and it is always interesting to meet them and find out a bit more about their country and the banking system there.

I am assured that the group all speak English - I am happy about this as my Vietnamese is limited- Some previous groups have brought a translator with them.

I have always enjoyed hearing my words translated, however I often wondered if the translator was maybe adding comments about me!!!

We are always pleased to receive any comments on the blog and any little anecdotes or stories that you might think would be useful.

One of our younger readers sent in this contribution last week.

" I have just bought a new CD called Sounds of the 80s, but it was just full of old folk coughing and complaining about everything."

Thanks for that Miss X from Kelty.

We have passed your name and address to your local old folks group. You can expect a visit from them soon.

Michael (Will I ever be memorable?)