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?)