Newsletter – Hugo Cuevas-Mohr – February 12, 2015

Thursday, February 12th, 2015

DE-RISKING: A MOVING TARGET
With a new round of massive bank account closures of MTOs in the US De-Risking takes center stage (again)

In English, a “moving target” is when you set your expectation for something – some task, some desirable outcome, a target, and then when it is met you “move the target” and set another expectation. It means that the the person or entity you have set the expectation for is never able to fulfill it, never reaching the target. And “De-Risking” is fast becoming a moving target.

Read this POST on De-Risking witten as news pour in on the recen bank account closures by Merchants Bank of California, a Bank that has been one of the few remaining banks providing services to the industry. The news of Somalian MTOs being hit (again) has hit the news, like this article by Scott Reckard, a reporter of the LA Times, who called me today: http://lat.ms/1F0q6sF

Shri Harun R Khan, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India said yesterday (2/10): “our approach should be to ensure risk compatibility over time rather than trying to de-risk the future. In fact, a fanatic commitment to risk aversion could itself be a risk that businesses might face in any post-crisis period.”

Some articles in the news have been very harsh against US regulators, such as the one from British writer George Monbiot who writes: ““So the US government fails to prosecute the illegal transfer of billions of dollars [HSBC], in order to protect American jobs, while sentencing people in the Horn of Africa to death because of the illegal transfer of a few thousand. There is a word for these double standards: racism”.”
Read the POST here and join in the conversation in the IMTC Linkedin Group where I hope to receive your comments.

PRESENTING SALVADOR VALAZQUEZ

I want to introduce to you our new IMTC Advisory Board Member

Salvador joins Connie Fenchel, Andrew Ittleman, Zory Muñoz and Daniel Trías in providing ideas to IMTC on subject matters, trends, relevant research, suitable speakers and panelists as well as networking and outreach. The group shares a passion for the global development of the MT industry and a deep desire to share their experience and their knowledge with IMTC’s attendees, speakers and sponsors.

Salvador is well-known in the industry for developing CIBANCO and later on Dolex, one of the largest MTOs in the US, the company that owns the largest network of company own branches (close to 600). He has been part of Scotiabank, PNB and most recently with Libertad Servicios Financieros in Mexico.
I am delighted to share with Salvador consulting projects and I hope you come to IMTC USA 2015 in Las Vegas and meet Salvador.