"If there’s one thing I learned from being treasurer of Morgan Stanley it is never to buy structured products from derivatives people"
Brad Hintz, senior analyst at Sanford Bernstein and once a senior finance official at both Stanley and Lehman, gives a caveat emptor from a former vendor’s perspective
(see CDO litigation: Casino banking victims face last roll of the dice)
"We are overshadowed by this Algerian problem. It’s caused a lot of damage to us, and their behaviour is beyond belief"
Naguib Sawiris, head of the Orascom empire, on the extent of the problems in one of his countries of operation. Algeria must be pretty tough if it’s more difficult than Egypt, Zimbabwe or North Korea, where Orascom also trades
(see Orascom: A very modern tale of corporate finance)
"We don’t give pilots a manual and then allow them to fly an A380 once they have read it – we put them in simulators and simulate crashes because they learn better when they are exposed to situations. As bankers we have to lose a bit of our arrogance and see how the world lives with risk"
Hugo Bänziger, chief risk officer of Deutsche Bank, on how the financial industry needs to adopt a new approach to risk management (see A new culture of risk)
"Clients have a lower tolerance for risk.