Mind altering musings

Have you ever considered that books and drugs are similar in many ways? The right ones, used in the right manner, can make you laugh, feel better, think more deeply or act as a fabulous distraction and antidote to your daily woes. The wrong ones, on the other hand, can make you cry, take you to dark places, constrict your mind and generally have a negative effect on your thinking and outlook.

Thankfully, while to the best of my knowledge there are no Walter White-type characters out there in asset servicing land, it’s heartening to know that some of our brightest and best have turned their hand to literature in a variety of genres, from the educational to the bodice-ripping and everything in between, most of which having benefitted from erudite insight into the at-times arcane workings of our industry.

If you want a serious tome, then you could do worse than consider Naren Patel’s and Ross McGill’s Global Custody and Clearance Services—not only will it tell you everything you need to know about the plumbing and intra-connectivity of the asset servicing industry, it might also help soak up what’s left of this year’s bonus.

John Gubert, when not opening and chairing securities conferences with gravitas and aplomb, is in fact becoming a prolific author with his books, The Insider and The Financial Terrorist. Richard Greensted employs his inimitable and insightful style in a range of books, from rugby guides through to lighter fare, which are very readable.

One relative newcomer to the writing scene, though certainly not our industry, is Matt Carrell, whose new book, Vortex, is an absolute cracker—well written, fast-paced, relevant and highly readable. It tells the story of how easy it is for someone to be sucked into carrying out financial wrongdoings through a toxic combination of hubris, arrogance and a lack of awareness of how financial markets—and their participants—truly work.

Set primarily in the Far East, as are Carrell’s previous books including Thai Kiss and Thai Lottery, it draws from his experience as a CFO and COO of some of the UK’s largest asset managers. I personally liked the way it was written, from the perspective of someone who has viewed the front office first hand, with a certain and healthy degree of scepticism. I have it on good authority from Carrell (a pseudonym, in case you start Googling) that a sequel is currently in the works, too.

So if you’re looking to take your mind off T2S, the challenge of changing custodians in Jordan or Ukraine, or transitioning in that tricky asset manager’s exotic portfolio, I’d urge you to read one of more of the above. And if you simply need to get to sleep, then I‘d highly recommend the International Organization of Securities Commissions’s (IOSCO) recent consultation report on a comparison and analysis of prudential standards in the securities sector. Do let me know what it’s, like won’t you?

As ever, do let me know your thoughts. Drop me a line at paul@localhost