Blog

Navigating a bank safely through uncertain times requires expertise, experience and intuition which goes far beyond reviewing standard risk and financial reports. In the current challenging economic, political and social…

The results of the 2022 Federal Reserve Stress Test published last week reveal that the 11 largest US banks would incur combined trading losses of USD 100bn under a hypothetical…

In this article, Orbit36 discusses how today’s change in the SNB policy rate from -0.75% to -0.25% and the possible abandonment of the negative interest rate regime will impact the profitability of banks in Switzerland.

At year-end 2021, banks in Switzerland had more than a trillion of client deposits in Swiss francs on their balance sheets. The vast majority of these deposits is bearing no…

Following the decision to exclude Russian banks from the international payment system Swift as part of the sanctions against Russia to defend democratic values, we aim to shed some light…

Last week, the shares of US tech giants Amazon and Facebook owner Meta Platforms showed exceptional price swings. Both shares are widely held by hedge funds. According to Reuters, eight…

I feel honored to be invited as speaker to the “3rd Annual Best Practices for Stress Testing in Financial Institutions” conference in New York. This premier GFMI event brings together…

The collapse of two Bear Stearns hedge funds in July 2007 is in hindsight often seen as the first warning signal of the approaching financial crisis. Possibly, the default of…

Orbit36 and Andreas Ita feel very honored to be quoted in the September 22, 2021 edition of the Wall Street Journal.  The excellent article “Credit Suisse’s Archegos Disaster Exposes Cracks…

Following the $5.5bn loss with hedge fund Archegos, the Board of Directors of Credit Suisse appointed a Special Committee to conduct an independent external investigation of the case. The results…

Prime brokerage is a global business. Investment banks and their clients will always arrange their trades in the jurisdictions that are most favourable to them. According to media reports, Archegos…

We are grateful that Orbit36 was invited again this year to the Marcus Evans Annual Bank Capital Management Conference. This industry-leading event includes mainly speakers from banks, banking supervisors and…

The large losses of some banks in their derivatives transactions with hedge fund Archegos indicate serious shortcomings in regulatory capital regulation and stress testing methods for collateralized OTC derivatives according…

Did Credit Suisse’s Board forget the lessons from the 2008/2009 financial crisis? A key lesson learned was that banks need to price the risks they take appropriately and that investment…

A number of incidents in banks have shown that correctly assessing the risks is crucial to avoid losses and reputational damage. Board members of a bank need to have sufficient…

We are excited to announce the addition of Claude F. Moser to the Orbit36 team. In his new role as Vice Chairman, Claude will act as senior advisor as well…

Following the tremors around the default of hedge fund Archegos, some banks suffered enormous losses but others were barely hit. We take a look at why banks like Credit Suisse…

Valuations play an important role in M&A transactions and the annual testing of goodwill after an acquisition. Particularly for banks, valuations can be challenging. Senior executives and board members should…

Two months ago, we outlined 4 possible scenarios for the next three years, depending on the further progression of the COVID-19 pandemia (Strategic Planning in uncertain times – A few…

  A year ago, I spoke at the Annual Bank Capital Management Conference on the usefulness of stress tests for ICAAP. If someone had asked me on that warm summer…