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New content on the Graham Bishop website

08 August 2023
Graham Bishop – a leading independent financial analyst who has advised both the UK and the European Parliaments

Jump directly to more information on: 

 

• A Plan for a Temporary Eurobill Fund (+ July 2013 proposal summary/implications)

• Graham Bishop's Foundation Course

Graham's book: "The EU Fiscal Crisis: Forcing Eurozone Political Union in 2011?"

• Who is Graham Bishop?

Book a Graham Bishop speech (or view brief glimpses of recent speeches)

• Contact details


Bolstering the Still-Fragile Euro: A Plan for a Temporary Eurobill Fund

This Note proposes a time-limited plan carefully structured to avoid opening its members to the virtually unlimited liability of guaranteeing all the debts of other members – as would happen in a mutualised pool of debt.

The Temporary Eurobill Fund (TEF) is entirely complementary to the ESM/OMTs but it is a reward for stability, rather than the ESM’s penalty for instability. It does not require a change to the European Treaties and could operate within a year. This plan should satisfy Parliament’s requirements in its January Resolution “on the Feasibility of Introducing Stability Bonds”. It would facilitate the enactment of the two-pack and give concrete form to some of the proposals in the Council’s December Conclusions.

The TEF’s securities would be seen by the banking sector as exceptionally safe, and would be the most liquid in the euro area – helping the “imperative” need to reduce the bank/sovereign nexus. The resultant boost to confidence would be growth enhancing.

There must be ex ante controls – especially on debt issuance by participants - so that all members understand their potential liability. The controls would limit any shortening of debt maturity. Participants’ risk exposure should normally be no greater than at present.


The European Council of 13/14 December 2012 carefully avoided momentous decisions which would have immediate effects – but Council agreed on a `roadmap’ with decisions that keep the eurozone firmly on that road leading inexorably to a much greater degree of political union beyond 2014.

The first milestone along that road is the enactment of the `two-pack’[1] - currently deadlocked between the Parliament and Council co-legislators. Naturally enough, failure to reach even the first milestone would raise serious doubts in the minds of the bond market vigilantes about the depth of commitment to the far-reaching goal of a genuine economic and monetary union (GEMU) repeatedly endorsed by the Heads of State or Government (HOSGs) when requesting Council President van Rompuy to produce a time-bound roadmap to this goal. The cancer attacking the eurozone may be only in remission.


[1] The two Regulations provide for enhanced economic surveillance, and for national budgetary plans to be presented to the Commission for comment before their adoption by the national parliaments.   Two pack

Link to full paper

Link to Summary of the Proposal and some Implications


Graham Bishop's Foundation Course Lectures

If you feel the need for some extra foundation, I have created a Foundation Course to help. This consists of four on-line lectures – each split into three or four modules. Just select the module or complete lecture that fills in any gaps you may feel you have.

If you are just coming into the financial services industry  - perhaps at the beginning of your career, then the complete Foundation Course will give you the basic framework. But if you are switching sector part way through your career, then some of the modules may help you find your feet even quicker.

Click here for brief glimpses into a Foundation Course, and here for further information.


Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Grahambishop.com has organised its products so that their design meets the CPD requirements of several leading professional bodies for both structured and unstructured  products.

STRUCTURED CPD

  • 80% PASS MARK REQUIRED: This is our standard examination package, and has been approved by a number of professional bodies. 
  • PROFESSIONAL BODY SPECIFIC: GrahamBishop.com provides customised packages for some professional bodies.

For further details, please contact the office.

UNSTRUCTURED CPD

  • We offer a STATEMENT OF ATTENDANCE, which may be acceptable to your professional body for 1.5 hours of unstructured CPD.  This is automatically issued if the required pass-mark is not attained.

For further details, please contact the office.

Members onlyFull technical specification of the services      Prices>

Non-membersemail office or call +44 1424 777123


New book by Graham Bishop: "EU Financial Services Regulation: Key Events 2010/2011" - Understand the development of European financial markets

This book provides an overview of the key developments in each sector of financial services regulation – split by months so that it is a simple read-through of progress. We record the facts of proposals and decisions, as well as the arguments that went into the final compromise.

Europe’s financial system is part way through responding to a series of huge shocks. These were triggered by the US sub-prime mortgage crisis, but it soon became apparent that there were many problems that had been obscured by a long period of economic growth. These have now been forced to the surface and include the interlocking solvency of EU Member States and their banking systems. But they also include the dissatisfaction of electors and tax-payers with a financial system that has turned out to be far more risky than anyone realised, and dissatisfaction with the knowledge and ethics of some market participants.

All market participants – accountants, bankers, insurers, investors, lawyers, regulators – are likely to face demands to have a much greater understanding of their subject. This book is designed to help all students of financial regulation in the European Union, whether embarking on a career, or part-way through.

The foundation of such training is likely to include an understanding of how regulations are created and the political forces that propelled them into existence, as well as the technical compromises that had to be struck along the way. GrahamBishop.com is delighted to be able to put much of our research into the development of European financial markets into formats that can be used explicitly to provide the foundation of this knowledge base.

But all this must be set in the framework of the economic crisis that may yet derail the single market and destroy the idea of a single European economic space. So we include a chapter on the key developments in that field, as well as Graham Bishop's own writings that attempt to offer helpful analyses and suggestions to promote a greater degree of unity in Europe.

Purchase this book


"The EU Fiscal Crisis: Forcing Eurozone Political Union in 2011?" by Graham Bishop

  • By the end of 2011, eurozone will have emerged from the financial crisis as a political federation – loose in some respects, but with tightly centralised economic governance at its heart. The proven commitment to fiscal probity may even make it attractive relative to alternative investments around the world.
  • That may require a quadrupling of the existing European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) facility so that it has the capacity to disburse €1 trillion of loans that will be repaid if the recipients perform as they have promised. The potential recipients have agreed already to the principles, and must swiftly turn them into detailed plans that they are seen to implement
  • Council President van Rompuy spoke in London last week and used the same words as the December communiqué – “they will do whatever is required”. However, I doubt if “they” – the urozone – have realised the scale of what is required and the frightening consequence of failure. The book puts flesh on these ideas.
  • I believe that intense financial and economic pressures are forcing far-reaching political changes in the eurozone. The political will is manifest but is not yet generally recognised, especially (and yet again) in the UK.
GrahamBishop.com and Searching Finance have published this book to explain some of the interactions of financial markets, economics and politics that are forcing the creation of a genuine Eurozone political union. Read more.
 
Read a selection of endorsements here.

Information for editorsThe EU Fiscal Crisis: Forcing Eurozone Political Union in 2011? Published January 2011 by Searching Finance Ltd. 106pp, paperback/PDF. Price: €50/£45/$65. For a full PDF copy (free to the press) please email enquiries@searchingfinance.com, tel: +44 (0) 7885 441682.

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Who is Graham Bishop?

Book a Graham Bishop speech (or view brief glimpses of recent speeches)
Contact details: graham@grahambishop.com +44 1424 777123 (Office) or +44 7785 323483.

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