World of Finances

The planned changes to financial watchdogs in the UK when the Financial Services Authority (FSA) is replaced next year will mean greater powers for banning or limiting the distribution for up to a year of retail products and also warning investors regarding pending enforcement actions.

Mark Hoban, financial secretary to the Treasury, has stated that the planned Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), previously named the Consumer Protection and Markets Authority, will be strengthened by the changeover. The FCA will be allowed to reveal that it is about to penalise banks, brokers and individuals pre-emptively, prior to the target offering its case for internal appeal, and will hope to promote competition in the industry to help improve market efficiency and consumer confidence .

Mark Hoban commented “It is a radical reform but the lesson of the financial crisis is that you need to have proper focus and clear mandates and the mandates need to be underpinned by the powers to do the job.”

The Treasury are also thought to be reviewing whether to allow the FCA to be jointly responsible for internal competition inquiries along with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), which previously had sole powers in this area.

The other major raft of changes involves the setting up of the Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) and the Financial Policy Committee, with the former being charged with regulating individual banks and insurers . Full Article…

Political unrest in Africa isn’t just having an impact on oil prices. Conflicts on the Ivory Coast have sent the cocoa exchange traded note soaring, too.

iPath Dow Jones AIG Cocoa ETN is up a whopping 17.1% year-to-date and cocoa prices are at 32-year highs. What gives?

The main reason for the spike is a ban on cocoa exports from the  Ivory Coast, which is contributing to a growing chocolate shortage.

Turns out the Ivory Coast is a big deal when it comes to chocolate.

Joel Rose for National Public Radio reports that the Ivory Coast produces about 40% of the world’s beans. Analysts think that processors and manufacturers are in pretty good shape, but more cocoa must come out of Africa to bring prices back to normal.

It might be time to stock up on Hershey bars.

Blame it on Starbucks. Consumers seem to be looking for ways to personalize everything they buy. It’s not just picking apps for their phones, special touches for their shoes or music for their iPods, but down to customizing everything from mashed potatoes to the water they drink.

Last week Kraft, the Northfield-based food giant, introduced its first new brand since the DiGiorno pizza line in 1995: MiO, a squeeze bottle of flavoring and a dropper priced at $3.99 that allows consumers to doctor their water to taste with such flavors as strawberry-watermelon and pomegranate.

“Consumers are really looking to have their personal tastes reflect in all things they’re doing and using,” said MiO senior brand manager Liza Laibe. It’s particularly important for millennials, which Kraft pegs as those age 18 to 39.

Kraft is expected to back MiO with the full force of its marketing muscle. Laibe declined to say how much would be spent but said television ads, from McGarryBowen Chicago, will begin airing in late March. Full Article…

Today’s guest author is John Durfee. John finds many of the principles he learned in the military are ones that he uses in the business world.

Marketing Artillery – A Soldier’s Perspective

The “freedom” aspect of Operation Iraqi Freedom officially started after the
US invasion of Iraq and we found out there weren’t any Weapons of Mass Destruction.
The mission turned from a matter of finding WMDs to rebuilding a broken society and
infrastructure. We turned from a fighting force to one that suddenly had be reflective of
how we appeared, how we acted, and to get the message across that our actions were for
the benefit of the local Iraqi people. In a way, we had to market ourselves to the Iraqis
and succeed, if a goal of long term sustainable peace and development we started would
take root.

Full Article…