Outlook for 2011
Following are a few issues that are starting to move, and we in the financial and business communities should expect to see some guidelines in the near future.
Cloud Computing. Look for rules and standards related to privacy and security designed to address concerns from areas such as e‐commerce, banking and healthcare.
Mobile Money. Micro‐payments and – payments made through telecommunications companies. Will these payment providers be treated as traditional, or even quasi traditional service providers?
DoddFrank. A barrage of rules for Banks and Brokerages under the Dodd‐Frank legislation. These changes in the U.S. will ripple through the international community, and cause significant expense and investment by all institutions.
Counterfeiting. Handbags, software, medicine ‐‐ all are going to come under siege. The fallout will be on the manufacturers as well as the tool and die makers needed to make the goods. Banks will no longer be allowed to hide behind the veil of “we could not have known …”
Terrorism and Terrorism Financing. Banks, brokerages, NGOs, and mindless do gooders who have helped terrorist organizations will have greater liability, and with greater frequency will be required to pay the victims for their negligence and misplaced sympathies.
Tax Rules and Enforcement. This is going to get ugly. Governments all over the world are looking at empty coffers. It has not really kicked in yet ‐‐ but “tax engineering,” and the media spin on those who help lower tax bills will be brutal. The ‘Tax Engineers” will be portrayed in such a bad light that being a member of Al Qa’eda may be more socially acceptable!
Knowing what is coming, or at least making educated assumptions, is necessary to plan and to ask the right questions. Knowing how to ask the right questions is at the heart of due diligence.
