#peter sands

Lex Luthor Unauthorized Biography (July 1989) by DC Comics

Police release image of missing Peter Sands vehicle

Police investigating the disappearance of a Shipley man have issued an image of his vehicle.

Peter Sands’ blue Skoda Octavia was sighted in the Gretna area of Scotland, close to the M6 in the early afternoon of 21 June.

Peter, 45, of Claremont Road, was last seen on 20 June and is known to have links to Scotland and Cumbria.

He is described as white, 6’2” tall, of slim build and pale complexion.

IAS welcomes Peter Sands as the Global Fund’s new Executive Director

The International AIDS Society (IAS) welcomes the appointment of Peter Sands as the new Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Sands is the former Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered PLC, one of the world’s leading international banks operating across over 70 markets, primarily in emerging markets. After a distinguished career in banking, Sands…

Ethan Wolff-Mann, Money, Feb. 17, 2016

The $100 bill has always had a complicated relationship with the public. On the one hand, the $100 bill represents wealth and success, as a currency’s largest denomination well should.

But the $100 has always also been the black sheep of American currency. Most people feel compelled to apologize and ask for permission before they pay with a $100 bill at shops and restaurants, and some stores won’t even accept them. Even bank robbers eschew these bills (“give me non-sequential $20s, no $100s”).

Now, former Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence H. Summers has called for the $100 bill’s execution, just as the Financial Times reported that the European Central Bank is planning on killing another big bill overseas, the €500.

In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Summers cites a new study from Harvard’s Kennedy school by banker Peter Sands--he’s President Emeritus of Harvard--that made a strong case for the elimination of the £50, the €500, the Swiss CHF 1,000, as well as the $100 because large currency notes such as these are the “preferred payment mechanism of those pursuing illicit activities, given the anonymity and lack of transaction record they offer, and the relative ease with which they can be transported and moved.”

This is apparently an enormous problem. According to the study, only 1% of shady transactions are seized by authorities, and this has a massive effect on the world by way of tax evasion, corruption, terrorism, and garden-variety money laundering for criminal enterprise. The dubious use of high-denomination bills has actually even earned the €500 note a nickname: the “Bin Laden.”

In his op-ed, Summers remembers opposing the high-denomination €500 in the late ‘90s when the euro was being designed. Back then, Treasury Secretary Summers maintained that large denominations were “highly irresponsible and mostly would be a boon to corruption and crime.” He even proposed killing the U.S.’s $100 bill to walk his talk. Eventually, the €500 was approved--apparently without much of a fight because Germany really wanted it--and the $100 is obviously still around. But recent calls for eliminating the large euro bills have set the wheels in motion, despite the preference in German and Austrian to pay cash for many purchases.

A world without a $100 or €500 note would be an inconvenience for the relatively small group of people that actually likes making big-ticket purchases in cash. But removing large notes such as these would make life extremely difficult for criminals. A Zero Halliburton attaché case full of $100 bills in their mustard-colored straps can only hold about $1 million. For a money launderer, terrorist henchman, or blackmailed husband, resorting to $50 bills would require two briefcases. The same amount of cash in $20s would mean five bags, each weighing almost 60 pounds.

Similar math can be done no matter what the currency. “If a drugs gang collects up to £1m in twenties from its clients on street corners, those notes will weigh more than 50kg--about 50 bags of sugar,” the BBC reported five years ago. “The equivalent in 500 euro banknotes weighs just over 2kg.”

The point is that the sheer unwieldiness of using lower-denomination cash could be enough to disrupt criminal business models. Any organization dependent on large quantities of illicit cash would have to find another, more costly way of moving money, and it’s likely that whatever method they use would increase the likelihood of detection.

The elimination of high-denomination bills has precedent: In 2000, Canada got rid of its $1,000 bills and Singapore ditched its $10,000 bills. In the U.K., there are already calls to scrap the £50 note. Still, Switzerland, famous for its financial discretion, doesn’t appear to be rejecting its massive CHF 1,000 note--the most valuable in the G10.

While the case for abolishing high-denomination bills seems fairly clear-cut, not everyone is on board. As mentioned, in Germany and Austria especially, there’s a certain love for big bills. According to the Financial Times, a German newspaper has started a letter-writing campaign protesting the European Central Bank’s plans to scrap the €500. Austria is also standing its ground in regard to the big bill.

Cash also has the added benefit of providing emergency reserves for people “with unstable exchange rates, repressive governments, capital controls or a history of banking collapses,” as the Financial Times noted in a piece earlier this week, disagreeing with Sands’s idea that big bills are only a tool for criminality.

But not all protests stem from a love of the cash, or its common utility. Insider-finance blog ZeroHedge takes a more cynical view of the authorities distaste for the €500, claiming the real reason for killing the note is to remove a significant amount of cash from the economy. Around one-third of all euro cash in circulation is currently held in €500 notes. Removing that much cash from the economic system would direct more money to banks, which would give the central bank more control, preventing a bank run of massive withdrawals. This could be especially important considering the ECB’s negative interest rates that could end up charging people for keeping money in the bank cost something, rather than paying interest. But in the case of the US, hoarding cash is not of major concern.

New Post has been published on http://www.therakyatpost.com/business/2015/02/26/standard-chartered-chief-to-step-down/

Standard Chartered chief to step down

LONDON, Feb 26, 2015: 

The chief executive of Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered will step down in June, the company said today, following poor results, job cuts and fines for failing to detect possible money-laundering.

“Peter Sands will stand down from the board and as group chief executive in June 2015,” the British bank said in a statement, adding that he would be replaced by former JP Morgan co-ceo Bill Winters.

The bank’s chairman John Peace praised Sands, who became the group’s chief executive in 2006, saying that he had presided “over a period of huge change and challenge for the entire industry”.

The bank, which focuses on emerging markets, was under pressure from shareholders and the move was welcomed on the London stock exchange where its shares jumped 1.36% to 938.90 pence at 0900 GMT.

Standard Chartered last month said it would close a swathe of its global equities business and axe 2,000 jobs around the world this year as it tries to make savings of US$400 million (RM1.4 billion) as part of a structural overhaul.

Standard Chartered, which makes 90% of its profits in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, saw its net earnings fall 16% for 2013 as it faced increased competition in Asia and troubles turning around its South Korean unit.

Prime News: Standard Chartered picks ex-JPMorgan executive Winters as CEO to replace Sands

Standard Chartered said former JPMorgan investment bank boss Bill Winters will be its chief executive in June, replacing embattled boss Peter Sands.

The company said on Thursday Chairman John Peace will also leave next year, and named other changes to its board in a massive overhaul in management following a run of problems for the UK bank prompted top shareholders to call for change.

Winters is…