| Financial institutions have few friends. However, despite their poor image, they provide a range of services without which it is difficult to envisage how a modern economy could operate. It is also true that banks attract some of the brightest and most highly qualified people of any industry. Money is one factor, banks pay well for top talent, but many are also attracted by the intellectual challenges of the business. Banks are difficult to analyze but they also provide fascinating and challenging problems to solve.
No single person could now write the definitive text on financial systems because the scope of the subject matter is too broad, the level of detail too deep and it is in a state of constant flux. One can, for example, go to any large bookshop and buy a 600+ page ‘introductory text’ to value at risk, techniques used in controlling trading risk. Books that focus on a particular, narrowly defined subject tend to be very detailed and are usually written for specialist practitioners or finance academics. |
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