Cyber security breaches have become common these days. Be it a large company or a small firm all seem to be vulnerable to this risk. So, the question that disturbs these organizations where data is the biggest asset is – What steps should we take to protect from such security breaches?

Matt Cullina, CEO of IDT911, gives a simple answer to this big question – Cyber Liability Insurance and provides following advice on this topic:

• Yes, you need cyber-liability insurance
• But probably not a cyber-liability policy
• You need less coverage than you think
• You'll pay less for it than you'd expect
• Knowledge is more valuable than cash

To understand these in detail and know more about Cyber Liability Insurance, please read the following article byMinda Zetlin, Co-author, 'The Geek Gap', at inc.com:

http://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/5-surprising-things-you-need-to-know-about-cyber-liability-insurance.html

Like any other industry today, technology has become a must have feature of insurance industry. It not only adds value to the business, but also acts as a differentiating factor that provides competitive advantage to insurance companies. The better you make use of this valuable resource, the higher you stand on the competition ladder.

Anand Vyas, Head, Banking, Financial Services and Insurance, SQS Software Features, in his article at itproportal.com, has shared 5 best practice guidelines to ensure the technology is ultimately meeting the business need. They are:

1. Understand demand and business requirements

2. Create a strategic roadmap and business case

3. Analyze applications and business capabilities

4. Adopt a risk-based testing approach to implementation

5. Take an agile approach

To understand them in detail, please visit the following link:

http://www.itproportal.com/2015/06/08/technology-is-the-key-to-the-insurance-sector-and-heres-why/

Technology + Informatics = Telematics

Vehicle telematics has been in existence since long. But, its use in our daily lives is a recent phenomenon and this concept is still in its development stage.

In last few years, insurance companies have banked upon this concept to know more about the driving habits of their customers and charge premiums accordingly. Craig Thomas, Managing Director, Redline Content Ltd, in his article at express.co.uk has explained the concept of insurance telematics and has also answered questions such as how it works, what are its advantages, etc.

According to him, the insurance companies install black box in their customers’ cars and monitor their driving. The better the driver, the lesser is the insurance premium charged and vice- versa. Apart from this, telematics insurance also has following benefits like:

• Helps determine liability
• Reduces instances of fraud
• Alerts the insurer in case of emergency and thus, helps in providing timely emergency services
• Helps customers in improving their driving skills

Although it’s an interesting concept, but still, people are apprehensive in trying it out, especially rash drivers. Nevertheless, insurance companies are tying up with car manufacturing companies to make this type of insurance a usual phenomenon, because of its benefits to all the parties involved.

To know more, please visit the following link:

http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/cars/581418/insurance-telematics-cars

In terms of technological advancement, insurance industry is considered as a late mover or rigid in terms of adapting. In contrast to manufacturing industry, where organizations have spent most of the past two decades standardizing their IT, in insurance industry, the use of proprietary software systems is still the norm. This is because of the following reasons:

• High levels of complexity
• Immature software market
• Budget constraints
• Inertia

Despite these factors, the future of insurance industry lies in the standardization of its softwares. These steps will not only lead to cost reduction and reduction in adaption time, but will also give the firms - a first mover advantage - in terms of multi-channel marketing, digital-product innovations and straight-through claims processing. For this, Mckinsey experts have identified five critical success factors. They are:

• Technologies
• Transformation
• Team
• Timing
• Transparency

To understand them in detail, please read this highly informative article by Sanjay Kaniyar, Peter Peters, and Ulrike Vogelgesang at Mckinsey.com:

http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/transitioning_to_standard_software_lessons_from_erp_pioneers

In the time of rising data hacks in major companies, attacks on individuals are also on the rise. According to FICO, compared to first quarter of last year, credit card breaches have risen by 174% on ATMs located on bank properties and 317% on non-bank ATMs. 'Wall Street Journal' predicts that criminals will make more than 1.5 million successful cash withdrawals this year and thus making money withdrawal from ATMs more dangerous than ever. As a result major American corporations, banking institutions and payment connect companies like Visa and MasterCard have all considerably stepped up their efforts to innovate and strengthen their security in order to prevent further hacks and breaches. Read more at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/246466

Are you planning to invest your wealth and confused to choose which financial product? Did you get your basics right about available ones? What are the things to be taken care of while taking an investment decision? To answer any question of this sort, all you need to do is compare risks, liquidity and earning potential of available products and chose the one that is close to your preference. Risk preference of each investor differs; young investors are more likely to be less risk averse. Also any investor would like to have highest return for the same level of default risk. Money in the bank is very safe as is money invested in bonds which is not the case with money invested in mutual funds.  When it comes to earning potential a careful study of all available options and all possible states of returns is needed. Read more about Investment advices at: http://triblive.com/business/headlines/8394657-74/fund-interest-bonds#axzz3b1MLlddk

According to Warren Buffett, "Emotions are contagious, and emotions have no business in investing". But it is not possible for a normal human mind to yield to emotions while making investments. Thus, Behavioral Finance, a field of Psychology as applied to Economics and Finance, can give us interesting insights, and psychological biases that we are all prone to while making investments.  A list of six things according to Greg B. Davies, Head of Behavioral and Quantitative Investment Philosophy, that we can focus on while making investments are:

1. Failing to see the big picture

2. Using a short term decision horizon

3. Buying high, selling low

4. Getting emotionally attached to concentrated investments

5. Action Bias – trading too frequently

6. Mental accounting – failing to deploy your finances where they are most effective.

To explore more into becoming a successful investor visit: https://barclayswealthblog.com/index.php/six-things-we-get-wrong-with-investment-decisions/

Banks are shifting their target from mobile banking to security scrutiny. What makes it more challenging is a far less prevalence of anti-malware software on mobile devices. Mobile banking allows customers to monitor fraud in real time together with their banking institutions. And many of our smartphones are more secure than our desktop or laptop computers with latest biometric and encryption technologies which provide two major benefits- Improved security and Improved self-help features so that customers don't have to call, email, or tweet their bank's customer care representatives. Read more at:

http://www.banktech.com/security/4-hot-mobile-banking-security-developments/d/d-id/1319161?image_number=1

There is a lack of awareness about the insurance sector but it has a lot of attractive and interesting propositions to offer. Amendments have been made to the Insurance Act, 1938.  Foreign investment ceiling in insurance companies has been increased which will boost job opportunities and growth potential. But, talent retention is a challenge in this sector. Economic and regulatory changes have affected this sector. This led to companies adopting short term policies over long term ones. It is also predicted that salary structures would increase slowly with average increment levels at 8% for the current year. Read more at: http://info.shine.com/article/talent-retention-is-a-big-challenge-for-insurance-firms/8814.html

There is a positive correlation among investment in employees and output generated. This phenomenon has been defined as the Return on Employee Investment and it has been a challenge for organizations. It has been found that employee investment leads to business growth, revenue generation and has significant effect on long term growth. There is no hard and fast rule to measure the return on investment but it does bring back positive changes within an organization. This investment can be treated by the employees as a motivation factor, a "benefit on efforts". This can help to retain talents in an organization. Experts believe that though it is possible to find a measure for ROI, HR is not always the right choice to quantify it. To know more, please follow: http://info.shine.com/article/spending-on-employees-can-maximise-your-roi/8849.html

Mainstream retail companies are taking a heavy beating from their online counterparts. These companies are facing stiff competition due to discounts and lots of advertising from the e-commerce industry. Company reports indicate that the decline in sales for the brick and mortar firms are a steady affair, and sales do not increase even during the festive seasons. Revenue growth of these companies has slowed down impacting the distributors. Distributors are stocking less and there has been a significant decrease in inventory holding. With the number of offline firms growing day by day, these firms are looking for a change in their marketing strategies to counter online competition. To know more, please follow the link: http://info.shine.com/article/the-churn-in-the-retail-sector/8822.html

80% (including tangible assets) of a business total corporate value on the S&P500 index, now only count for 20%. Now, intangible assets such as data, talent and intellectual property has become the hallmark. In this competitive world, the CFO needs to allocate their entire budget in digital technologies. CFOs need to become leaders and guide business during digital transformation. According to Gartner, "intangible assets are the core competency value of any business." And they need to rebalance their investment portfolio. According to Shailender Kumar (MD of Oracle India), data and access to the data are the most valuable intangible assets for businesses today and cloud helps organizations to get the most from the data. Organizations need to rethink on their ROI measurement procedure. They need to develop new metrics, risk and performance measures in order to measure ROI. To know more about the CFO role in cloud and digital technologies, please follow this link: http://www.financialexpress.com/article/industry/companies/data-talent-and-ip-are-key-to-a-companys-market-worth/78557/

Small Medium Businesses (SME) contribute to around half of the GDP and two-third of all private sector jobs in UK, thus playing a massive role in innovation. Nearly 9% of the UK adults are now in early-stage entrepreneurship.  Tech firms & digital enterprises has sprung up all over the country. Banks are helping smaller companies with correct tools and best practice in their earlier stage so that these companies can achieve their full potential. Read more about this interesting article by Richard Phelps, Head of Corporate and Employer's Solution at: https://barclayswealthblog.com/index.php/fostering-fast-growth-start-ups/ 

According to the bi-annual Entrepreneurs Index, entrepreneurship is booming in UK. The future growth of these relatively new businesses will enhance UK's Small Medium Enterprises (SME) landscape further. These businesses contribute to around half of the GDP and two-third of all private sector jobs in UK. Since entrepreneurs are fast becoming the center of the modern day business world, wealth managers must found the best way to meet their demand. To know more, please read the article by Richard Phelps, Head of Corporate and Employer Solution of Barclays at:  https://barclayswealthblog.com/index.php/the-age-of-the-entrepreneur/

There is a lack of awareness about the insurance sector but it has a lot of attractive and interesting propositions to offer. Amendments have been made to the Insurance Act, 1938.  Foreign investment ceiling in insurance companies has been increased which will boost job opportunities and growth potential. But, talent retention is a challenge in this sector. Economic and regulatory changes have affected this sector. This led to companies adopting short term policies over long term ones. It is also predicted that salary structures would increase slowly with average increment levels at 8% for the current year. Read more at:

http://info.shine.com/article/talent-retention-is-a-big-challenge-for-insurance-firms/8814.html

According to Gary Langer, president of Langer Research Associates LLC in New York "The increase in negative expectations occurred among a disparate collection of groups, indicating a generalized retrenchment". 39% population said that the U.S. economy is getting worse. The Bloomberg Economic Surprise Index touched its lowest level of expansion. The Bloomberg measure of the buying climate declined to 38.1 from 40.4 and personal finances increased to a five-week high of 56.3 from 55.7. Unemployment rate dropped to 5.4%. Read more about this article at:  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-21/consumers-expectations-for-u-s-economy-drop-most-since-2013

Investment in real estate plays a vital part in an investment portfolio. People tend to diversify their portfolios and real estate investment provides valuable diversification. There are certain risks associated in real estate investment. It is cash intensive, time consuming and vulnerable due to fluctuating interest rates. Investors should learn from past market scenarios and know when to make the right choices. Real estate offers direct ownership unlike other assets. Private real estate deals are popular among investors as risk of sole ownership can be avoided. Another option for investors is real estate investor trusts (REIT). REIT’s are usually publicly traded companies investing in real estate through purchasing properties. Risks include cost and tax implications and declining net asset values of REITs’ in case of rising interest rates.  To know more, please follow:

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2015/05/22/real-estate-investments-risks/

Are you a seasoned investor and yet you regret making decisions on certain investments? In other words, have you ever thought about going back in time and "do-over" some of your investment decisions? There was never an investor who didn't want to do this. Yes this is a common trait in most of the investors.  What makes us stick to some of these decisions which turn out to be worthless with the passage of time while other decisions might be the reason you become a billionaire. The answer lies in this article: http://blogs.wsj.com/experts/2015/05/05/in-investing-and-in-business-dont-trust-your-feelings/

Banking and finance are an indispensable part of our lives.  Though the world today is divided into rich and poor, but the common fact amongst these two groups is that they need funds to invest and grow. To meet this common need of these two different groups, we have two different institutions:

• Investment Banks
• Microfinance Institutions

Matthew Johnston, in his article at Investopedia.com, has compared these two financial institutions in terms of their history, use, recent trends as well as examples.

To know more, please visit the following link:

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/052215/how-microfinance-and-investment-banking-compare.asp

It was predicted that faster job creation and cheaper gasoline prices would drive the strongest growth rate in America but it is far from expectation. The reason is thought to be the start-and- stop spending by American households that represent almost 70% of the economic activity. It can be seen that there is a trend among the consumers not to spend freely. It is baffling as to why US consumers are being cautious. Interest rates are low; stock market is at an all-time high, home values are recovering, unemployment rate decreased to 5.4% yet things are not turning around. Savings rate went up to 5.7%. Though gasoline prices have fallen expenses on energy bills, food, housing, medical care, education has kept on rising. Wages though being adjusted for inflation cannot benefit the workers. Economists believe that US economy will turn around and the consumers will regain their confidence. Read more at:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-consumers-are-so-cautious-2015-05-19?page=1