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5856 results in Facet Publishing

Page 219 of 293

Read to Succeed
  • Strategies to Engage Children and Young People in Reading for Pleasure
  • Edited by Joy Court
  • Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    23 August 2011
  • Concern about children's reading is an international issue highlighted by continuing OECD research. Government actions such as the priority given to reading in the review of the National Curriculum reflect current UK concern. Reading is an essential life skill not only for an individual's development and life chances but for social cohesion and a developed democracy. In an era of public spending cuts it is important to reflect upon the impact that libraries can have in growing readers for the future. This much-needed book provides valuable evidence of successes so far both nationally and internationally, and offers ideas for future development as well as inspiration for current practice. An edited collection contributed by expert practitioners, it covers all aspects of promoting reading to and with children and young people from birth right through to teenage years, including the following key topics: it's never too soon to start - the importance of Bookstart; how children begin to read; creating young readers - teachers and librarians at work; literacy, libraries and literature in New Zealand; the Summer Challenge in libraries - a continuing success; Stockport does Book Idol - a case study linking libraries and schools to inspire reading for pleasure; there and back again - restoring reading to the classroom; promoting excellence - shadowing the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway medals; choice and motivation - local book awards; the sport of reading - the international Kids' Lit Quiz; adventure in the book trade - libraries and partnerships; the hard to reach reader in the 21st century; and, creative reading and insideadog.com.au. Offering future scoping for managers and aiming to inspire partnership and cooperation, this will be invaluable reading for practitioners and students of librarianship in both the public and school sectors. It will also be of great interest to all teachers, consultants and educators concerned with literacy and reading, and to policy makers in both the school and library sectors.

  • 8 - The digital revolution and its impact

  • from Part 2 - Balancing risk and return
  • Edited by Lynn Coleman, Victoria Lemieux, Rod Stone, Geoffrey Yeo
  • Book:
    Managing Records in Global Financial Markets
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    23 August 2011, pp 107-118

  • Summary

    Introduction

    In some respects, the business that a financial institution performs on a daily basis has not changed in hundreds of years. It has always been part of the job of bankers to assess many pieces of information, determine the risks and make judgements about what business it is right to conduct. Today's basic approaches are similar to those that were in place at the time of the Medici dynasty in the 1500s.

    One thing that has changed, however, is the technology used in financial institutions to create, store and communicate records and information. Since the commercialization of the internet in 1993, the complexity, velocity and quantity of information created and used by our society has grown at a phenomenal rate. The rivers of data in all areas of global financial markets have caused a revolution inside financial institutions as numerous systems try to perform similar tasks for many departments in slightly different ways.

    All parts of a financial institution need to meet the ‘raised bars’ of new regulatory policies that presuppose that all necessary information can be quickly ‘Googled’. Today, an institution needs to know what records and data it has and be able to access them quickly and economically, if it is to rise to the new challenges it faces from the market and operational pressures introduced in recent years whilst remaining competitive.

    Financial institutions’ senior managers are required to be more accountable personally by ensuring that they have an adequate plan to ‘know their data’ so that they can prove that the judgements they made at a particular moment were correct. To make this happen, internal functions need to work together to manage the digital infrastructure in which records are generated and stored.

    Major developments in information technology

    The records of financial institutions have always been used to track information about the world within the control of such institutions (the products and services offered to their clients) and information about the world around them (the state of the clients’ creditworthiness, the market, etc.). Since the deployment of the first spreadsheets in the 1980s, distributed analytical tools have allowed all parts of an institution quickly to form views of the digital world around them and take action.

  • 3 - Creating young readers: teachers and librarians at work

    • By Prue Goodwin, freelance lecturer in literacy and children's books who works chiefly for schools
  • Edited by Joy Court
  • Book:
    Read to Succeed
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    23 August 2011, pp 29-48

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Every Tuesday, in my local library, there is a gathering of about 60 very young ‘readers’ who, as yet, cannot decode a single printed word but who certainly have all the characteristics of book-lovers. They are members of the Baby Bounce and Rhyme group. Every Friday, there is Story Time for the under-fives. The children listen, laugh, gasp, shout out and are totally absorbed in the narrative and pictures shared with them by the librarian.

    Having spent my whole career teaching reading, it is delightful for me to observe events where children are having such a pleasurable introduction to literacy. Whatever may or may not happen in their homes, these children will start school knowing about books, aware of the enthralling power of stories and having had experiences with language in engaging, playful ways. I cannot imagine any teacher or parent thinking that these librarybased activities are just time fillers or entertainment for children. When it comes to preparation for more organized literacy education, few activities could be better than playing with the sounds of English and listening to stories.

    The library where the activities take place has always been a good one but, like other public libraries, it is run by an ever-decreasing number of staff, who are enthusiastic and hard working, but unqualified as librarians. Despite this, a library manager has taken on the responsibility of contacting schools, encouraging membership and ensuring that there is a lively children's collection available. For older primary children there are holiday activities, a well-supported Summer Reading Challenge (see Chapter 5) and a Children's Book Award. These book-focused activities keep children interested in reading over the long summer break and let them see that it is not only teachers who promote the pleasures of reading. Librarians and teachers both want the same thing – to help youngsters to become confident, life-long readers. At a time when we are regularly told that standards in reading are not good enough, it would seem an obvious step to capitalize on the skill and support offered to schools by libraries.

  • 7 - Managing records risks in global financial institutions

  • from Part 2 - Balancing risk and return
  • Edited by Lynn Coleman, Victoria Lemieux, Rod Stone, Geoffrey Yeo
  • Book:
    Managing Records in Global Financial Markets
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    23 August 2011, pp 91-106

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Financial institutions rely on the effective management of risk. While market and credit risks are well understood as categories of risk and techniques for managing them are relatively well developed, operational risk is a less understood and developed field of risk practice within financial institutions. Even less well understood and clearly defined are those risks related to the records a financial institution relies upon to conduct its business and manage other types of risks. Yet, in many cases it will be necessary for those involved in aspects of managing records to make risk-based decisions – in relation to the type of records that must be retained or the level of control needed to meet legal and regulatory requirements when these are not clearly delineated, in relation to the length of time for which records should be retained, especially in situations where there are conflicting legal or regulatory requirements, or in relation to how to handle records in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and closures, to cite just a few examples. This chapter offers a guide to the basics of risk-based decision making concerning records and records management for those with little or no previous exposure to risk-management concepts. ‘Points to Ponder’ throughout this chapter are records-specific questions aimed at uncovering common records-related risks.

    Records-related risk management relies on principles and practices that are common to the management of most types of risk but has as its particular focus the business records of the financial institution. This chapter defines risk management, outlines its key processes, identifies how to spot records-related risks, explains the steps in setting up a governance framework for a riskmanagement programme and provides tips and hints from the ‘front lines’ of battling records-related risks in global financial institutions.

    Like records, risk is defined differently in different contexts. ARMA International, a leading professional association for records and information managers, has issued Evaluating and Mitigating Records and Information Risks (ARMA International, 2009), which draws on ISO/IEC Guide 73 to define risk as ‘the combination of a probability of an event and its consequences’.

  • 1 - Global financial markets

  • Edited by Lynn Coleman, Victoria Lemieux, Rod Stone, Geoffrey Yeo
  • Book:
    Managing Records in Global Financial Markets
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    23 August 2011, pp 1-14

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Readers of this book will, no doubt, have different backgrounds and varying levels of understanding of global financial markets. The first part of this chapter, therefore, is intended primarily for readers who are new to the world of financial markets. It explores these markets through the lens of different products and services offered in them, the different types of financial institutions that deliver such products and services, and the types of markets in which they are delivered. The chapter then examines the securities trading function within a financial institution to illustrate how records relate to the activities and processes undertaken by such institutions. This type of ‘business systems analysis’ is typical of the work required to build records management tools such as business classif ication schemes and retention schedules. Inevitably, this chapter introduces many technical terms, but wherever possible such terms are explained on first use.

    Products and services

    Financial markets exist to transfer capital efficiently from those who have it to those who want it for whatever purpose (e.g. for buying raw materials for production). They also transform capital from one form into another for the purposes of global trade (e.g. by exchanging one currency for another type of currency or by transforming debt to a tradable security through a process known as securitization). Financial services generally are divided into those offered to individuals – ‘retail’ financial services – and those offered to companies or governments. One example of a f inancial service to companies is corporate finance, the activity of raising capital for companies to use, generally in the most tax-efficient manner.

    Financial services are achieved through different types of financial instruments or products. Wire transfers, for example, allow global transfers of payments between parties involved in financial transactions. A syndicated loan is a financial product in which a financial institution will structure a special loan for a client when the magnitude of the loan, or its complexity, is beyond the institution's own credit policy or risk tolerance. In such cases, the institution will act as an agent for a syndicate of banks who are willing to share risk participation, either pro rata or at different levels of risk.

  • Foreword

  • Edited by Joy Court
  • Book:
    Read to Succeed
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    23 August 2011, pp ix-x

  • Summary

    Ask anybody who works with children or who cares about the future of young people and they will agree on one thing: reading is the most basic of basics. The child who reads is a successful child: more likely to succeed academically; more likely to succeed socially; and more likely to be inquisitive about the world around them, maybe even to feel empowered to try to change it for the better. This is not just my opinion. It is a judgement supported by a body as influential as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

    When you read often, when it is as effortless and integral to your being as eating, drinking, sleeping and breathing, you are able to empathize, to access and order information, to interpret and explore the world around you.

    I know this from personal experience. My father was a factory worker. My mother was a shop assistant. I got the reading habit at Crewe Library as an eight year-old and I have devoured novels, biographies, autobiographies, histories, plays, poetry, periodicals, newspapers, magazines, comics and quiz books ever since. I was the first person in my family to go to university. I liked the experience so much that I attended three of them! I became a teacher and later an award-winning author.

    When I visit schools and libraries to talk about my books young people invariably ask who inspired me. I always give the same reply. The books and the authors who wrote them inspired me. That is only half the explanation, however. Without the guidance of many dedicated librarians I would not have gained access to the inspirational power of the written word. To paraphrase the words of the Manic Street Preachers, libraries gave me power – and that also means the librarians that staff them. A library without a librarian is … a room. You might imagine therefore that there would be no dispute about the central place of reading in society and in the school curriculum. Sadly, this is not true. School and public libraries and school library services are under severe pressure. In difficult economic conditions, they are often at the top of the list for cuts.

  • 15 - Corporate memory: the development and maintenance of an archival service

  • from Part 4 - Record-keeping approaches
  • Edited by Lynn Coleman, Victoria Lemieux, Rod Stone, Geoffrey Yeo
  • Book:
    Managing Records in Global Financial Markets
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    23 August 2011, pp 217-228

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Global financial markets may sound like an unlikely environment for archivists to inhabit. But beyond the sharp suits and gleaming skyscrapers of the 21st century, there exists a past legacy teeming with prominent personalities, landmark deals, business innovation and pioneering cross-border relations. The wide sweep of this history reveals how the markets have helped to shape the economics, politics and society of the modern world. The historical archives of individual corporations allow us to focus in on the distinct corporate memories that make up this bigger picture. Every firm has a different story to tell: a unique corporate culture shaped by past employees, events and decisions.

    Archivists take responsibility for preserving and promoting the archives to ‘bring to life’ these corporate memories; and they continue to breathe new life into the memory by selecting and storing more recent business records for future generations.

    In fact, in-house archivists, and the corporate memories they maintain, are highly valued by an increasing number of companies around the world, whilst the archives themselves are being utilized in ever more imaginative ways to support business functions across the board. This chapter advocates the maintenance of a formal archival programme as a means of maximizing the benefits from company heritage.

    The connection with records management lies in the simple fact that some records possess a surprisingly long and useful shelf life in the archives, many years after they have reached the retention deadline set with their creators. And one of the most intriguing issues today concerns this point of handover from the records management regime to the domain of the archivist. As explored in earlier chapters, the complexity of modern record-keeping within the global banking environment has required significant revisions to records management policy and procedures. This impact extends to archives too, as the archival profession's traditional practices are overhauled to ensure corporate memories are extended into the 21st century. This chapter begins by outlining the development of the corporate archives sector and its traditional approach to record-keeping. It explores the ways in which the modern business environment is challenging this approach and considers the potential areas for collaboration between records management and archives.

  • 3 - Impact of the extrajurisdictional reach of the USA

  • from Part 1 - Regulatory and legal compliance
    • By Ed Sautter, Partner at Mayer Brown International LLP
  • Edited by Lynn Coleman, Victoria Lemieux, Rod Stone, Geoffrey Yeo
  • Book:
    Managing Records in Global Financial Markets
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    23 August 2011, pp 33-40

  • Summary

    Introduction

    As discussed in Chapter 2 ‘Conflicts of laws in multiple jurisdictions’, the application of extraterritorial laws and regulations can have profound implications for an international financial institution's record-keeping policies. Institutions therefore need to be aware of the existence and impact of such laws and regulations and to draft and review their policies accordingly. The USA has gained a reputation for the extraterritorial reach of a number of its laws and regulations and set out below are some examples of these; of course, while the USA is probably the most striking example of such provisions, international financial institutions should be aware of other jurisdictions as well. The examples below are of US laws with potential extraterritorial effect of particular relevance to financial institutions.

    The extraterritorial application of US laws has possibly received greatest exposure in the ongoing saga involving attempts by the US Internal Revenue Service to oblige the Swiss financial institution UBS to disclose the names of account holders alleged to have engaged in tax evasion involving the use of Swiss bank accounts. UBS faced the unenviable dilemma of choosing between disobeying disclosure orders in the USA and breaching Swiss banking secrecy obligations. Although the dispute is reaching resolution following the intervention of the Swiss authorities, the matter has been complex and difficult for UBS.

    Sanctions

    The International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Trading with the Enemy Act and related Off ice of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) regulations implement economic sanctions against certain identified countries and groups (loosely regarded as being, or as being associated with, traffickers in narcotics and/or terrorists). The sanctions bar business activities, including financial activities such as fund payments and transfers, unless these are licensed. An example particularly relevant to banks involves the clearing of US dollars for, or on behalf of, a sanctioned country, entity or person.

    Until relatively recently non-US banks were unlikely to be affected by these provisions as non-US persons and entities not subject to OFAC's prohibitions (such as a non-US bank operating outside the USA) could not be sanctioned for violating OFAC's prohibitions, although they could (often unknowingly) cause violations by US dollar clearers.

  • 6 - Stockport does Book Idol! A case study linking libraries and schools to inspire reading for pleasure

    • By Nikki Heath, school librarian at Werneth School in Stockport, Eddy Hornby, thought he'd spend a couple of years as a library assistant, Jenny Barber, degree in English from the University of Manchester and a postgraduate diploma in Library and Information Management from Manchester Metropolitan University.
  • Edited by Joy Court
  • Book:
    Read to Succeed
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    23 August 2011, pp 93-106

  • Summary

    Introduction

    As we are told in the School Library Commission Report School Libraries: a plan for improvement, ‘One of the key agencies which school libraries and school library services could and should be working more closely with is the public library’ (Douglas and Wilkinson, 2010). Stockport Public Libraries was pioneering in offering a structured programme of class visits across the borough and has worked closely with schools to deliver these. This chapter describes how working in partnership with secondary school librarians to deliver a new Year 6 class visit, which takes place in the summer term, dovetails naturally into the national Summer Reading Challenge and both informs and assists the transition from primary to secondary school. As Jim Knight MP, Minister of State for Schools and Learners in 2008, said at the launch of the Enjoying Reading project: ‘Children's enjoyment of reading is critical to their life chances but schools alone can't crack this. The Department for Children, Schools and Families believes more joined up working between schools and libraries can make a big difference’ (The Reading Agency, 2008).

    The Stockport Libraries perspective

    The Stockport Libraries Class Visits programme was developed in 1995 in response to changes in the school curriculum and the need for a consistent offer to schools across the whole borough. Visits are offered to Years 1, 3, 4 and 6 and cover an introduction to the local library, non-fiction books and their arrangement, fiction books and their arrangement, and culminate with the Year 6 visits, which were originally intended to be a recap of what had been learned on previous visits.

    Stockport Libraries, the local school librarians and the School Library Service have been working closely together for four years to promote their Year 6 class visits and to begin to use them as a starting-point to advertise the national Summer Reading Challenge, which is, of course, a wonderful opportunity for students to celebrate reading for pleasure over the summer holidays, as well as to encourage them to continue with their reading whilst away from school.

  • 12 - The hard-to-reach reader in the 21st century

    • By Andrew Blake, worked for Dorset Library Service for over ten years, Julia Hale, Young People's Services Manager for Plymouth Libraries, where she manages the children's and young people's library service for the city, Emma Sherriff, Outreach Support Officer for Plymouth City Council
  • Edited by Joy Court
  • Book:
    Read to Succeed
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    23 August 2011, pp 201-224

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Young people aged 11–19 are perceived as a challenging group to engage in using public libraries. This chapter will examine projects delivered by library services in the most deprived areas of the UK's south-west peninsula, endeavouring to connect with some of the most hard-to-reach groups of young people in the region. Our aim is to identify how libraries can go about removing barriers to library use through innovative schemes of outreach work. We conclude with the reasons for successful outcomes.

    What are the obstacles to young people's using public libraries?

    This is a question we often hear in dialogues with librarians, youth agencies and young people. One stereotype of the younger library user is of the ‘bookish’ loner, socially outcast by their peers. There is also the view that libraries are fundamentally ‘uncool’ and have nothing to offer the 21stcentury teenager. Many librarians already doing positive work with teenagers may view these as unfounded prejudices and lazy clichés; however, there is plenty of evidence on which to base these views, confirmed by dwindling borrower figures amongst this age group.

    In 2006, reports from the Audit Commission and the House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport had noted the small (and still reducing) use of public libraries amongst 14–35 year-olds. In response, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Laser Foundation commissioned A Research Study of 14–35 year olds for the Future Development of Public Libraries (2006). This report aimed ‘to provide evidence for potential future strategies for the public library service that will result in increased usage amongst the 14–35 age group’. Interviews were held with 15 groups of young people from different parts of the country, chosen without reference to whether they were library members. The researchers found a ‘deeply entrenched negative perception’ of libraries and that the majority of existing and unmodernized libraries were seen as dirty and uncared for, with old and poor stocks and an oppressive atmosphere. ‘Users turned out to be a minority. Even they were reported as disappointed by the breadth and depth of stock and its lack of currency.’

  • 5 - Data exchange and confidentiality: an Asia Pacific perspective

  • from Part 1 - Regulatory and legal compliance
  • Edited by Lynn Coleman, Victoria Lemieux, Rod Stone, Geoffrey Yeo
  • Book:
    Managing Records in Global Financial Markets
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    23 August 2011, pp 61-76

  • Summary

    Introduction

    As financial institutions continue to grow in geographic scale and complexity, the need for effective communication and management of information becomes ever more important. Access to accurate, current information is key to all financial services processes, including trading, research, client relationships, compliance and personnel management. All of these activities require the exchange of information by financial institutions with their market counter - parties, advisers, service providers, regulators and government authorities. They also require increasing sharing of information internally between the various lines of business, corporate functions and offices and branches of such financial institutions. For decades, financial services regulators have sought to impose mandatory control and oversight standards on financial institutions to ensure that this exchange of data works effectively and minimizes key market risks such as money laundering and fraud. The difficult market conditions of 2008 and 2009 exposed several weaknesses in the existing oversight and control systems of financial institutions, and the failures that were discovered gave greater force and urgency to the calls for increased transparency and information sharing.

    However, the resulting exponential increase in data f lows is not without its own risks. Barely a week goes by without a news story concerning a loss of records by a financial institution, multinational corporation or government department. These are not new risks – laws have regulated confidentiality and secrecy for centuries – but the scale of data exchange required in the conduct of cross-border financial services has greatly increased the risk of breach of these laws.

    As a result, the financial services sector is subject to some of the most varied and complex laws and regulations in the context of data exchange and confidentiality. Financial institutions have to strike an appropriate balance between the disclosures required to manage their business, service their clients and satisfy their regulators, and the various restrictions on disclosure imposed under a variety of different generic and sector-specific laws and regulations. This chapter examines some of the disclosure restrictions that financial institutions face. The chapter focuses on jurisdictions in south, east and south-east Asia regions and also considers the position in Russia. For the purposes of the chapter, this is described as the Asia Pacific region.

  • 4 - The six dimensions of the ‘honeycomb’ model, and its implications for literacy, libraries and literature in New Zealand

  • Edited by Joy Court
  • Book:
    Read to Succeed
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    23 August 2011, pp 49-70

  • Summary

    Introduction: the New Zealand context for literacy

    It is argued in this chapter that New Zealand's reputation as a ‘highly literate and print-orientated society’ (Wilkinson, 1998, 144) has been due in part to the isolation and independence borne originally of our geographical position or ‘islandness’ and, through the 20th century in particular, to a strong ‘home grown’ literacy teaching and learning pedagogy in our schools, high rates of library membership, newspaper and magazine readership, a strong commitment to the wide canon of literature and, more recently, to our own burgeoning adult and children's literature.

    The argument, however, has been sorely tested in recent times. Like many other countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, New Zealand has been challenged to maintain literacy standards in English in the face of worldwide instantaneous communication, globalization and access to popular culture, mobility and mass migration, socio-lingual and cultural diversity and, more recently, effects on the literacy achievement of those most likely to struggle in times of economic constraint. To add complexity to an already challenging field, the very notion of what it means to be literate has shifted from simply being able to read and write to the wider concept of literacies: the range of functional, academic, ‘new literacies’, multi-literacies and critical ways of ‘reading the world’ (Freire and Macedo, 1987; Gee, 2008; Healy, 2008; Kalantzis, Cope and Cloonan, 2010; Lankshear and Knobel, 2003; Leu, 2000; Wink, 2010).

    Healy encapsulates this shift in emphasis when she suggests:

    Many students in their everyday lives connect to an array of texts that bear little resemblance to the book, and to a vast digital network that transcends more traditional forms of text. Of particular concern to the focus of this discussion are issues surrounding access to information, and to the libraries that typically support inquiry learning.

    (Healy, 2008, 1)

    Libraries and librarians have now the opportunity, and the obligation, to powerfully reassert their place as key information providers in classrooms, schools, communities and homes as the intersecting lines of knowledge, skills and communication and the literacy curriculum, inquiry processes and information resources become the pivotal drivers of 21st-century life.

  • 9 - Mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and insolvencies

  • from Part 2 - Balancing risk and return
    • By John Ramsey, Interim Executive, Change Programme Director and Consultant
  • Edited by Lynn Coleman, Victoria Lemieux, Rod Stone, Geoffrey Yeo
  • Book:
    Managing Records in Global Financial Markets
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    23 August 2011, pp 119-132

  • Summary

    Introduction

    From the early 1990s, financial institutions increasingly pursued a strategy of growth by acquisition until 2008, when the consequences of the banking crisis shifted the emphasis to mergers and divestitures in the name of survival. This chapter ref lects the personal experience of the author and that of other senior managers who have been involved in these events from a records management viewpoint. The aim of the chapter is to provide general guidance along with insights into best practice, both for senior executives and for managers more directly responsible for day-to-day records management.

    The history of a financial institution can often be traced through multiple mergers and acquisitions, and these continue to occur with increasing frequency. The three main drivers for mergers and acquisitions are:

  • bull; strategic investment, since acquisition is often the fastest way to penetrate new markets

  • bull; search for growth in income, where organic growth is perceived as too slow

  • bull; improved productivity, if the cost base can be reduced by de-duplication of operations.

    • In the wake of the global recession in 2008, a fourth factor emerged: survival. Financial institutions at risk of insolvency put themselves up for sale to stay in business. A few went into liquidation, and their assets were sold to several buyers.

    The main focus of this chapter is on mergers and acquisitions. In all cases, acquiring or merging institutions will need to integrate the records of the assets they have acquired. The process is broadly the same for all mergers and acquisitions, although some key differences need to be recognized. In particular, where an acquired institution becomes a subsidiary with a continuing legal existence, its records need to be held in the name of this separate legal entity.

    Executive management has a heavy workload during the early days of integration; it has to be focused on closing the deal, appointing senior managers and creating implementation plans. However, records management is also a core requirement for a successful integration, to ensure that essential legal and regulatory retention and reporting responsibilities can be met.

    There are four key decision points in a merger or acquisition; these are set out in Table 9.2. The acquiring institution's records manager should be actively involved as soon as the initial terms have been agreed, which is at the second of these decision points.

Page 219 of 293