The US savings rate fell close to 15 year lows in October 2022 at 2.3% and is now around 4% in mid 2023 but still currently below the long term average US savings rate of approximately 8.8%. With Apple’s new high yield savings account gaining traction and interest rates on the rise, the nation’s financial landscape is looking to move on from the shock of the pandemic.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s recent announcement brings a glimmer of relief as his staff stops forecasting a recession for the US. The good news is that a “soft landing” for US inflation issues appears more likely, meaning inflation might decrease without significant job losses. However, there’s “a lot left to go” before Wall Street revs up its engines!
Executive compensation has always been a hot topic, with its complexity tied to company performance and stock prices. Know your worth and how you want to be paid as executive pay is still on the rise and will most likely remain sticky.
Although the US may be a bit late to the Real Time Payment (RTP) transaction party, it’s set to make a resounding impact as RTP adoption ramps up. With FedNow joining the fray, the US payment landscape is undergoing a revolution, enabling faster and more efficient transactions. FedNow is here, and it’s poised to transform the way we exchange money, right here, right now.
Goodbye, LIBOR. Hello, SOFR. The US Dollar LIBOR bank panel has ceased to exist on 30 June 2023. Now the Daily SOFR as published by the Fed and Term SOFR by CME Group, so check your tenors and your floating rates, as we look into ACCR’s response to the criticisms to using SOFR.
The role of audit is often seen as boring and tedious, which is often true. However, recent collapses in the financial sector (SVB, First Republic, and Signature Bank) is making audit a little bit more interesting as KPMG issued unqualified audit opinions on the accuracy and truthfulness of their financial statements days before their collapse. Is KPMG a victim of their own success by auditing the majority of Banks in the US and having higher odds of having Banks fail as they audit them? Surely, they should be held accountable for something, let’s take a look at Audit’s role in this fiasco and find out.