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Transform your photos into one-of-a-kind, hand painted masterpieces!
Boundary: Bleed area may not be visible.
Click and drag to re-position the image, if desired.
The watermark at the lower right corner of the image will not appear on the final product.
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The image is near the edges of the product but doesn't cover the entire product. Some of the background color may appear around the outside edges of the image.
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Our luxuriously soft beach towels are made from brushed microfiber with a 100% cotton back for extra absorption. The top of the towel has the image printed on it, and the back is white cotton. Our beach towels are available in two different sizes: beach towel (32" x 64") and beach sheet (37" x 74").
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Dillyn Villanueva
May 1st, 2019
Jim Scott
May 1st, 2019
Nancy Stevens
April 19th, 2019
Growing up in the heat of South Louisiana, I enjoyed being indoors creating pencil and pen and ink sketches. My love of art led me to study art and architecture at the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana). After graduation and a move to East Tennessee, I found myself gainfully employed as a computer programmer, about as far away from an artistic experience as you can get. Living in the very scenic hills of East Tennessee has inspired me to continue my pursuit of artistic interests. My family will tell you that hiking and vacationing with me is interesting, as I am constantly being left behind or wandering off to take photographs of everything I see. With an eye for beauty and nature, my photographs are...
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Dr Ian Hipkin
Senior Lecturer in Management
+44 (0) 1392 725934
Streatham Court, University of Exeter, Rennes Drive, Exeter, EX4 4PU, UK
Dr Ian Hipkin teaches Strategic Management. He has a BSc in Engineering, an MPhil and an MA. His PhD research was in technology transfer and enterprise asset management. He has published articles on quality, maintenance and production / operations management, and strategy with special interest in production competence and the use of technology in strategic alliances. Currently, his research interests are strategy and technology policy in conflict and developing country environments, including Afghanistan and Iraq.
He has consulted in strategy, operations, and enterprise asset management in many large companies in the UK, US, Canada, Europe, the Far East, Russia and Africa. Some of these include: Alcan, BP, Boots, Castrol, China Light and Power, Corus, De Beers Diamond Mining Company, Dista Products, Dofasco (Canada), Domtar (Canada), Du Pont, Ford, GlaxoSmithKlein, HJ Heinz, Hong Kong Housing Authority, Iron Ore Company of Canada, Kimberly Clark, Kowloon Canton Railway, Mercedes Benz, Merck, Ministry of Industry and Minerals (Iraq), Nederlandsche Aardoile Maatschappij, Nestlé, Sappi, SABMiller, Scott Paper, Scottish Hydro, SD Warren, Shell, Tioxide and Unilever.
Nationality: British
BSc (Eng) (Natal), BCom, MA (South Africa), MPhil (Cape Town), MA (Exon), PhD (Aston)
Research interests
- Strategic management of technology alliances
- Strategy and technology management in developing countries and conflict environments
Dr Hipkin's research interests lie in the areas of strategy and technology policy in conflict and developing country environments, including Afghanistan and Iraq. Firms in developed countries face a major challenge in understanding the nature of developing country markets, and are confronted by aggressive strategies by firms from emerging economies that better understand developing markets.
Research projects
Dr Hipkin is currently supervising PhD students doing research in post conflict societies and developing countries.
Key publications | Publications by category | Publications by year
Key publications
Publications by category
Journal articles
Publications by year
In Press
External positions
- External examiner, University of Bath
- External examiner, University of Wales
- Member of MBA reviewer panel, Henley Management College
- Visiting lecturer, International University of Business and New Technology (Yaroslavl, Russia)
- Visiting lecturer, School of International Business, Reutlingen University, Germany
- Visiting lecturer, International Management Center, University of Graz, Austria
- Visiting lecturer, Bled Business School, Slovenia
- Visiting lecturer, University of Podlasie, Poland
- Visiting lecturer and external examiner, University of Cape Town
- Visiting lecturer, Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa
- Editorial board for the following journals: International Journal of Technology Marketing, South African Business Review
- Strategy
Strategy is the central activity directing organisational decision making and integrating all functional disciplines. Strategy formulation is driven by innovation in all spheres of organisational endeavour and implementation focuses on the interface between disciplines. Teaching strategy therefore brings together the different facets of management so that students are taught to think about the cohesion that derives from good strategic management.

subset: commoncrawl


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Goldstein, a technical writer, uses her cell phone as an electronic book gadget. She downloads free books through Project Gutenberg, www.gutenberg.org, a nonprofit organization that enables readers to download free electronic copies of books onto desktop computers, smart phones or palm organizers.
"It's like going to the library on a bus," Goldstein told me as she read "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" by Friedrich Nietzche.
Project Gutenberg has a catalog of about 30,000 titles that are available for free. Additionally, the site has affiliate relationships with other sites that offer access to 100,000 free books.
Here are other resources for readers seeking free electronic books to read at home or on the road.
- Barnes & Noble. The company offers a free application that works on smart phones and desktop computers. The app can be downloaded at www.bn.com/ebooks and provides access to free e-books.
- DailyLit (www.dailylit.com) is a service launched by a former Random House editor and a social media guru. Classic titles, such as "Moby Dick," "Pride and Prejudice" and "The Prince and the Pauper" are delivered by plain text e-mails to your computer, cell phone or other handheld devices. Each e-mail has an installment of the book and you pick the frequency of the e-mails. The service also includes a fee-based subscription for new titles, but books in the public domain are free and there are lots of them, including many titles on school reading lists.


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Legendary investor Doug Kass of Seabreeze Partners thinks that by the end of this week, investors will see the top in the S&P 500 for the rest of the year.
In his "15 Surprises for 2013," published today on TheStreet.com, Kass writes:
Once again, the bullish consensus is tightly grouped with the expectation that the S&P 500 will close the year at 1550-1615 (up from 1425 at the close of 2012) and that the 10 year U.S. note yield will trade at 2.50% or higher (up from 1.80% at the close of 2012).
These consensus views might prove too optimistic on stock prices and too pessimistic on bond prices. I believe that the U.S. stock market will make its 2013 high in the first two weeks of January, be in a yearlong range of 1275-1480 and close the year at 1425 and that the 10-year U.S. note will be below 2.00% in the first six months of 2013.
Kass cites the following reasons for his bearish outlook:
- No meaningful spending or entitlement cuts will be made;
- Unsustainable and diminished value of fiscal and monetary policy;
- An aging recovery and aging stock market;
- Investment narrative shifts to the earnings cliff and to the end of profit margin expansion;
- A market that starts the year at reasonable if not high valuations relative to headwinds;
- Full-year estimated S&P 500 range of 1275-1480 with a close of 1425; and
- Fade (sell/short) early January stock market strength.


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April 2, 2011
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- UCSB's Ryan Martin, Danielle Moreno and Rusty Parker all posted top times at the Cal Poly Invitational this weekend. Ryan Martin brought home a win in the 400m dash for the men with a time of 47.94 and Danielle Moreno had a winning performance in the women's 5000m run in a time of 17:37.50. In the men's 800m run, Rusty Parker had a strong finishing time of 1:52.51 to win the event.
On the field, Alyssa Manning threw 133'0.75" in the women's hammer throw and Kathleen Guzman threw 118'0.75". Josh Scherer threw 160'9" for fifth place followed by Emil Mejares who threw 135'4".
Taylor Duncan's highest pole vault of the day was at 14'7"for sixth place tied with teammate Andrew Curry for the same height. In the women's long jump, Veronica Gines earned third jumping 18'1.5" and Barbara Nwaba finishing fourth with a mark of 18'0.75". In the long jump, John Walsh and Chris Brooks took second and third place with marks of 22'3.5" and 21'11.25" respectively. In men's triple jump, Karlon Johnson jumped 45'8" for third place and Arthur Dyson jumped 42'9.75". In the javelin, Jenn Melton threw 103'10" for sixth place.
In men's shot put, Julian Samson threw 47'0.5", Chad Seymour threw 46'9.75" and Josh Scherer threw 46'1.75". In women's high jump, Helena Montin jumped 5'4" and good for fourth place. Alyssa Manning earned second in the discus by throwing 132'6" while Kathleen Guzman threw 128'9.25" for third place. In men's discus, Julian Samson threw 162'0.75" for third place and Chad Seymour threw 149'2.75".
The UCSB women's 4x100m relay took first place in a time of 47.51 and the men's 4x100m relay team ran 41.90 for second place. In the women's 100m hurdles, Maureen Ajoku earned fourth place and clocking 15.35 while Cherise Dixon ran 15.69. On the men's side, Sean Johnson earned second place and finishing with a time of 15.15. Cherelle McMillon took third in the women's 400m dash with a time of 58.60 and Emily Gordon ran 59.47. Winton Nguyen finished fourth with a time of 49.88 in the men's 400m dash.
UCSB had several solid results in the middle distances. Cassie Brooker led UCSB in the 800m run earning second place in 2:12.82 while Aislynn Mueller finished seventh in 2:20.25. Sarah Vitug led UCSB in the 1500m by running 4:34.29 and Breanne Strenkowski running 4:34.38. Juan Paredes clocked in 3:54.08 for fourth and Greg Dotson finished in 3:55.52 on the men's side.
Jenn Carey earned fourth place by running the 100m meters in 12.71 and Megan Vyenielo finished in 12.94. Cameron Schneider ran 11.13 in the men's 100m dash. Snita Ashford led the women in the 200m dash and placing third with a time of 25.20 and Lauren Kodama clocking in 25.46. On the men's side, André Piñon earned third with a time of 22.26 in the 200m dash and Jacob Vowels ran 22.66.
The Gaucho's notched another win in both the men and women's 4x400m relays with times of 3:13.34 and 3:54.18 respectively.
Next Friday, UCSB will travel to UC Irvine for the Big West Challenge Cup.
A donation to the Gaucho Fund - regardless of the sport it supports - will be part of the One Donation is Gold system. This allows donors to purchase priority/premium seating and parking at UCSB games across several sports in addition to other benefits.


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Product SKU: SCC62G
Rational's SelfCookingCentre Whitefficiency models are available with 7 cooking modes, efficient control, combi-steamer mode, ClimaPlus control, automatic finishing processes and Delta-T cooking as well as a wide range of other features and benefits.
28kw natural gas connected load or 31kw liquid gas 3B/P connected load and 1 NAC 230V voltage. 60 - 160 meals per day.
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Use our Rational SelfCookingCentre WhiteEfficiency Calculator to determine how much your establishment could save.
- SelfCookingControl with 7 cooking modes; meat, poultry, fish, side dishes, egg dishes, baked products, finishing.
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Includes 24 months manufacturers parts and labour warranty.
Additional Information
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|6 x 2/1 GN or 12 x 1/1 GN
|Natural Gas
|24 months parts and labour


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Newlin Quaker Center
The Newlin Quaker Center aims to identify young Quaker leaders, nurture Quaker scholarship and dialogue on campus, and provide members of the Earlham and wider communities with information about the Religious Society of Friends and Earlham's living Quaker character. More broadly, the Center aims to promote conversation and cooperation among Friends, and to provide a gathering place for Friends of all sorts.
At the Newlin Quaker Center, we focus on Quaker-related events and programs on campus. Housed in Virginia Cottage, which is also the home of the Office of Religious Life, our corner of campus is a beautiful and tranquil place that provides hospitality and encourages reflection and spiritual renewal. The Cottage has a kitchen and two comfortable gathering rooms, which are available for your use — reservations are needed — we encourage campus-wide use of the facility.
The Newlin Center is located in Virginia Cottage, just north of the Public Safety and McNair offices. Virginia Cottage was the residence of Virginia and Elton Trueblood.
To reserve the kitchen, living room or garden room, visit 25 Live — our campus reservation site.
Applications for the program are due by February 15. Fill out the application here.
Follow theNewlin Centeron Facebook!
Earlham College
A Model of Religious Life
Principles and Practices
Quaker Studies Minor
Religion Department
Office of Religious Life
Evangelical Friends International (EFI)
Friends General Conference (FGC)
Friends United Meeting (FUM)
The Religious Society of Friends
Follow theNewlin Centeron Facebook!


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Get the Flash Playerto see this player.
|Young Black Girlfriends
Short review: An excellent site. I, myself, have always enjoyed the teen genre, and dabbled in my fair share of chocolate, too. Having found a site smart enough to combine the two  with the added twist of amateur hidden camera action  really blew me away. I think you'll probably feel the same way. There's not really anything amazing in the way of bonus content, but with multiple daily updates, is it really necessary? Give 'em a try sometime. You won't regret it.
Content Amount: Over 250 videos and over 240 picture galleries. That's in less than a year!


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In December of 2015, Epiroc Drilling Tools introduced an all-new bit range for tophammer surface drilling – Powerbit. The first thread system to reach the market was T45. Since the introduction, Powerbit T45, T51, T-WiZ60, ST58 and ST68 have met, and surpassed all goals and expectations. Service life is improved by up to 75 % – at significantly higher penetration rates.
Now, we introduce Powerbit T35 (48-64 mm) and T38 (60-127 mm), mainly designed for construction drilling. T35 and T38 have all the same characteristics that have made Powerbit so successful. The bit shape is optimised. The bit body steel is harder and stronger. And the patented Enduro Extra button surface treatment technology and Trubbnos button shape are developed for outstanding strength and wear resistance. A special feature of the 64 mm and the smaller T35 and T38 bits is that the face has three gauge button islands. Thereby, larger peripheral buttons can be fitted for longer intervals between regrinds and maximum service life.
The 64 mm retrac Powerbit with T38 thread and Trubbnos buttons has been tried and tested in demanding road construction in the Middle East. Compared to reference bits, service life was improved by up to 50 % in a variety of rock formations. We expect Powerbit T35 and T38 to be every bit as effective as the already introduced Powerbit thread systems that have proven to give exceptional performance.
With the Powerbit T35 and T38 ranges, Epiroc Drilling Tools now has a complete assortment of Powerbits for surface drilling. This concludes our efforts towards a more compact and versatile tophammer bit assortment. With 25 % fewer bits, the Powerbit range makes bit selection that much easier for you. The first T38 Powerbits were introduced in November 2017, and the complete range for T38 will be released successively during the coming 6 months. The T35 Powerbit range is released in the middle of 2018. The Powerbit range gives you an unbeatable drill string, where our shank adapters and drill rods are already known to be top-of-the-line. Welcome to the tophammer world of Epiroc Drilling Tools.
Johan Thenor, Product Line Manager Tophammer and Handheld equipment
Phone: +46 (0)223 462 27, e-mail: email@example.com
Cecilia Einarsson, Project Leader, Market Communication
Phone: +46 223 463 91, e-mail: email@example.com


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The International Commission for the International Tracing Service (IC/ITS) convened for a two-day meeting in Bad Arolsen to discuss the goals of the ITS until the year 2020. The discussion particularly focused on improving access to the documents in the ITS archive.learn more
In order to trace the fates of former prisoners for an exhibition planned at the Brandenburg-Görden Prison Memorial, historian Uta Fröhlich researched names and life stories at the ITS.learn more
"My mother told me that my grandfather had died in a concentration camp when she turned forty." The thought of his grandfather's fate stuck in Uwe Schmeichel's mind and he began researching it.learn more
Holocaust survivor Eugene Black died on September 26, 2016, in Leeds, West Yorkshire, at the age of 88. Through his work for the Holocaust Survivors' Friendship Association and visits to Bad Arolsen, a close bond was forged between Eugene Black and the International Tracing Service (ITS) team.learn more
Sixteen members of the Lagergemeinschaft Ravensbrück / Freundeskreis (Ravensbrück Camp Community / Circle of Friends) visited the ITS on September 30, 2016. This first visit culminated in the presentation of document copies to the descendants of concentration camp inmates, the viewing of original documents, and a tour...learn more
He bears the same name as his uncle who was detained in a concentration camp by the Nazis in 1944. Now, Marcel Uytdenhoef was able to collect the personal belongings confiscated from his uncle when he was detained. "We had no idea these effects existed," the Belgian said, who, on September 27th 2016, came to the...learn more
From 1943 until 1945 Cornelis de Zeeuw had to do forced labor in the Harz region for the Nazi Regime. His family regrets never asking him specifically about the two years he spent as a forced laborer. Now, a few years after Cornelis de Zeeuw's death, his grandson has started the search for more information.learn more
His family only had a single photo of Prosper de Rijcke, who died on November 30, 1944, in a satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp. But now they also have a pocket watch – a personal effect that had been taken from the Belgian man when he was arrested a few months before his death. "It's unbelievable,...learn more
Over a period of four years, the filmmaker Carmen Eckhardt of Cologne researched the circumstances surrounding, and reasons for, the execution of her great-grandfather Viktor Kunz by the Nazis. She documented his biography, her own search, and her sometimes very difficult dealings with German institutions in the film...learn more
The Holocaust survivor Max Mannheimer died last Friday at the age of 96. Mannheimer tirelessly reminded his contemporaries of the crimes committed during the Nazi period and engaged in an ongoing struggle against oblivion. He had survived the Terezín ghetto and the Auschwitz, Warsaw and Dachau concentration camps. The...learn more


text: New York-based travel photographer Sivan Askayo explores intimacy through a universal behavior: hanging clothes out to dry. Askayo's series Intimacy Under the Wires depicts clotheslines from around the world—snapshots likely more personal than intended. According to Askayo, the project began in Tel Aviv, and continued through Madrid, Barcelona, London, Florence, Venice and Buenos Aires, and we have to take her word for it: aside from small hints in t-shirt logos, random signage and perhaps an architectural clue, locations are largely a mystery.


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Center for Energy Policy Sets Dynamic Conference Agenda
By Thomas Guengerich
HOBBS, N.M., April 6, 2009 – The New Mexico Center for Energy Policy conference will feature a wide variety of interesting speakers and topics Tuesday, April 14, at the Lea County Event Center in Hobbs.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman will be the keynote speaker at the conference. New Mexico Tech President Dr. Daniel H. Lopez said the event is an important national event that will highlight renewable energy in the current economic climate. Lopez and Lt. Gov. Diane Denish will serve as emcees. New Mexico Tech launched the Center for Energy Policy in 2006. The conference also will draw attention to the initiatives of Sen. Bingaman to sustain investment in clean energy technologies.
The first panel discussion, "Renewable Energy and the Resources: Solar, Wind and Geothermal," features Lawrence Flowers, National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
The second panel, "Renewable Energy and Crisis, Cost and Carbon," features former Dallas mayor Laura Miller, and Dr. Daniel Fine of Center for Energy Policy. Fine will discuss "Carbon Cap and Trade and The Crisis of Credit and Investment."
After Bingaman's keynote address during the luncheon, the third panel will cover "Renewable Energy and the Next Generation Technologies," featuring five short talks from industry experts. During this session, Robert Brown, the director of Ford Motor Co.'s Vehicle Environmental Engineering, will talk about "A Blueprint for a Sustainable Future."
The fourth and final panel discussion will focus on "Renewable Energy and Transmission (The Grid)." This panel will feature three electric industry experts.
For the complete agenda, visit http://nmcep.nmt.edu/index.php/Upcoming-Conferences/2009-energy-conference-agenda.html.
Sen. Bingaman is the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. First elected to the Senate in 1982, he is serving his fifth term. He is responsible for the first national tax credit for clean energy manufacturing as part of the proposed federal stimulus legislation enacted by President Obama last week.
"We are excited that Senator Bingaman has agreed to deliver the keynote address and discuss the latest energy initiatives," President Lopez said. "He has been a leader in crafting energy policy for many years and, with his leadership in Washington, D.C., this country has a thoughtful and balanced policymaker."
The conference will include discussions on renewable and clean energy, along with technology innovations in a new, low-carbon era, coupled with the current low energy prices. The conference is free, but registration is required. To register, call the Center at 575-492-4715 or visit nmcep.nmt.edu.
"New Mexico has always been key to ensuring our nation's energy needs. As we develop a national energy plan that continues to shift us away from imported oil to homegrown fuels and renewable energy, I am confident that New Mexico will remain an energy leader," Bingaman said. "I look forward to participating in this important conference."
The daylong conference will feature experts from the energy research centers and industries presenting their cornerstone papers and opinions about renewable energy in America and the response to current stress that influences the marketplace. Each presentation will be followed by commentary from experts in the field.
State law requires New Mexico's major utilities to produce 15 percent of their power from renewable resources by 2015 and 20 percent by 2020, Romero said. However, national and state decision-makers haven't established the regulatory and administrative policies needed to integrate renewable energy into existing infrastructure systems.
"Any electricity we generate in eastern New Mexico from renewable energy like wind can't be taken to market," Romero said. "The Texas compact won't allow us to put that electricity on the grid. So, we need to look at changing our policies to get that energy to market."
This conference will be the second event hosted by the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy, since being established by New Mexico Tech in 2006. The inaugural conference in May 2008 featured now-retired Sen. Pete Domenici as the keynote speaker. Nearly 400 people attended the event.
The Center for Energy Policy, in partnership with New Mexico Junior College and the Economic Development Corporation of Lea County provides energy-related research, technical and educational assistance for government, community, and business leaders in New Mexico and West Texas.
New Mexico Tech is a state-funded four-year research university in Socorro that is the leading educator of scientists and engineers.


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Lending activities can be performed either directly or indirectly through capital markets. Due to their importance in the financial stability of a country, banks are Banking regulation in most countries. Most nations have institutionalized a system known as fractional reserve banking under which banks hold liquid assets equal to only a portion of their current liabilities. In addition to other regulations intended to ensure liquidity, banks are generally subject to minimum capital requirements based on an international set of capital standards, known as the Basel Accords.
Banking in its modern sense evolved in the 14th century in the prosperous cities of Renaissance Italy but in many ways was a continuation of ideas and concepts of Credit (finance) and lending that had their roots in the ancient world. In the history of banking, a number of List of banking families – notably, the House of Medici, the Fuggers, the Welsers, the Berenberg family, and the Rothschild family – have played a central role over many centuries. The List of oldest banks in continuous operation retail bank is Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, while the oldest existing merchant bank is Berenberg Bank.
More modern banking can be traced to medieval and early Renaissance Italy, to the rich cities in the centre and north like Florence, Lucca, Siena, Venice and Genoa. The Bardi family and Peruzzi families dominated banking in 14th-century Florence, establishing branches in many other parts of Europe.Noble Foster Hoggson (1926) ''Banking Through the Ages'', New York, Dodd, Mead & Company. One of the most famous Italian banks was the Medici Bank, set up by Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici in 1397.Goldthwaite, R. A. (1995) ''Banks, Places and Entrepreneurs in Renaissance Florence'', Aldershot, Hampshire, Great Britain, Variorum The earliest known state deposit bank, Bank of Saint George (Genoa) (Bank of St. George), was founded in 1407 at Genoa, Italy.
Modern banking practices, including fractional reserve banking and the issue of banknotes, emerged in the 17th and 18th centuries. Merchants started to store their gold with the goldsmiths of London, who possessed private vaults, and charged a fee for that service. In exchange for each deposit of precious metal, the goldsmiths issued receipts certifying the quantity and purity of the metal they held as a bailee; these receipts could not be assigned, only the original depositor could collect the stored goods.
Gradually the goldsmiths began to lend the money out on behalf of the deposit (finance), which led to the development of modern banking practices; promissory notes (which evolved into banknotes) were issued for money deposited as a loan to the goldsmith.Thus by the 19th century we find "[i]n ordinary cases of deposits of money with banking corporations, or bankers, the transaction amounts to a mere loan or mutuum, and the bank is to restore, not the same money, but an equivalent sum, whenever it is demanded." Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Law of Bailments (1832, p. 66) and "Money, when paid into a bank, ceases altogether to be the money of the principal (see Parker v. Marchant, 1 Phillips 360); it is then the money of the banker, who is bound to return an equivalent by paying a similar sum to that deposited with him when he is asked for it." Charles Pepys, 1st Earl of Cottenham, ''Foley v Hill'' (1848) 2 HLC 28. The goldsmith paid interest on these deposits. Since the promissory notes were payable on demand, and the advances (loans) to the goldsmith's customers were repayable over a longer time period, this was an early form of fractional reserve banking. The promissory notes developed into an assignable instrument which could circulate as a safe and convenient form of money backed by the goldsmith's promise to pay,Richards. The usual denomination was 50 or 100 pounds, so these notes were not an everyday currency for the common people allowing goldsmiths to advance loans with little risk of default (finance).Richards, p. 40 Thus, the goldsmiths of London became the forerunners of banking by creating new money based on credit.
The Bank of England was the first to begin the permanent issue of banknotes, in 1695.
Under English common law, a banker is defined as a person who carries on the business of banking by conducting Current account (banking) for his customers, paying cheques drawn on him/her and also collecting cheques for his/her customers.United Dominions Trust Ltd v Kirkwood, 1966, English Court of Appeal, 2 QB 431
In most common law jurisdictions there is a Bills of Exchange Act that codifies the law in relation to negotiable instruments, including cheques, and this Act contains a statutory definition of the term ''banker'': ''banker'' includes a body of persons, whether incorporated or not, who carry on the business of banking' (Section 2, Interpretation). Although this definition seems circular, it is actually functional, because it ensures that the legal basis for bank transactions such as cheques does not depend on how the bank is structured or regulated.
The business of banking is in many English common law countries not defined by statute but by common law, the definition above. In other English common law jurisdictions there are statutory definitions of the ''business of banking'' or ''banking business''. When looking at these definitions it is important to keep in mind that they are defining the business of banking for the purposes of the legislation, and not necessarily in general. In particular, most of the definitions are from legislation that has the purpose of regulating and supervising banks rather than regulating the actual business of banking. However, in many cases the statutory definition closely mirrors the common law one. Examples of statutory definitions:
Since the advent of EFTPOS (Electronic Funds Transfer at Point Of Sale), direct credit, direct debit and online banking, the cheque has lost its primacy in most banking systems as a payment instrument. This has led legal theorists to suggest that the cheque based definition should be broadened to include financial institutions that conduct current accounts for customers and enable customers to pay and be paid by third parties, even if they do not pay and collect cheques .e.g. Tyree's Banking Law in New Zealand, A L Tyree, LexisNexis 2003, p. 70.
Banks borrow money by accepting funds deposited on current accounts, by accepting term deposits, and by issuing debt securities such as banknotes and Bond (finance). Banks lend money by making advances to customers on current accounts, by making installment loans, and by investing in marketable debt securities and other forms of money lending.
Banks provide different payment services, and a bank account is considered indispensable by most businesses and individuals. Non-banks that provide payment services such as remittance companies are normally not considered as an adequate substitute for a bank account.
Banks can create new money when they make a loan. New loans throughout the banking system generate new deposits elsewhere in the system. The money supply is usually increased by the act of lending, and reduced when loans are repaid faster than new ones are generated. In the United Kingdom between 1997 and 2007, there was an increase in the money supply, largely caused by much more bank lending, which served to push up property prices and increase private debt. The amount of money in the economy as measured by M4 in the UK went from £750 billion to £1700 billion between 1997 and 2007, much of the increase caused by bank lending.Bank of England statistics and the book "Where does money come from?", p. 47, by the New Economics Foundation. If all the banks increase their lending together, then they can expect new deposits to return to them and the amount of money in the economy will increase. Excessive or risky lending can cause borrowers to default, the banks then become more cautious, so there is less lending and therefore less money so that the economy can go from boom to bust as happened in the UK and many other Western economies after 2007.
This difference is referred to as the Net interest spread between the cost of funds and the loan interest rate. Historically, profitability from lending activities has been cyclical and dependent on the needs and strengths of loan customers and the stage of the economic cycle. Fees and financial advice constitute a more stable revenue stream and banks have therefore placed more emphasis on these revenue lines to smooth their financial performance.
In the past 20 years, American banks have taken many measures to ensure that they remain profitable while responding to increasingly changing market conditions.
:However, with the convenience of easy credit, there is also increased risk that consumers will mismanage their financial resources and accumulate excessive debt. Banks make money from card products through interest charges and fees charged to cardholders, and transaction fees to retailers who accept the bank's credit and/or debit cards for payments.
This helps in making a profit and facilitates economic development as a whole.
After the 2007-2009 financial crisis, regulators force banks to issue ''Contingent convertible bonds'' (CoCos).These are hybrid capital securities that absorb losses in accordance with their contractual terms when the capital of the issuing bank falls below a certain level. Then debt is reduced and bank capitalization gets a boost. Owing to their capacity to absorb losses, CoCos have the potential to satisfy regulatory capital requirement.
Banking crises have developed many times throughout history when one or more risks have emerged for a banking sector as a whole. Prominent examples include the bank run that occurred during the Great Depression, the U.S. Savings and Loan crisis in the 1980s and early 1990s, the Japanese banking crisis during the 1990s, and the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the 2000s.
The United States has the most banks in the world in terms of institutions (5,330 as of 2015) and possibly branches (81,607 as of 2015). This is an indicator of the geography and regulatory structure of the US, resulting in a large number of small to medium-sized institutions in its banking system. As of November 2009, China's top 4 banks have in excess of 67,000 branches (ICBC:18000+, Bank of China:12000+, China Construction Bank:13000+, Agricultural Bank of China:24000+) with an additional 140 smaller banks with an undetermined number of branches.
Japan had 129 banks and 12,000 branches. In 2004, Germany, France, and Italy each had more than 30,000 branches – more than double the 15,000 branches in the UK.
|Here is a list of the largest deals in history in terms of value with participation from at least one bank:
|Date Announced
|Acquiror Name
|Acquiror Mid Industry
|Acquiror Nation
|Target Name
|Target Mid Industry
|Target Nation
|Value of Transaction ($mil)
|RFS Holdings BV
|Other Financials
|ABN-AMRO Holding NV
|Travelers Group Inc
|United States
|United States
|NationsBank Corp, Charlotte, NC
|United States
|BankAmerica Corp
|United States
|JPMorgan Chase & Co
|United States
|Bank One Corp, Chicago, IL
|United States
|Bank of America Corp
|United States
|FleetBoston Financial Corp, MA
|United States
|Bank of America Corp
|United States
|Merrill Lynch & Co Inc
|United States
|Sumitomo Bank Ltd
|Sakura Bank Ltd
|HM Treasury
|National Agency
|United Kingdom
|Royal Bank of Scotland Group
|United Kingdom
|Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Grp
|UFJ Holdings Inc
Unlike most other regulated industries, the regulator is typically also a participant in the market, being either a publicly or privately governed central bank. Central banks also typically have a monopoly on the business of issuing banknotes. However, in some countries this is not the case. In the UK, for example, the Financial Services Authority licenses banks, and some commercial banks (such as the Bank of Scotland) issue their own banknotes in addition to those issued by the Bank of England, the UK government's central bank.
Banking law is based on a contractual analysis of the relationship between the ''bank'' (defined above) and the ''customer'' – defined as any entity for which the bank agrees to conduct an account.
The law implies rights and obligations into this relationship as follows:
These implied contractual terms may be modified by express agreement between the customer and the bank. The statutes and regulations in force within a particular jurisdiction may also modify the above terms and/or create new rights, obligations or limitations relevant to the bank-customer relationship.
Some types of financial institution, such as Building Society and credit unions, may be partly or wholly exempt from bank license requirements, and therefore regulated under separate rules.
The requirements for the issue of a bank license vary between jurisdictions but typically include:
The United States banking industry is one of the most heavily regulated and guarded in the world,Scott Besley and Eugene F. Brigham, ''Principles of Finance'', 4th ed. (Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning, 2009), 125. This popular university textbook explains: "Generally speaking, U.S. financial institutions have been much more heavily regulated and faced greater limitations ... than have their foreign counterparts." with multiple specialized and focused regulators. All banks with FDIC-insured deposits have the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as a regulator. However, for soundness examinations (i.e., whether a bank is operating in a sound manner), the Federal Reserve is the primary federal regulator for Fed-member state banks; the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is the primary federal regulator for national banks. State non-member banks are examined by the state agencies as well as the FDIC. National banks have one primary regulator – the OCC.
Each regulatory agency has their own set of rules and regulations to which banks and thrifts must adhere.
The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) was established in 1979 as a formal inter-agency body empowered to prescribe uniform principles, standards, and report forms for the federal examination of financial institutions. Although the FFIEC has resulted in a greater degree of regulatory consistency between the agencies, the rules and regulations are constantly changing.
In addition to changing regulations, changes in the industry have led to consolidations within the Federal Reserve, FDIC, OTS, and OCC. Offices have been closed, supervisory regions have been merged, staff levels have been reduced and budgets have been cut. The remaining regulators face an increased burden with increased workload and more banks per regulator. While banks struggle to keep up with the changes in the regulatory environment, regulators struggle to manage their workload and effectively regulate their banks. The impact of these changes is that banks are receiving less hands-on assessment by the regulators, less time spent with each institution, and the potential for more problems slipping through the cracks, potentially resulting in an overall increase in bank failures across the United States.
The changing economic environment has a significant impact on banks and thrifts as they struggle to effectively manage their interest rate spread in the face of low rates on loans, rate competition for deposits and the general market changes, industry trends and economic fluctuations. It has been a challenge for banks to effectively set their growth strategies with the recent economic market. A rising interest rate environment may seem to help financial institutions, but the effect of the changes on consumers and businesses is not predictable and the challenge remains for banks to grow and effectively manage the spread to generate a return to their shareholders.
The management of the banks' asset portfolios also remains a challenge in today's economic environment. Loans are a bank's primary asset category and when loan quality becomes suspect, the foundation of a bank is shaken to the core. While always an issue for banks, declining asset quality has become a big problem for financial institutions.
There are several reasons for this, one of which is the lax attitude some banks have adopted because of the years of "good times." The potential for this is exacerbated by the reduction in the regulatory oversight of banks and in some cases depth of management. Problems are more likely to go undetected, resulting in a significant impact on the bank when they are discovered. In addition, banks, like any business, struggle to cut costs and have consequently eliminated certain expenses, such as adequate employee training programs.
Banks also face a host of other challenges such as ageing ownership groups. Across the country, many banks' management teams and board of directors are ageing. Banks also face ongoing pressure by shareholders, both public and private, to achieve earnings and growth projections. Regulators place added pressure on banks to manage the various categories of risk. Banking is also an extremely competitive industry. Competing in the financial services industry has become tougher with the entrance of such players as insurance agencies, credit unions, cheque cashing services, credit card companies, etc.
As a reaction, banks have developed their activities in financial instruments, through financial market operations such as brokerage firm and have become big players in such activities.
Another major challenge is the ageing infrastructure, also called legacy IT. Backend systems were built decades ago and are incompatible to new applications. Fixing bugs and creating interfaces costs huge sums, as knowledgeable programmers become scarce.
To compete for deposits, US savings institutions offer many different types of plans:
The customer debits his or her savings/bank (asset) account in his ledger when making a deposit (and the account is normally in debit), while the customer credits a credit card (liability) account in his ledger every time he spends money (and the account is normally in credit). When the customer reads his bank statement, the statement will show a credit to the account for deposits, and debits for withdrawals of funds. The customer with a positive balance will see this balance reflected as a credit balance on the bank statement. If the customer is overdrawn, he will have a negative balance, reflected as a debit balance on the bank statement.
Terms and concepts:


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Eras Journal – Tighe, J: Review of "The Manchus", Pamela Kyle Crossley
Pamela Kyle Crossley, The Manchus,
Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, 1997 (paperback edition 2002)
Isbn 1 55786 560 4
Manchus officially make up around ten million of the present day population of the People's Republic of China. In the post-Mao era Manchu identity has clearly undergone a resurgence and the Manchu ethnicity of such important Chinese literary figures as Lao She is now celebrated. The most important component and shaping force in Manchu identity, however, was their central role in the last empire to rule China, the Qing Empire (which lasted from 1644 to 1911), and this forms the main theme of Pamela Kyle Crossley's book The Manchus. Crossley argues that the distinctness of Manchu identity has been neglected in mainstream studies of Qing and Chinese early modern history. Most scholars have accepted uncritically what is ultimately a Chinese nationalist historiographic depiction of the Manchus. Crossley points to the central contradiction of this reading: Manchus have been lumped with the blame for China's misfortunes in the 19th century because they are characterised as foreign rulers who had no interest in the welfare of the Chinese nation, but at the same time they have been dismissed as having no important identity of their own, having quickly become "sinified" – assimilated, or acculturated by a superior Chinese culture. The book offers a corrective with important implications for scholars of Chinese modern history.
The Manchus is dedicated to the late Joseph Fletcher Jr, one of the pioneers of a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual approach to Chinese and Inner Asian history, and it rehearses themes which have been preoccupations of Crossley and others from the late 1980s onwards, such as the poverty of assumptions about "sinification" and the importance of ethnicity and non-Chinese, in particular, Inner Asian cultural and political traditions in Qing history. Crossley argues persuasively for an inversion of the commonly received view of the Qing. Instead of the conventional understanding of the Qing as a dynasty within the Chinese imperial tradition (albeit staffed by foreigners) and a part of the history of the Chinese nation, the Qing should be understood as a multi-ethnic empire of which China proper – i.e. the classical eighteen provinces south of the Great Wall – was one part of, but which also included Inner Asian territories and peoples. This revised view of the Qing enables Crossley to make some fruitful comparisons about modernisation, reform and the growth of nationalism between the Qing and other roughly contemporaneous multi-ethnic Eurasian land empires such as the Romanov and Ottoman empires. Her account of the Manchus is also an excellent exploration of the diachronic trajectory of a collective identity and the effects of state policy on this identity.
Like the Yuan Empire of the Mongols, the Qing Empire distinguished between an imperial elite and a conquered population within China. Manchus were at the heart of this elite and the changing relationship between these two components of imperial order over two and a half centuries of Qing rule shaped Manchu identity profoundly. Manchus drew their pre-Qing ethnic and cultural origins from the Tungusic peoples of Manchuria, most immediately the Jurchens. Crossley explores the ethnographic features of these peoples in the book's second chapter. However the fact that the ethonym "Manchu," was officially decreed in 1635 offers a telling indication of the inseparability of the ethnic factors from the state institutionalisation of Manchu identity during the Qing Empire. This is clearly Crossley's main focus.
Crossley argues that Manchu identity moved from its expression in terms of political or functional status in the 17th century to its eventual expression as a fully ethnic and even racial identity by the end of the Qing. She traces the different transformations of this identity beginning with the uniting of various Chinese immigrants from Ming Dynasty China, Koreans, Jurchens and other Manchurian peoples in the late 1500s under the Jurchen leader Nurgaci, the founder of the immediate precursor to the Qing, the Later Jin Empire, a regional regime based in Manchuria. In 1635 Nurgaci's son and the first Qing emperor, Hung Taiji, officially designated these early followers as "Manchu." Central to the absorption of this ethnically diverse population was its division into a series of "banners" – hereditary socio-military units of command – possibly as early as the 1590s. The resulting Eight Banner system (each banner represented by a flag of its own colour) became the organisational structure for the conquest elite of the Qing Empire. With the establishment of the Qing state after 1644 banners became institutionalised and Manchus as bannermen were to be maintained in garrisons throughout the Empire at the expense of the imperial state to function as an "all-purpose elite," skilled as both soldiers and as administrators. This ideal of bannermen functionaries was never successfully realised, Crossley argues, because of the expense. Bannermen were routinely forced to sell off land and to seek alternative sources of income to maintain themselves.
Territorial pressure from the Romanov Empire during the reign of the third Qing emperor, the Kangxi emperor (1662-1722) led the Court to define the boundaries of a territorial "Manchuria" and to claim it as its native place. It also commissioned an expedition to locate the origin point of the royal Asin Gioro lineage. The expedition discovered this in the wintery landscape of the Changbaishan mountain range which then became the putative "ancestral region" of the Manchus. Under the long reign of the Qianlong emperor (1736-1795) the ethnic and historical attributes of Manchu identity became increasingly elaborated. The emperor demanded the formalisation of Manchu heritage and the compilation of a new history of the Manchus which claimed all the historical peoples and cultures of Manchuria as ancestors and "corrected" traditional Chinese unflattering depictions of these peoples. Bannermen were also put under intense pressure to maintain their Manchu language skills and their "Manchu" traditions of horsemanship and archery. The problem of bannermen livelihood continued to fester and the older ideal of Manchus as political functionaries faded as civil affairs of the Empire increasingly passed into the hands of a Chinese bureaucratic class. Moreover, as Crossley writes, "by the 1820s the banners within China were barely considered part of the military complement of the empire." They had become a social problem. By the middle of the 19th century the Qing court began to cut economic assistance to banner communities throughout the Empire and, in the face of poverty, bannermen became increasingly desperate. Manchu identity also had finally become expressed in racial terms. This was particularly evident in the Taiping rebellion which swept through and devastated areas of southern and eastern China in the period from 1850 to 1865. Taiping religious ideology cast the Manchus as satanic creatures to be driven out of China. The Taipings were eventually defeated however, in the last years of the Empire, Manchus were the subject of opportunistic racial vilification at the hands of Chinese nationalists intent on mobilising support for the overthrow of the Imperial government. In the last chapter of the book Crossley briefly examines the post-imperial fate of Manchus under various Chinese national governments. Manchus now make up one of the officially recognised "minority nationalities" of the Peoples Republic of China.
The Manchus appears as part of Blackwell's Peoples of Asia series and, as the explanation of the purpose of the series has it, the text "is addressed to a wide, multi-disciplinary readership, as well as the general reader." Footnotes and annotations have been kept to a minimum and the work is succinct and written in a style which will appeal to the non-specialist. In spite or because of this The Manchus comes across as a lively and thoughtful distillation of contemporary research on Manchu and Qing history by one of the main pioneers in this field. Crossley uses a range of first hand accounts to provide glimpses of her subject in different periods; from the reports of the late 16th century Korean diplomat Sin Chung-il to the diary of the 12 year old English boy George Stauton who accompanied and translated for the Macartney Expedition to the Qianlong emperor's court in 1793 and 1794, as well as sources in Manchu and Chinese. Crossley's narrative follows closely and sometimes becomes submerged within the narrative of Qing political history. However, given the complexity of the issues involved in tracing Manchu identity it is perhaps understandable that the end result is a looser interpretation of her brief which leans in the direction of Qing history.


text:
In the Matter of
The Securities and Exchange Commission ("Commission") deems it appropriate and in the public interest that proceedings be, and hereby are, instituted pursuant to Section 203(e) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 ("Advisers Act") against Oechsle International Advisors, L.L.C. ("Oechsle").1
In anticipation of the institution of these administrative proceedings, Oechsle has submitted an Offer of Settlement that the Commission has determined to accept.2 Solely for the purposes of these proceedings and any other proceedings brought by or on behalf of the Commission or to which the Commission is a party, and prior to a hearing and without admitting or denying the findings set forth herein, Oechsle consents to the entry of this Order Instituting Public Administrative Proceedings, Making Findings and Imposing Remedial Sanctions. The Commission has determined that it is appropriate and in the public interest to accept the Offer of Settlement from Oechsle, and accordingly is issuing this Order.
Based on the foregoing, the Commission finds that:3
A. Respondent
Oechsle is a registered investment adviser headquartered in Boston with approximately $11.8 billion under management as of December 31, 1998. Oechsle services institutional investors and high net worth individuals through a series of separate client accounts and commingled investment vehicles.
B. Other Parties
ABN AMRO Incorporated ("AAI"), headquartered in Chicago with offices in New York, is a registered broker-dealer pursuant to Section 15 of the Exchange Act and maintains an international equities sales trading operation in its New York location.
Andrew S. Parlin, age 39, lives in Massachusetts. During the relevant time, Parlin had primary responsibility for managing a number of client accounts including those managed pursuant to Oechsle's Select management approach. He also was one of seven managing principals and served on Oechsle's five-member executive committee.
Angelo Iannone, age 38, lives in Old Westbury, New York. During the relevant period, Iannone was head of AAI's international equities sales trading desk in New York, and had a long-standing client relationship with Oechsle and Parlin, pre-dating his employment with AAI. In addition, Iannone was responsible for hiring and supervising other sales traders on AAI's international equities sales trading desk.
C. Summary
On several occasions during 1998, Andrew Parlin, then a principal and portfolio manager at Oechsle, and Angelo Iannone, then the head of international equities sales trading at AAI, placed purchase orders in at least five securities heavily owned by Parlin's advisory clients shortly before the close of the market for the purpose of increasing the closing price of those securities, a practice known as "marking the close." At the time of the trading, the client accounts under Parlin's management maintained substantial portfolio positions in the involved securities. By intentionally paying a higher price to buy securities at the end of the day and the end of the reporting period, Parlin sought to cause, and, in some cases caused a short-term increase in the overall value of certain securities held in the accounts under his management. In certain instances the increases in closing price coincided with fiscal period ends. Oechsle had insufficient systems to implement the policies and procedures in place to detect and prevent Parlin's violations.
D. Oechsle's "Select" Portfolio Management Approach
In 1994, Oechsle first offered its clients the opportunity to participate in an investment management approach known as "Select." Client accounts managed under the Select approach were primarily invested in equity securities of non-U.S. companies. The Select accounts' assets were typically concentrated in 30 to 40 stocks with the top 10 holdings comprising 50 percent of the portfolios. The Select approach was marketed to institutional clients. As of December 31, 1998, there was $720 million in client accounts managed according to the Select approach, comprising approximately 6% of Oechsle's total assets under management. While each client account had its own performance objectives, the typical benchmark for the Select investment approach was to earn a cumulative investment return that exceeded the return of the Morgan Stanley Capital International EAFE Index. During the relevant time period, Parlin managed a number of client accounts according to the Select approach. Parlin was the lead portfolio manager for Select accounts until he was placed on administrative leave.
E. Trading in Question
Telephone conversations from AAI's telephone lines at AAI's international equities trading desk in New York contain explicit discussions - between Parlin and Iannone and between Iannone and others - about increasing the prices of foreign equity securities at or near market close. Many of these conversations and related trades occurred on or near the last trading days of Oechsle's fiscal quarters ended June 30 and September 30, 1998. The conversations identify five securities in which Parlin and Iannone discussed moving the price of the security by marking the close. Those securities include: (1) British Biotech plc, a U.K. pharmaceutical concern; (2) Volkswagen A.G., the German automaker; (3) Banca di Roma SpA, the Italian financial services firm; (4) the American Depository Receipts ("ADRs") of Pohang Iron and Steel, a Korean steel manufacturer; and (5) Renault, a French automaker. Except for Pohang ADRs, these securities traded on various foreign exchanges. As mentioned above, these securities were among the largest positions in the Select clients' accounts under Parlin's management.
Over a three-day period, Iannone and Parlin had numerous conversations regarding how to implement Parlin's instruction of September 28, 1998 to close the price of British Biotech plc higher by the end of the quarter, with 40 pence being the desired target. On September 29, 1998, Iannone asks Oechsle's head trader ". . . what the price target is of BBG." Later, Iannone is reminded by Oechsle's trader that "the main objective is the end of the month. . . ." In addition, Parlin reminded Iannone "my strategy on BBG, it's a two day, it's a two day 40 strategy." To which Iannone responded ". . . the longer we wait, the better we're gonna be." Finally, on September 30, 1998, Iannone informed Parlin "I bought a hundred early on just so someone wouldn't open it down low." Later in the morning, Iannone and Parlin discussed how many shares it would take to get BBG to 40. During the three-day period, many of these conversations included detailed discussions concerning how much capital from the Select clients' accounts and how many shares would be necessary to fulfill this strategy.
Regarding Pohang Iron and Steel, Iannone and Parlin's intent to move the price is revealed in a discussion where Parlin asked Iannone "should I nudge it a bit?" To which, Iannone answered, "At this point in time, you've got so much stock under your belt. . . . When the wind's at your back, we're going to make it . . . storm." Two days prior to attempting, albeit unsuccessfully, to move the price of Pohang, Iannone and Parlin began to discuss their plan for moving the stock at the end of the quarter. As for Renault, Parlin asked Iannone what it would take to make Renault look more constructive at the closing because he wanted to build a platform the day before the end of the quarter. Iannone responded that it would be easy because "we can move the queue so easy, we'll just have to wait till close to the close." The following day, Parlin and Iannone confirmed that they would purchase an additional 80,000 shares of Renault at the close. Thereafter, due to heavy selling of Renault stock, Parlin and Iannone made no purchases at the close. Regarding Volkswagen A.G., Parlin informed Iannone that he was a buyer of 67,000 shares and that he wanted to make the stock "scream." Iannone responded "we're going to do it on the close," Volkswagen's price did not in fact increase. As for Banca di Roma SpA, on June 30, 1998, Parlin told Iannone "it's hard to do uh, this window dressing when markets suck." Similarly, on September 30, 1998, just three minutes prior to the close of the Italian Exchange, Iannone asked Parlin where he would like to close Banca di Roma, and Parlin responded "if you could close that up five percent, I'd love it." Despite Parlin's purchases, Banca di Roma's stock price fell.
F. Oechsle's Systems Did Not Detect the Improper Trading by Parlin
While Oechsle had in effect during the violative period written policies and procedures regarding trade processing, portfolio compliance, and other issues, it failed to adequately implement its policies that prohibited manipulative trading. In particular, while Oechsle reviewed Parlin's trading activity on a daily basis, his trading methods were not effectively reviewed for compliance with this aspect of the firm's policies. It is essential that advisers implement policies reasonably designed, under the circumstances of the particular investment strategies employed by the firms, to detect and prevent violations of the federal securities laws by even their most experienced employees.
G. Oechsle's Discovery of Parlin's Conduct and Subsequent Actions
Upon receiving an inquiry from a foreign exchange, Oechsle undertook an internal investigation of Parlin's trading that resulted in Parlin being placed on administrative leave and eventually resigning from Oechsle. As a result of that investigation, and before the entry of this Order, Oechsle voluntarily paid its clients approximately $6 million to recompense clients for any possible adverse effect of Parlin's trading. In addition, Oechsle has implemented a series of reforms, including the enhancement of its segregation of functions and the requirement that all equity trades be initiated and monitored by the trading department and not by portfolio managers. Oechsle also has hired additional compliance personnel, reorganized and hired additional personnel in its trading department, upgraded its trading system, and strengthened its compliance program in this respect.
Section 203(c)(6) of the Advisers Act authorizes the Commission to institute proceedings to determine whether it is in the public interest to sanction an investment adviser if it has failed reasonably to supervise another person, subject to its control, who commits a violation. In this case, by engaging in trading, described above, intended to increase the closing prices of portfolio securities, Parlin violated Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, and aided and abetted violations of Sections 206(1) and (2) of the Advisers Act. The Commission has repeatedly emphasized that the duty to supervise is a critical component of the federal regulatory scheme. Vilis Pasts and BTS/Bond Timing, Inc., Advisers Act Rel. No. 1663, 65 SEC Docket 1106, 1114 (September 15, 1997). The Commission has recognized that the "delicate fiduciary relationship" between an investment adviser and a client imposes an obligation on an adviser to review and monitor its activities and the activities of its employees. Shearson Lehman Brothers, Inc. and Stein Roe & Farnham, Exchange Act Rel. No. 23640, 36 SEC Docket 1075 (September 24, 1996). Accordingly, an investment adviser that does not reasonably supervise its associated persons with a view towards preventing violations of federal securities laws may be subject to sanction by the Commission. See Nicholas-Applegate Capital Management, Advisers Act Rel. No. 1741, 67 SEC Docket 2312 (August 12, 1998). Although an investment adviser that has established procedures designed to detect and prevent wrongdoing by supervisees may, under Section 203(c)(6)(A) and 203(e)(6)(B), assert those procedures as a defense to a Commission action for failure to supervise, that defense is not available to Oechsle because its implementation of its procedures was inadequate.
Here, Oechsle failed to effectively implement its general policy that prohibited trading such as that engaged in by Parlin. Oechsle's periodic review of Parlin's trading methodology to ensure compliance with the firm's own procedures and to ensure adherence to the securities laws was not effective.
By reason of the foregoing, the Commission finds that Oechsle International Advisors, LLC failed reasonably to supervise Andrew Parlin with a view to preventing his violations of Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, and his aiding and abetting violations of Sections 206(1) and (2) of the Advisers Act.
Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Oechsle International Advisors, LLC
A. Be, and hereby is, censured; and
B. Pay a civil money penalty of $200,000, within ten business days of the entry of the Order, by wire transfer in accordance with instructions furnished by the Commission staff, or by U.S. Postal money order, certified check, bank cashier's check, or bank money order, made payable to the Securities and Exchange Commission and shall be hand-delivered or mailed to the Comptroller, Securities and Exchange Commission, Operations Center, 6432 General Green Way, Stop 0-3, Alexandria, VA 22312, under cover of a letter that identifies the respondent and the name and file number of this proceeding. A copy of the cover letter and of the form of payment shall be simultaneously transmitted to Gregory S. Bruch, Assistant Director, Securities and Exchange Commission, 450 Fifth St., N.W., Washington, DC 20549-0703.
By the Commission.
Jonathan G. Katz
|The Commission simultaneously filed settled proceedings against the broker-dealer, former portfolio manager, and the trader, respectively, referred to below, In the Matter of ABN AMRO Incorporated (Admin. Proc. No. 3-10552); In the Matter of Andrew Parlin (Admin. Proc. No. 3-10555); and In the Matter of Angelo Iannone (Admin. Proc. No. 3-10553).
|In determining to accept the Offer of Settlement, the Commission considered the remedial acts undertaken by Oechsle and the cooperation afforded the Commission staff.
|The findings herein are made pursuant to Oechsle's Offer of Settlement and are not binding on any other person or entity in this or any other proceeding.
|Home | Previous Page
Modified: 08/10/2001


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In some cities, 1 percent of the population accounts for as much as 30 percent of hospital costs. Dr. Jeffrey Brenner, a physician working in one of the poorest cities in the country, Camden, N.J., has attracted a lot of attention for developing programs to provide this small percentage of hospital service "super users" with better, more coordinated care to keep them out of the emergency room and decrease the overall cost to the system.
Now, other locations are starting to emulate the work of the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers in focusing on the needs of hospital super-users. Speaking at the State Healthcare IT Connect Summit in Baltimore on April 2, Mike Powell, chief innovation officer of Maryland, said the state spends a lot of money on people who are hospitalized for conditions that could have been prevented. To curb those costs, Powell said Maryland uses data gathered by the state health information exchange and GIS tools from ESRI to help health system, Medicaid and public health officials identify trends and better target their limited resources. One effort involves the creation of five Health Enterprise Zones funded with $4 million in state general funds. As part of the plan, the Anne Arundel Health System established a patient-centered medical home -- staffed by a physician and medical assistants -- in an underserved area of downtown Annapolis with high rates of emergency room utilization, hospital admissions and re-admissions, and a large volume of medical 911 calls. Under a Medicare waiver, the state of Maryland also is using a new model to reimburse providers based on the health of populations rather than the amount of services they provide. That has led to a hunger for data about patient populations and hospital re-admissions. "A few years ago we set a goal of lowering readmissions by 15 percent by 2015," Powell said, "and we are already around 11 or 12 percent of that." He added that the target would likely be reset looking ahead to 2020. Noting that Maryland just added 235,000 people to its Medicaid rolls, Powell said the state has to do a better job of keeping people healthy. "The more information you have about patients, the better able you are to measure results," Powell said. The statewide health information exchange, the Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients (CRISP), is central to that data gathering and sharing. The consortium of hospitals made Maryland the first state to have all acute-care hospitals sharing data on admissions and readmissions with one another. "We have a better picture of health than when everyone was in a silo," Powell said. "This information collected by hospitals is one of the fundamental things we need to achieve our goals." Scott Afzal, CRISP's director of statewide health information exchange, said getting hospitals accurate information about readmissions anywhere in the state is a major step. Hospitals are being penalized for readmissions no matter where they occur, and previously there was no way to know if your patients were being admitted elsewhere, he explained. Beyond inter-hospital readmission reports, CRISP is moving on to "hot spotting" super-users by specific location -- an effort that's growing out of Brenner's work in New Jersey. The state data shows that 5 percent of patients represent 70 percent of readmissions. Now Maryland is working with 24 local health departments to identify innovative approaches to treating these super-users. But Afzal admitted there are privacy and security concerns around mapping health data and who gets access to the maps. If a patient lives in what is defined as a hospital's primary service area but gets all his care across the state, is the local hospital allowed to see that data? Can data provide valuable geographic information to public health providers while protecting the privacy of individual patients? These are questions that policymakers will have to address, Afzal said. Kentucky also is targeting super-users. Speaking at the same Baltimore summit meeting, Dr. John Langefeld, chief medical officer for the Kentucky Department of Medicaid, noted that Medicaid is historically the largest payer in the state, with approximately 25 percent of the state's population eligible for the program. He said Gov. Steve Beshear asked Langefeld's organization to focus on super-utilization of emergency rooms. Research indicated that among patients who visited the emergency room 10 or more times in a 12-month period, 79 percent had behavioral health issues, and 45 percent had a substance abuse diagnosis. So obviously behavioral health providers have to be part of the solution. Langefeld said the Cabinet for Health and Family Services is using the state HIE to deliver alerts to hospitals and newly forming care coordination teams. The state also is working to improve data sharing among its many program areas. In both Maryland and Kentucky, state health information exchanges are playing a critical role in getting data to providers who are seeking more effective ways to care for patients with chronic conditions.


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Kelly Kunsch '14
"After participating in Chesapeake Semester in the fall of 2011, I wanted to get even more hands-on experience working with the Bay and its environment. The following spring, I happened to mention to Dr. Doug Levin, who I met through the Semester, that I'd like to work at the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center in Grasonville, MD. Luckily, he had professional connections with the center's associate director, and we all worked together to set up a restoration internship for me that summer. My time at the center was really enjoyable and rewarding. While learning new things, I also got to put skills that I acquired during Chesapeake Semester to use. Being able to recognize and understand the importance and complexity of environmental issues on the Bay really prepared me for work at the center, whose mission is to promote environmental education, research and restoration for the benefit of the Chesapeake Bay. We also learned to hone our people skills in the Semester, which was helpful as I dealt with the public a fair amount during my internship. I'm very thankful for these great experiences, and the valuable skills they taught me, which helped me grow as a person and will continue to benefit me in the future."
Kelly is currently working on her thesis studying the effect of re-suspension on bivalve gape behavior. She will be conducting her research at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, in Edgewater Maryland.


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Rabbi Michael Cook, Ph.D. serves as Professor of Intertestamental and Early Christian Literatures and holds the Sol and Arlene Bronstein Chair in Judaeo-Christian Studies at HUC-JIR/Cincinnati. A graduate of Haverford College, he then studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, was ordained at HUC-JIR/New York, and earned his doctorate at HUC-JIR/Cincinnati.
He is likely the only rabbi in the North America with a full professorial Chair in New Testament. Having extensive expertise in Jewish-Christian relations, he has keynoted more than 200 Institutes for Christian clergy in 40 states and Canada. He was one of seven scholars selected by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops to assess the accuracy of the advance script of Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ.
His service on advisory boards includes the Institute for Jewish-Christian Understanding (Muhlenberg College, Allentown), Institute for Christian-Jewish Studies (Baltimore [founding member]), Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies (St Leo University, St Leo, FL), Joint Commission on Interreligious Affairs (Union for Reform Judaism; Central Conference of American Rabbis; Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion); Executive Board Central Conference of American Rabbis; on-going Consultant/Reviewer to the Marc H. Tanenbaum Collection in Interreligious Affairs (Jacob Rader Marcus American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati).
Modern Jews Engage the New Testament: Enhancing Jewish Well-Being in a Christian Environment (Woodstock: Jewish Lights, 414 pp.), 3rd print 2012 / programmed bibliog., five indices, teacher guide
"Mind the Gap": Bridging One Dozen Lacunae in Jewish-Catholic Dialogue" (Ctr for Christian-Jewish Relations, Boston Coll., 2013)
Video: http://frontrow.bc.edu/program/cook/
Text: http://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/research_sites/cjl/pdf/MichaelCook_MindTheGapLectureBooklet.pdf
Handout booklet: http://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/research_sites/cjl/pdf/MichaelCook_MindTheGapHandoutBooklet.pdf
"Is Jesus' Nighttime Sanhedrin Trial an Aggrandizement of Friday Morning's 'Consultation'?" Bible & Interpretation (May 2013) http://www.bibleinterp.com/opeds/2013/coo378023.shtml
"The Last Supper & Passover: Overlooking the Obvious?" Bible & Interpretation (Apr 2013)
"'Gospel Dynamics': When the Jewish Jesus Won't Suffice," Bible & Interpretation (Aug 2012)
"The Distribution of Jewish Leaders in the Synoptic Gospels: Why Wariness Is Warranted," Soundings in the Religion of Jesus. Eds. B. Chilton, A. LeDonne, J. Neusner (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2012): vii, ix, xi, 61-79, 214-15
"How Credible Is Jewish Scholarship on Jesus?" The Jewish Jesus: Revelation, Reflection, Reclamation, ed. Z. Garber (W. Lafayette: Purdue, 2011), 249-70
"Paul's Epistle to the Philippians," Jewish Annotated New Testament (New York: Oxford, 2011): 354-61
"Jewish Perspectives on Jesus," Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Jesus, ed. D. Burkett (West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), 213-31
"Where Jewish Scholars on Jesus Go Awry: Last Supper, Sanhedrin, Blasphemy, Barabbas, The Historical Jesus: Quest, Conquest, Non-Quest, ed. Z. Garber (Shofar 28.3, Spr 2010): 70-77
"Jews and 'Gospel Dynamics': Why Advice by Ancient Sages Is No Longer Sage Advice," The Fourth R, 22 #2 (Santa Rosa: Westar, 2009), 9-14, 24
"Paul's Argument in Romans 9-11," Review & Expositor 103 #1 (2006): 91-112


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Discover more about current diamond prices
New York City, NY (May 04, 2011)– The Palmieri Group, founder and owner of GCAL (Gem Certification & Assurance Lab, Inc.), is pleased to inform the International Diamond and Gemstone Community that we have concluded the complete acquisition of all the business and assets of Gemprint®, the world's most sophisticated, non-invasive diamond identification and registration system. The cash purchase included all of Gemprints' worldwide patents, trademarks, copyrights, as well as, developmental prototypes, advanced software, databases (1978 – present) and all other remaining intellectual property relating to the identification, light performance, and diamond grading business, formerly owned by Collectors Universe, Inc.
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New York City, NY (Jan 13, 2011) – Gem Certification & Assurance Lab, Inc. (GCAL™) has opened a high-tech, state-of-the-art, Express Office in the Main Lobby of the World Diamond Tower (580 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY). This Express Office, GCAL's second location in the building, was opened to provide more transparent and accessible "while you wait" diamond, gemstone, & jewelry services to the trade and consumers... (read more)
New York City, NY (May 27, 2010) – Gem Certification & Assurance Lab, Inc. (GCAL™) will be offering free metal test analyses using a Thermo Scientific Niton x-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzer to registered buyers and exhibitors at two major trade shows held in Las Vegas from June 1-3 (CBG @ Caesar's Palace) and June 4-7 (JCK @ Sand's Convention Center)... (read more)
New York City, NY (May 24, 2010) – Gem Certification & Assurance Lab, Inc. (GCAL™) passed its
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A collection of five rings, including an Extremely Rare Natural Fancy Red diamond and a Rare Natural Fancy Intense Blue diamond, are for sale at the JCK Show in Las Vegas. Donald A. Palmieri, President of Gemological Appraisal Association, is the court appointed sales agent and auctioneer for the Estate of Treasure Trove, Inc. The collection of Limited Edition Rings designed by...
Welcome to the eighth edition of GCAL's Diamond Profile® Newsletter, covering a range of gemological topics, services, market information and new features on a timely basis.
Welcome to the Seventh edition of GCAL's Diamond Profile® Newsletter, covering a range of gemological topics, services, market information and new features on a timely basis.
New York (April 24, 2008)– After a rigid auditing period, Gem Certification and Assurance Lab
(GCAL) was awarded ISO 17025:2005 accreditation, meaning that it conforms to recognized
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GCAL's lab is rated among the most technically competent in the world.
Read more...


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Former Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, who survived four deployments in Iraq and was the deadliest sharpshooter in American history, was killed Saturday not in combat, but by a fellow veteran he was trying to help, authorities said.
Investigators say Eddie Ray Routh, a 25-year-old Iraq war veteran and Marine, shot Kyle and Chad Littlefield of Midlothian on Saturday at a Rough Creek Lodge and Resort shooting range, about 50 miles southwest of Fort Worth.
Kyle, a Texas native and decorated veteran who wrote the best-selling autobiography American Sniper, spent much of his time helping veterans, including many with post-traumatic stress disorder. Routh's mother, a schoolteacher, may have contacted Kyle to help her son, said Erath County Sheriff Tommy Bryant at a Sunday news conference.
"We have an idea that that's why they were at the range, for some kind of therapy that Mr. Kyle assists people with," Bryant said. He couldn't confirm if Routh had post-traumatic stress disorder or was on medication.
Routh was arrested Saturday night and faces two counts of capital murder. His bond was set at $3 million. He had not confessed, and his motive remained unknown, police said.
"I don't know that we'll ever know," Capt. Jason Upshaw with the Erath County Sheriff's Office said. "He's the only one that knows that."
Erath County jailers used a Taser on Routh on Sunday night after he became aggressive, Bryant said.
After dinner, Routh refused to give guards his tray. When jailers tried to get it, Routh "was trying to attack them," he said.
Routh was placed in a restraint chair in his solitary cell. He is on suicide watch. Threats have been made against Routh, Bryant said.
Kyle, 38, and Littlefield, 35, were neighbors and workout buddies, according to Travis Cox, director of the nonprofit FITCO Cares Foundation, which Kyle helped found. Both were married with children.
Kyle picked up Routh from his Lancaster home Saturday morning, neighbors said. The three men arrived at the Erath County gun range around 3:15 p.m. and were shooting in a remote part of the range, police said.
A hunting guide later found Kyle and Littlefield dead around 5 p.m. and called 911. Both men were shot more than once at close range, but police couldn't say how many times. Autopsies were pending Sunday.
Police chase
Officials say Routh left the gun range in Kyle's pickup and drove to the home of his sister and brother-in-law in Midlothian, where he told them what he had done. When he left, the two called police.
When police arrived at Routh's home in Lancaster around 8 p.m. and tried to talk to him, Routh got into the pickup and tried to flee. The pursuit ended with his arrest close to 9 p.m. near Interstate 35E and Camp Wisdom Road.
Authorities found a semi-automatic handgun at Routh's home, which they believe he used to kill Kyle and Littlefield. They don't know whether he owned the weapon.
Routh was unemployed, police said.
In September, Lancaster police responded to an incident at his home regarding verbal threats. Last month, Routh pled guilty to driving while intoxicated in Johnson County, according to court records.
Kyle had his own struggles after returning from Iraq. He found it hard to adjust to civilian life and was depressed. His journey inspired him to help other veterans by taking them on trips to shoot, hunt or relax.
"If these guys are out there sacrificing for me, I feel like it's my duty to give to them when they come home — no matter what it'll be," Kyle told The Dallas Morning News in 2012.
Kyle started Dallas-based security firm Craft International, which hosted training events at the gun range where he was killed. Kyle also helped found FITCO Cares Foundation, which provides home exercise equipment to injured veterans and those struggling with PTSD.
He appeared on the NBC reality TV show Stars Earn Stripes last year. On the show, celebrities were paired with current and former military members and competed in challenges.
Lending an ear
Kyle's friends were struggling to understand his death.
"It's like a Shakespearean tragedy," said Rorke Denver, who served in SEAL Team 3 with Kyle in 2006. "He has been in harm's way more than warriors dream of being in, to then come home, be off of active duty and continue to serve and work with people who were dealing with trauma."
"It's just tragic and ironic that someone who is a teammate, a veteran, a fellow warrior turned on him and ended a life of service."
But Denver said he understood why the men were on the shooting range, because shooting can be a way for veterans to bond. "It's a skill set that becomes very comfortable," he said. "It can be a very relaxing and cathartic thing."
Victor Vandam of Athens, who survived an IED explosion in Iraq in 2009, met Kyle at a Wounded Warrior retreat in Oklahoma. Unlike civilian volunteers, Vandam said Kyle was truly able to connect with veterans.
"You can sit in a room and talk to a psychologist who has never been in a situation like that in their life," Vandam said. "But talking to someone who has been in the same position as you, it's unheard of. That's what Chris always did."
Kyle is survived by his wife, Taya, and two children. Littlefield, who Cox described as a gentle, kind-hearted man, is also survived by his family. His wife, Leanne, is an assistant principal at Walnut Grove Middle School in Midlothian.
"It was just two great guys with Chad and Chris trying to help out a veteran in need and making time out of their day to help him. And to give him a hand. And unfortunately this thing happened," Cox said.
Staff writer Eden Stiffman, The New York Times and The Associated Press contributed to this report.


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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. efforts to persuade Afghan President Hamid Karzai to sign a long-term security agreement according to Washington's timetable will likely fail, the lead American negotiator has warned the Obama administration, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.
In a classified cable that the Post said was transmitted in recent days, U.S. Ambassador James Cunningham wrote that he did not think Karzai would agree to sign the agreement before Afghanistan's presidential election in April, the newspaper said, citing U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The United States wants the Afghanistan government to sign the agreement in matter of weeks if a contingent of U.S. troops is to remain there after 2014, the White House said on Monday.
Without a deal, the United States could pull out all troops, the "zero option," leaving Afghan forces to battle the Taliban on their own.
Karzai has called that an empty threat and suggested any security deal could wait until after the April elections.
The United States has 46,000 troops in Afghanistan, but that figure is set to fall to 34,000 by early 2014.
In a another move likely to strain U.S.-Afghan ties, a spokesman for Karzai said on Thursday that Afghanistan had enough evidence to try only 16 of 88 prisoners the United States considers a threat to security and plans to free the remaining detainees.
Washington strongly opposes their release because it says the prisoners being held in Afghanistan have been involved in the wounding or killing of U.S. and coalition troops.
Reporting by Peter Cooney; Editing by Lisa Shumaker


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LAUSANNE (Reuters) - International Cycling Federation (UCI) president Pat McQuaid enjoys the support of the International Olympic Committee despite the sport's tarnished image and the UCI's bitter row with the World Anti-Doping Agency, the IOC said.
The UCI's credibility has been dealt a severe blow since American Lance Armstrong admitted to doping last month after he was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.
The UCI took a further blow when it disbanded a three-person independent commission set up to investigate whether or not the world governing body had helped Armstrong to conceal his drug-taking.
"We have confidence in Mr (Pat) McQuaid as president of UCI," IOC President Jacques Rogge told reporters on Wednesday.
"There is an ongoing discussion with WADA and UCI. We call on both parties to reconciliate and find a solution to this crisis together."
The UCI has renewed its call for a truth and reconciliation commission but WADA has said any such work would have to be done under the original independent commission.
At a WADA media symposium in London on Tuesday, president John Fahey said if the crisis in cycling continued there would at some point be "dire consequences."
"I would hope that within the root and file members of cycling there is recognition that it can't continue this way without there being some dire consequences down the track," he said.
Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Justin Palmer


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text: Hello, I configure under ISpconfig 188.8.131.52 a second ip under server config and configure the ip under a domain. After some days waiting and stop domain and reactivate, I can see under apache is not created the 443 virtualhost. I generate manually the 443 virtualhost like other domain under other ip on the same server that is running fine. Under ports.conf I try to configure: NameVirtualHost SECONDIP:443 #Listen SECONDIP:443 --------------NOT RUNNING NameVirtualHost FIRSTIP:443 Listen FIRSTIP:443 If I try to configure ports.conf with the second ip, apache can't restart. First ssl under first ip is running fine but I can't run the second ssl under second ip. Please let me know how to solve it. Thanks. Servidores Dedicados Administrados