If bankers haven’t already figured it out, their business will be dramatically different in the not-too-distant future. In fact, in a few years time they might not be able to recognize it at all.  One glimpse of the global banking system of the future comes from Adair Turner, chairman of the United Kingdom’s Financial Services Authority (FSA), whose long-awaited and highly-touted “Turner Review” of the U.K. financial industry has just been released.   While the review is intended largely for consumption in Britain, the reality is that regulatory proposals there will be listened to seriously in other European capitals and Washington, D.C.  

A new product introduction by one company – even one as large as SAP – won’t by itself dramatically affect the outcome of sustainability initiatives on a global scale.  But there’s a lot of truth in the old bromide, “What gets measured, matters.”  And while it’s clear that a lot of SAP’s language is intended to help market a product, the notion that the world’s largest business software company would use sustainability as a sales driver signals a remarkable change in tone within just the last few years.  Social and environmental factors are no longer external risks; now they’re a part of the business. 

Popular – and political - outrage over executive compensation is quickly having an impact on corporate governance: hundreds of financial firms set to receive government bailout funds under the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) learned last week that they will be required to offer shareholder votes on executive compensation this year – leaving management and corporate counsel at many companies scrambling to formulate proposals within the next few months of the Spring proxy season.