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*Financial Services

Emerging Trends in the New Millennium

Ed by: K. Seethapathi

Publishers: Vision Books, New Delhi

Price: Rs 495.

Financial Services, Emerging Trends in the New Millennium is interestingly titled and leads to expectations of something new in financial services. Big ticket leasing, venture capital and securitisation are new and emerging areas of finance. But credit c ards, NBFCs, insurance and housing finance are passe. And these also get a mention in the book.

Thus, newer areas of growth in finance are being covered in the book as also new developments in existing, well established areas of finance from the previous millennium. The reader should be clear about this. The title can be misleading.

A much clearer title would have certainly helped. It would also lend focus to the book. The current title appears to be a cleverly worded banner to justify the collection of articles in the book. More about this later.

The book has been brought out by Vision Books -- ICFAI. It is largely a collection of articles written in various financial magazines,newspapers and journals such as Businessworld, Charter Financial Analyst, Business Standard, Economic Times and Financia l Express. The topics covered are big ticket leasing, NBFCs, venture capital, securitisation, housing finance, credit cards, e-commerce bill, cutting edge trends in Internet era and a survey of the financial centres in the world.

The target audience of the book again is not clear. The preface states it is targeted at working executives and students of professional courses. The chapters on big ticket leasing, venture capital, securitisation make for interesting reading. There are some interesting examples and some concepts are explained. Many finance professionals not working in these areas of finance may find these interesting. These chapters are the best chapters in the book.

The other chapters on credit cards, e-commerce bill, financial centres appear directed at students. The chapter on cutting edge trends in the Internet era could have interest for both groups. This is another chapter that makes for informative reading.

In big ticket leasing and securitisation, some interesting

concepts are mentioned as also some of the deals that have taken place in these sectors. The need and use of special purpose vehicles for securitisation makes for interesting reading. The chapters on the housing finance sector cover budget proposals, cra sh in property prices, overview of the sector and some major players. The new rules for NBFCs in India and the strategy for this industry is discussed in the section on NBFCs.

The changing nature of the credit card market is discussed. There is a summary on financial centres of the world which could have been considerably condensed and small chapters on e-commerce bill and other topics.

The book appears in its current avatar as a coffee table book with a little bit of serious statistics and theory appearing in some chapters and a very student-like description in other topics. It is difficult to imagine a professional patiently going thr ough the whole book to get some bits of knowledge. It fails the needs of a finance professional who would expect a more rigorous treatment of the subject in topics related to emerging areas of finance and bullet point discussions of recent developments i n the areas of credit cards, NBFCs etc...

It could perhaps be a single source of input for students, but there again students today are well read, have access to the very journals from which the articles are sourced. Most importantly students have access to Internet. An Internet search could giv e them considerably more information on big ticket leasing or NBFCs than what the book offers. A good student would bone up on theory through textbooks and complete his study with a study of various articles on the topic sourced through the Internet.

Missing in the book are debit cards, futures and options and the larger issue of derivatives trading that is poised for entry.

One would expect a book published in 2001 to edit an article that mentions that Satyam Infoway is seeking listing on NASDAQ. The book also refers to the Shanghai Stock Exchange reverentially -- the exchange has gone online. The NSE in India has been onli ne for about a decade now. It is things like this which largely disappoint in the book.

One wishes that the book were not a collection of articles written in different contexts by different authors. The editor could well argue that he has brought in cohesiveness through `papers organised' in a sequential and logical manner to give a holisti c view with additional inputs to make for excellent reading. However, the end result is not commensurate with this claim. At times the series of articles that constitute a topic is tolerable, but in some chapters there is overlap and irrelevance in the c ontext of this book and the flow of the matter in this book.

The publishers should definitely consider commissioning an article on each of the topics by an authority on the subject. By definition this strategy would bring about logical and well structured articles. Since the concept of the book is good, this appro ach could lead to excellent reading. Also, the focus should be professionals, with students benefiting from the early part of the articles and their research on the more rigorous treatment of the subject.

The book is priced on the higher side commensurate to its catchy title, but it has a long way to go before it can truly deliver a value for money proposition. At best it is worth reading by a student; the professional would have to dig for information of interest to him.

Saurabh Sharma