Escalating geopolitical risk continued to dominate global markets' concerns, with safe-haven demand keeping the dollar index anchored near a multi-week high.
This is not new news, of course, but many in the industry seem to be finally waking up to the hard truth that data-driven media buying, as we know it today, is severely under threat and has to change. Cookies power everything we do, from humble frequency capping through to complex multi-touch attribution models, ad personalisation and audience segmentation. They underpin most of the gains we've made in performance advertising, as well as brand advertising, over the past decade.
For Missouri-based community bank OMB Bank, finding the right fintech partner used to be a slow, manual process. Executive Vice President and Chief of Staff Jessica Sims recalls working from static PDFs of the bank's preferences, followed by endless back-and-forth emails whenever a fintech expressed interest. The process worked, but painfully slowly, and promising opportunities often slipped through the cracks.
In April 2024, the value of all the dollar bills in circulation reached an all-time high of $2.345tn, and may well be even more than that by now. The total value of dollars in the world has doubled every decade since the 1970s. Similarly, there are 1.552tn euro notes in circulation, while most other currencies the British pound, the Japanese yen, the Swiss franc and so on are all at something like their highest levels in history.
As audit committees confront a rapidly expanding risk landscape, their role in corporate governance is being reshaped. Boards have often turned to current and former CFOs as independent directors, particularly for audit committees, because of their ability to translate complex operational and financial realities into effective oversight.For example, this month, J. Michael Hansen, former EVP and CFO of Cintas Corporation, was appointed to the audit committee at Paychex.
Interoperability is something the title industry needs now more than ever. Our clients consistently tell us that being able to work with the banks, the underwriters and the technology providers they trust most often on a file-by-file basis is critical to their success, he said. That usually means something different from business to business, market to market and order to order. One firm may need one combination of technologies and underwriters for their needs, while the next may want a completely different blend.
Bessent told host Maria Bartiromo that the recent volatility and developments in crypto markets really show the need for legal certainty. "What we're seeing in the crypto market over the past few months means more than ever that the U.S. needs market structure, we need clarity, and we need to get this across the line this spring," he said. Bessent acknowledged resistance from some quarters but said he remains optimistic that Congress can bring the bill back for a markup session.
