At the end of 2008 the FTSE 100 index plummeted, did a "dead cat bounce", and eventually hit its low round about March time. Now it has climbed back to the heights that it bounced to in November and January. Could this be a sign of a market recovery? We still have another 6 weeks to go until St Leger Day.
This must sound like a very simplistic approach to investment strategy, but financial institutions are renowned for having approaches to investment that are very short-term - particularly where these investments have to be paid for out of their own budgets and not directly by their clients.

A critical element of decision-making in financial institutions has historically been, "Does this impact my bonus for this year?" If it does, the issue gets addressed this year, and if it doesn't affect this year's bonus the issue gets reviewed next year.
With so many structural changes going on in the market over the last twelve months, there has been a hope that financial institutions will start to take a slightly longer-term view of how they need to change to meet the new business challenges. At the same time, with governments now owning banks as well as regulators, will the pressure be there to push financial institutions to make changes?

With only five months left for financial institutions to know whether there will be a Bonus Day for 2009, there is still a lot to achieve, both for the financial institutions and for the vendor community.