Monthly Email Newsletter
October 2005
IN THIS ISSUE:
I. Message from the Editor
II. Articles:
*** FEATURED INDUSTRY: Finance
1. Financial Privacy
2. Collateralized Debt Obligations
3. Useful Links
*** FEATURED LANGUAGE: Japanese
4. Japan Quick-Glance
5. Useful Links
III.
GLS in the News
IV.
New Legal Industry Tip Sheet Available
V. In Our Next Issue
VI. Your Feedback
VII. How to Subscribe
I. MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR
The use of technology to streamline communications and reach a larger audience
is obvious in every day situations. From instant messaging programs to online
banking statements, it has never been easier to access information immediately
or connect with a colleague or customer. In fact, we use this monthly
electronic newsletter to share information about industries and cultures, as
well as our latest happenings - and an occasional 'pat on the back' or
promotion. But, with this free flow of information comes certain risks.
This month, the
Global Communicator explores the finance industry;
specifically, your privacy rights as a consumer and your possible obligations
as a financial services provider. We also focus in on a growing 'risky' trend
in the financial sector, collateralized debt obligations.
Our featured language in this issue is Japanese, which, although it is the
sixth-most spoken language in the world, is scarcely spoken outside of Japan.
The Japanese economy is one of the strongest in the world.
Since this newsletter is meant to create a virtual community where we share the
latest news and advice, we invite you to submit your suggestions, story ideas,
statistics, and website tips to
mailto:newsletter@globallanguages.com.
-- Inna Kassatkina, Editor
mailto:editor@globallanguages.com
II. ARTICLES
*** FEATURED INDUSTRY: FINANCE
1. FINANCIAL PRIVACY
PROTECTING YOUR FINANCIAL PRIVACY:
In recent years, advances in technology have made it possible for detailed
information about people to be compiled and shared more freely than before.
This free flow of information has made it more possible for law enforcement to
track down criminals, for banks to prevent fraud, and for the general public to
learn about new products or make better-informed purchasing decisions. At the
same time, as personal information becomes more accessible, each of us needs to
take certain precautions to protect against its misuse.
Information kept in the files of financial institutions is some of the most
sensitive personal information. Surprisingly, until recently, there were few
restrictions on a financial institution's ability to share or even rent/sell
it. Title V of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB) gives some minimal rights to
protect financial privacy. But the burden is on the individual.
GLB requires that your financial institution give you notice of three things:
1) Privacy Policy: Your financial institution must
tell you the kinds of information it collects about you and how it uses that
information.
2) Right to Opt-Out: Your financial institution
must explain your ability to prevent the sale of your customer data to third
parties.
3) Safeguards: Financial institutions are required to
develop policies to prevent fraudulent access to confidential financial
information. These policies must be disclosed to you.
To find out more about your rights and obligations as a consumer, visit:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/glbshort.htm.
SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS: But what if you're a small business owner? Are
you required to provide your customers with a privacy notice? Any company that
deals in "financial services or products" is a "financial institution" and must
provide its customers with an annual privacy notice. This broad definition
means that small companies that prepare taxes, provide real estate settlement
services, or collect debts for other companies may be required to send an
annual privacy notice. It is the kind, not size, of your business that
determines whether you are required to send a privacy notice.
The Federal Trade Commission provides online guidance for small business owners
on this topic at:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/glblong.htm.
2. COLLATERALIZED DEBT OBLIGATIONS
In previous years, an investor was 'stuck' with the risk of the investment it
had just made. Today the investor can sell part of that risk to another
investor. That can be done with a credit derivative called a collateralized
debt obligation, or CDO.
According to MSN Money Columnist Jim Jubak, the buyer of a CDO is buying
insurance against a debtor defaulting on its obligations. The seller of the CDO
is hoping that the debtor will not default and that the seller will be able to
pocket the price of the CDO. Specifically, CDOs bundle together bonds, loans,
or credit default swaps into pools of assets. A synthetic CDO pumps up the risk
and return potential by using other derivatives as its underlying assets.
The purpose of credit derivatives is to enable banks to transfer to a broader
market the risk of defaults on corporate debt they've issued. No bonds or loans
actually change hands. Instead, a credit derivatives dealer, usually another
bank or a Wall Street firm, agrees to take on the risk of a default in exchange
for a price, rather like an insurance policy.
What the credit derivatives market actually buys and sells is risk. But how
much risk is too much?
Offers Jubak, "The greatest danger is a very human one: complacency. Since the
derivatives market lets investors control risk, they stop worrying about taking
on more risk. And that, as we all know from experience, creates an accident
just waiting to happen."
Adds BusinessWeek: "Anxiety is high: Big losses in credit derivatives could set
off a chain reaction. Banks, insurers, and bond and pension funds, as well as
hedge funds, are inextricably linked as issuers, buyers, and traders. An
apparently minor problem, such as a flurry of downgrades, could quickly engulf
the financial system by sending markets into a tailspin, wiping out hedge
funds, and dragging down banks that lent them money."
For more information about credit derivatives and CDOs, refer to our Useful
Links section.
3. USEFUL LINKS
PRIVACY RIGHTS:
To find out more about financial privacy rights, visit the following government
and non-government sources:
http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/glbact/index.html
http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/questions/customer/index.html
http://www.sec.gov/consumer/compform.htm
http://www.privacyrights.org
FINANCIAL NEWS SITES:
http://www.bloomberg.com
http://www.wsj.com
http://www.moneycentral.msn.com
CDO RESOURCES:
http://www.deloitte.com
http://www.cdolink.com/
http://www.isda.org/
http://www.erisk.com
*** FEATURED LANGUAGE: JAPANESE
4. JAPAN QUICK-GLANCE
Japan is an island nation in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of East Asia. The
countries nearest Japan are Russia, China and the Republic of Korea. Japan is
comprised of more than 6,800 islands, with four of them making up more than 99
percent of the country. These are (from north to south)
Hokkaido,
Honshu,
Shikoku, and
Kyushu. The land area of Japan is approximately the same size as
the U.S. state of Montana and slightly smaller than California. Japan is 68
percent mountainous, and includes many volcanoes, the most famous being Mt.
Fuji.
As of October 2003, Japan's population was counted at 127.6 million, the ninth
highest in the world. The population has more than doubled since the first
national census in 1920, when it was about 56 million. It is a nearly
homogenous nation, with more than 99 percent of the population using the same
language. Japan has two main religions: Shinto and Buddhism.
LANGUAGE AND DIALECTS:
1) LANGUAGE
The Japanese language is the sixth most spoken language in the world. However,
the language is spoken in scarcely any region outside Japan. Almost all
linguists believe that Japanese is syntactically close to such Altaic languages
as Turkish and Mongolian, and its syntactic similarity to Korean is widely
acknowledged; however, a fair number of Japanese linguists believe that
Japanese is an Austronesian language. In general, the language is often said to
be unknown in origin.
2) DIALECTS
There are dozens of dialects spoken in Japan. The plurality is due to the
mountainous island terrain and Japan's long history of both external and
internal isolation. Dialects typically differ in terms of pitch accent,
morphology of the verb and adjectives, particle usage, vocabulary and in some
cases pronunciation. Some even differ in vowel and consonant inventories,
although this is uncommon.
From the northern island of Hokkaido to the southern islands of Okinawa, Japan
is rich in various regional dialects. There are disputes among linguists on
classification of Japanese dialects, however most linguists agree that they can
be divided into the eastern and western dialects.
While this is not an all-inclusive list, some of the eastern dialects include
Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, while those of the western part of Chubu (including
Nagoya City), Kansai (including Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe Cities), Chugoku,
Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa are included in the western grouping.
3) HONORIFIC LANGUAGE
The Japanese have developed an entire system of honorific language, called
keigo,
that is used to show a speaker's respect for the person being spoken to. This
involves different levels of speech, and the proficient user of keigo has a
wide range of words and expressions from which to choose, in order to produce
just the desired degree of politeness. A simple sentence could be expressed in
more than 20 different ways depending on the status of the speaker relative to
the person being addressed.
Deciding on an appropriate level of polite speech can be quite challenging,
since relative status is determined by a complex combination of factors, such
as social status, rank, age, and gender, even favors done or owed. There is a
neutral or middle-ground level of language that is used when two people meet
for the first time, are not aware of each other's group affiliation, and whose
social standing appears to be similar (that is, no obvious differences in dress
or manner). In general, women tend to speak a more polite style of language
than men, and to use it in a broader range of circumstances.
ECONOMY:
The Japanese economy is one of the strongest in the world. Manufacturing,
construction, distribution, real estate, services, and communications are
Japan's major industries today. Agriculture makes up only about two percent of
the GNP. The most important agricultural product is rice. Resources of raw
materials are very limited and the mining industry rather small.
Japan's main export goods are cars, electronic devices and computers. Its most
important single trade partner is the United States, which imports more than
one quarter of all Japanese exports. Other major export countries are Taiwan,
Hong Kong, South Korea, China, and Singapore.
Japan has a large surplus in its export/import balance. The main import goods
are raw materials such as oil, foodstuffs, and wood. Major suppliers are the
United States, China, Indonesia, South Korea, and Australia.
References:
http://www.japanese-language.org
http://www.japanese-online.com
http://www.embjapan.dk/Spotlight2/japanese%20language.htm
http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/economy/japan/index.html
5. USEFUL LINKS
Local newspapers and country- or language-specific search engines can be
great sources of information about political, economic, and social issues that
are important to Japanese people. Business articles will also help you to
identify new business contacts, refine your marketing methods, and assess
whether economy is strong enough and the timing is right to launch your new
business expansion abroad.
NEWSPAPERS AND ONLINE NEWS RESOURCES:
http://www.japan-guide.com
http://dir.yahoo.co.jp/News/Newspapers/
http://www.weeklypost.com/051104jp/index.html
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/
http://www.newsonjapan.com/
SEARCH ENGINES:
http://www.excite.co.jp/
http://www.infoseek.co.jp/
http://www.goo.ne.jp/
http://www.yahoo.co.jp/
III. GLS IN THE NEWS
Global Language Solutions (GLS) has been providing linguistic solutions in over
100 languages to pharmaceutical, biomedical and healthcare related companies
for more than a decade. It will lend its expertise to several leading
publications in this space over the coming months.
Access GLS' current article in the First Clinical Newsletter at:
http://www.firstclinical.com/resources/journal/0510/Translation.pdf
Coming in November and December, articles and tip sheets from GLS executives
will appear in the ACRP Monitor and the Good Clinical Practices Journal (GCPj).
IV. NEW LEGAL INDUSTRY TIP SHEET AVAILABLE
Request our latest tip sheet, "Navigating the Linguistic Jungle in the Legal
Setting: Tips for using interpreters for Limited English Proficiency clients or
witnesses," by sending an e-mail to
mailto:tipsheets@globallanguages.com
with "Request legal tip sheet" in the subject line.
V. IN OUR NEXT ISSUE
***** FEATURED TOPIC: Online Gaming
***** FEATURED LANGUAGE: German
V. YOUR FEEDBACK
Have questions? Or a story idea or topic you would like us to address
in a future issue? Let us know by sending a message to
newsletter@globallanguages.com.
VI. HOW TO SUBSCRIBE
