Meet Professor Paul Griffiths

Fifteen years ago, banks and energy companies topped the business charts. Since the financial crisis of 2007-08, big tech companies have topped the charts, including Facebook and Google, businesses that thrive on data.

Consider this: fifty years ago, 83 per cent of assets in S&P 500 companies were tangible, and 17 per cent were intangible. By 2015, the relationship had completely switched: only 17 per cent of assets in the S&P 500 were tangible and 83 per cent were tangible, and the majority of these were intellectual capital.

What is driving this? New technologies: the spread of social media, the development of big data and its potential for driving data analytics and feeding machine learning and artificial intelligence networks. This is having a huge impact on governance at banks, and Retail Banking Institute's top level programme begins with comprehensive insight into governance at retail banks. The Governance module is taught by Professor Paul Griffiths, a specialist in the management of intangible assets including intellectual property, artificial intelligence and fintech. Many banks now rely on big tech players for front end and cloud services.

Professor Griffiths is a leading author in the field of bank governance, and is author of Corporate Governance in the Knowledge Economy: Lessons from case studies in the finance sector, published in 2021 by Palgrave Macmillan. Paul is Professor of Finance and ex-Academic Director of the M2/ MSc Banking, Finance & Fintech at EM Normandie, and teaches Governance for Retail Banking Institute. He holds a DBA in Business Administration from Henley Management College / Brunel University obtained in 2005. His thesis focused on the alignment of strategy and IT in banks. Prior to his university career, Paul spent twenty years in senior management in global management consulting firms, particularly in the financial services industry. He specialises in the management of intangible assets such as intellectual capital, artificial intelligence and Fintech.

Retail Banking Institute's top level Certified International Retail Banker programme covers governance in depth, and includes the study of:

• The impact on corporate governance of the advent of the knowledge economy
• The hidden cost of weak governance
• Culture as a factor
• The risks of corruption that arise in international banking
• Banks as drivers towards a green economy
• Scenarios of corporate governance in the future
• Case studies include Danske Bank, HSBC, Wells Fargo