This year seems different!

Now it may just be me and where I find myself, but as I catch up with many people I know, the end of 2011 feels different to previous years. There are a number of signs that I will cover and see if I can draw a thread joining them at the end.

#1 This is about the attitude to working over the Christmas period and the run up to it. In previous years it has felt as if business closed after the first week of December, though many people stuck around to party, network, etc. Personally this year that fade of activity has only happened in this last week before Christmas, BUT there seem to be more professional firms who are just closing for one or two weeks, sending contractors home (on no pay!) and not even attempting to maintain a pretence of business as usual. This seems to be a mixture of two things a drive to get as much done as canbe done at the end - my guess is appraisals and the hope of bonus' is driving a lot of his, but in the same vein recognising when progress is impossible ie the period directly over Christmas and working to save any avoidable expense at all in order to put the best shine on the finances. Materially the savings are probably minuscule, but psychologically and politically they have weight.

#2 Conversation over the holidays drinks and dinners seems more earnest. I hear deep conversations about the impact of the Euro collapsing or at least a few currencies falling out. While no one knows for sure there seems to be a view that it is a matter of when rather than if. As a result debates about the notation of contracts, absence of money stocks, etc seem to have a higher seat at the table than similar topics had in previous years.

#3 I hear repeated stories about budget cuts, about "no brainier" projects failing to get approval, about it being well into Q1 2012 before change portfolio are finalised(?) - even later than usual and about big projects under review and/or perceived to be in trouble.

#4 To balance this there seems to be endless regulatory change, now topped off with the drive to separate retail and investment banking in the UK. Calls for specialists in risk, KYC (know your customer) and the data that underpins all this seem to come I regularly.

#5 I know of at least three change teams in leading banks and institutions that are trying to build a new and improved change delivery capability. They are existing contractors (perceived as expensive and transitory) and replacing them with permanent employees. The view seems tone that there are good people in the employment pool. I know a few contractors who ave had their heads turned and come back from the "dark side".

I am sure there is more I could pull out and I do recognise that I am talking about change in financial services, but ate time when there aye should be more gloom, many are rubbing their hands together and looking forward to 2012. While there may be an inordinated focus on regulatory matters and much that is expected is still unknown, there is a optimism that there will be change and opportunities. This mood is strangely more positive than previous years.

Of course the change people will need to be agile and maybe a little patient, but there are more smiles than frowns, and plenty of networking underway.

I will look back at the end of Q1 and consider how it all pans out. Meantime I will be interested to hear how anyone else finds the closing weeks of 2011?