North America

President Joe Biden’s next round of regulatory nominations might make this year’s surge of regional bank M&A short lived.

Adewale Ogunleye was rich and already retired from American Football when he learned what a basis point was. He’s now head of a new UBS wealth segment called Athletes & Entertainers that helps sports icons and singers plan their financial future.

Neobanks are targeting less wealthy people in both developed and developing markets – a constituency that has traditionally been neglected by incumbent banks because of legacy costs. But it’s an increasingly political issue and where does this leave people who still need access to cash and branches?

Appetite for emerging market risk is much lower in the wake of Covid-19 than it was after the global financial crisis. This is the result of a mix of technical and fundamental factors, but it is primarily driven by the spectre of the emerging markets’ Achilles heel: inflation.

Kevin Sneader’s next move has been widely discussed since it became clear he would serve only one term as global managing partner at McKinsey. Now that he has turned up at Goldman, it seems a logical move.

The US bank has launched the next generation of its global virtual account management solution to clients in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands.

The latest strategic move by Citizens aims to help it meet its goal of servicing bigger clients with more products.

While big banks and institutional investors spent years trying to bend blockchain for use in traditional finance, they missed out on the boom in crypto prices and the income from decentralized finance. Now, alarmed by stretched valuations and zero yields in conventional markets, they just want in. The race is on to build a sturdy infrastructure to support the stream of old money into new digital assets that could become a flood.

As fintechs approach 10% of the banking and payments universe, the pioneer venture investor and founder of Capital One says banks must learn to partner with them or begin to lose ground.

Barclays wants to be compared with the big five US investment banks. So let’s do that.

The big six US banks are releasing the loan loss reserves they built up in the pandemic. Where might this end? The answer could be surprising.

There’s a clear role model for US-Japan tie-ups in New York investment banking. Can the new partnership between Jefferies and SMBC follow it?

Beijing made clear this week that it is determined to stop its firms from selling shares in New York. A simultaneous crackdown on ride-hailing firm Didi also offers a timely reminder to global investors that China is no longer committed to market reforms but to ideology and sovereignty in the Xi Jinping era.

New platforms that underwrite and process invoices due from large creditworthy payers may encourage bank and institutional financing for small and medium-sized enterprises.

That distant sound is the warning bell as bond investors’ desperate search for yield leads them down ever-risker paths.

Banks received a mostly clean bill of health from the Federal Reserve’s latest stress tests. After a catastrophe like Covid, does that mean the sector is now safe?

What worries the wealthy most? It is a question that provides answers the rest of us would be wise to heed.

We are at the peak of the hype cycle for central bank digital currencies, now being touted as one of the most fundamental innovations in the history of central banking. It is time for central banks and governments to be honest with unenthused populations. CBDC can’t deliver all the many promised improvements. As we come to design choices, there will be trade-offs. We might get improved payments but less credit. We could see greater financial inclusion but will lose privacy. Are the few benefits really worth the risk of disrupting the financial system?

Buying robo-adviser Nutmeg is a bold and telling first step for the US bank’s new digital banking venture in the UK.

With the acquisition of 80 east coast branches and a slug of online deposits, Citizens has added even more firepower to its national expansion ambitions.

The US Federal Reserve has been clear that its policy of quantitative easing will only change when the data on unemployment and inflation changes. Meanwhile pressure from this policy is building in the banking sector, as well as the treasury and repo markets. As bank chief executives prepare to make their case to the Senate banking committee, is it time for Fed chair Jerome Powell to think again?

The asset cap imposed on Wells Fargo in 2018 has forced the bank to operate as efficiently as it can. Jon Weiss, CEO of corporate and investment banking, tells Euromoney that risk management remains his priority.

Most speakers at Isda’s annual meeting avoided mentioning the Archegos Capital Management blow-up. IOSCO head Ashley Alder didn’t get the memo.

The ongoing market and economic impact of Covid-19 is likely to trigger a more active approach from corporates to their cash strategies.

The implosion of Bill Hwang’s Archegos Capital Management focused attention on family offices, a fast-growing, lightly regulated and ill-defined investor group. Greater oversight is surely inevitable, as is the evolution of the sector away from small, standalone entities into truly global multi-family wealth managers.

The implosion of Archegos has ripped away the veneer of conservatism and safety that the family office has long enjoyed. It has also emphasized the lack of clarity about what the industry is and its lack of oversight.

2020 was a breakout year for China’s financial and capital markets. The next 12 months could be just as busy, as regulators rush to approve a host of licences lodged by global financial institutions.

US hedge funds have cleared the way for more activist-style investing in European financial institutions. Now some home-grown activist funds are targeting banks too. They will need to adapt their tactics, but underperforming bank chief executives have another reason to be worried.

European football is hardly a model of sustainability at the best of times, but JPMorgan is to be commended for its noble attempt to make it even worse.

Banks are refining their sustainable cash-management offerings, seeking to align their corporate sustainability strategies to financing and treasury actions.