North America

A survey released by index provider Coalition on May 24 revealed the grim state of FX business lines.

Almost two decades after the principles of machine learning were applied to FX trading, challenges remain to be addressed for the technology to become ubiquitous.

Competition has become intense in the FX portfolio compression business in recent months, but until now the focus has been on more liquid G10 currencies.

Imagine that you run investment banking in Europe for a sizeable foreign firm whose name still enjoys a little cachet from its heyday 20 years ago when it figured high in the debt and equity arranger league tables and which sought to invest in Europe and rebuild scale after the global financial crisis.

One year after its humiliating withdrawal from European equities, Nomura’s international businesses are humming. The Japanese firm is set to expand in emerging markets and in the US, while pivoting towards a bigger presence in risk, particularly credit risk. But it still faces its age-old conundrum: outside Japan, it is too big to be a boutique, but not big enough to be a global bulge-bracket investment bank. Can Nomura find a fitting new position as the entire industry restructures?

A large part of Nomura’s recent boost in overseas earnings came from healthy fixed income revenues in the US. It has struggled to replicate this in mainstream primary debt. Instead, it pushes its strength in structured solutions.

Quantitative easing has been the defining monetary policy innovation of the 21st century. With global economic recovery now seemingly robust, the challenge facing policymakers is to reverse this stimulus. This is likely to be fraught with danger, particularly in Europe.

The rollercoaster ride for currency-hedged exchange-traded funds (ETFs) shows no sign of slowing, with the up of 2015 and subsequent down of last year followed by increased investor interest in the early months of 2017.

The non-deliverable forward (NDF) market has been among the fastest growing corners of the FX market, as investors looking for yield increasingly turn their attention to emerging market (EM) currencies. Now, with Pragma’s algo-trading clients joining the party, liquidity could be set to surge even higher.

Central bank risk, not political risk, should be bond investors’ primary focus.

The shrinking number of publicly listed stocks is a growing worry for policymakers concerned about job creation, income inequality and consolidation towards monopoly pricing among a few very large and profitable quoted companies, but the real story is growing sophistication in private financing.

Ripple has come to be the dominant name for payments in the distributed ledger (DL) space, thanks largely to the decision to consolidate its efforts.

Taking payments off retail investors’ debit cards for new share placings has quickly changed the way AIM-listed companies place new equity and could have implications for bigger deals.

The first quarter of Donald Trump’s presidency has already been a boon for banks, according to the Banking Compliance Index (BCI).

New marketplace for impact investments; industry in need of institutional clout.

Virtu’s agreed bid for KCG shows the pain from persistently low equity volatility hurting even the new breed of market makers.

Continental European banks have long looked with envy over the English Channel – more than ever since the eurozone crisis – but with UK banks facing Brexit and a more advanced economic cycle, and as a degree of inflationary confidence returns to the eurozone, could the tables be turning?

Many voters now equate environmental protection with job losses, but investing in sustainability can boost employment.

At first quantitative easing offered palliative care to the global economy – now the patient is finally reviving.

Two technology firms say they have pushed the boundaries of trading latency a step closer to the limit with a solution that cuts tick-to-trade latency from 250 nanoseconds to just 120.

As treasurers in the US are left guessing about the outcome of potential policy changes, keeping hold of their cash looks to be their preferred option.

Goldman Sachs badly underperformed other US banks in first-quarter fixed income results, setting off a frenzy of speculation about trading positions that could have led to the disappointment.

The news that former president Barack Obama has agreed to speak at a Cantor Fitzgerald healthcare conference for a fee of $400,000 raises two important questions.

The central bank found a way to enforce the rule just before lawmakers attempt to dismantle it.

Know your customer (KYC) registries and utilities were created to comply with rising regulatory requirements. However, as a trusted source of counterparty information, they are finding additional uses across business lines.

CLS has responded to calls to expand the scope of its forthcoming netting service, CLSNet, to include less liquid EM currencies. From next year, currency traders will be able to net off trades in more than 140 currencies, regardless of whether they settle on CLS, in a move that is set to enhance liquidity across the FX market.

Lloyd Blankfein’s swingeing cost cuts at Goldman Sachs really hit bankers where it hurts in March: their phones. No longer will their employer simply pick up the tab for their smartphone usage – Goldman bankers now face the indignity of having to itemise their monthly bills and (good grief!) claim their money back.

To keep the spirit of impact investing, it is worth opening up the terminology to be more inclusive of a myriad of strategies.

There just aren’t enough bankers in the US government, said no one ever… oh, except the American Bankers Association.

The European leveraged loan market is in overdrive, offering unprecedented terms to borrowers and pushing leverage to uncomfortable levels. Cash-rich non-banks are breaking out of the mid market and into syndication. But stoking competition for assets exposes their Achilles’ heel: the yields they have promised their own investors.