North America

It's a sad indictment of the state of the banking industry that a half billion dollar settlement looks like a good outcome. HSBC's share price went up on news of its agreement with the FHFA. But neither it nor the rest of the industry should take too much comfort.

As retail money accounts for an ever-larger percentage of leveraged finance, investors must not lose sight of what this asset class is all about.

The players and payers attracting the top digital talent are not the financial powerhouses, but the technology firms.

The M&A business is the most compulsive spectacle of how booming financial markets have collided with the real economy.

Those in need of credit are turning to emerging online platforms rather than their traditional banks. It’s faster, easier and more transparent. And emerging market business is leading the way.

The world’s biggest banks have been slow to embrace the digital era. What can financial services CEOs learn from new, tech-based companies that have successfully disrupted other industries? What needs to change?

The demise in 2012 of Derwent Absolute Return, the only hedge fund purely using a Twitter feed to inform its investment decisions, may have come as little surprise to many in the market.

Big data, analytics and technology have the potential to transform the global investment banking industry into a leaner, meaner and better-equipped money making machine. Some investment banks have recognised the opportunity. Few, if any, have worked out how to make it happen.

Vincent Kilcoyne, UK & Ireland capital markets industry lead at SAS, one of the largest business analytics software providers, smells an opportunity. “This challenge is probably one of the biggest they have ever had.”

Banks need to keep up to date with the changing technological landscape, but with time and financial constraints, enlisting an external vendor might not be the best option.

With four months to go before international banks need to start reporting intraday liquidity risk, concerns are escalating that the lack of clear and emphatic guidance on the matter will lead to disparate application of the requirements and the deadline being missed.

Regulators find resolution plans ‘non-credible’; threat of break up hangs in the air.

The US leveraged loan market is braced for the results of the 2014 Shared National Credits (SNC) survey, the annual review of bank syndicated lending by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Despite the volatility in its price and its still-limited practical use, an increase in the number of merchants accepting Bitcoin in recent months has ignited optimism among digital-currency proponents.

The CureCoin Forum has teamed up with Stanford University to launch a new ethical cryptocurrency that aims to find cures for common, life-threatening illnesses, such as cancer and Alzheimer’s, by bringing together science and the craze for cryptocurrencies.

Global trade flows are set to increase to $33 trillion by 2020 according to the World Trade Organization, driven in part by the growing south-south trade corridors.

While the ECB is preparing the market for softer monetary conditions, the Federal Reserve is gradually tapering its quantitative-easing programme and the market expects rate hikes to commence from Q3 2015. However, falling US real rates will complicate Draghi’s bid to weaken the euro.

Emerging market (EM) currencies are behaving more like G10 currencies, at least in terms of the way they respond to changes in US rates, according to research by Nomura.

SuperDerivatives has gone live with a new trading platform to trade exotic foreign-exchange options electronically, and plans to expand the number of tradable asset classes from metals and FX to include oil, equity derivatives, credit and interest rates.

The head of global transaction services at Bank of America Merrill Lynch is to take on a senior global equities role for the firm in a rare example of a transaction banker breaking into the senior ranks of an investment banks' markets business.

A hedge fund manager came to see me recently and we talked about the state of the market. As US equity indices hover near all-time highs, cynicism prevails.

The buy side is turning to private placements, not only for yield, but also for protection when the cycle turns.

Boutiques come in many shapes and sizes. Ondra, more a capital markets adviser than an M&A shop, has adopted an unusual business model where it is a retained adviser, practically becoming part of the management team when events arise. It keeps a select client list, and a growing number of fans see an awful lot of value in what the firm has to offer.

Collaboration between transaction banks and Swift is helping to spread the burden and rocketing cost of compliance, but for some banks' trade finance businesses, client relationships have already been hit hard by the expense.

Ken Moelis didn’t set up his new firm in 2007 because he anticipated the crisis, he had just grown disgusted by what Wall Street had become. His new firm, an international and multidisciplinary provider of advice, thrived. This year, he took it public, driven by a troubling vision for the future of the banking industry and a desire to lure in the next cohort of talented bankers.

Like an alcoholic that believes another drink can do no harm, the Federal Reserve has not learnt the lessons of the global financial crisis. Once more it seems determined to mop up only after the next bubble bursts.

Pre-tax profits from Deutsche Bank’s global transaction banking business fell 29% in the second quarter compared with a year earlier, as the business – a core part of its growth strategy – was hit by a 'litigation-related charge'.

Smaller independent advisory firms are winning more business from corporate clients and draining talent from the global investment banks.

There is a vogue among senior investment bankers to look for a switch to a job with one of the private equity firms that are morphing into shadow finance players with an appetite for assets of all kinds.

The partial withdrawal by Barclays from investment banking is starting to look disorderly – more retreat from Moscow than Dunkirk-style retrenchment.