North America

In frozen far northern Alberta, Euromoney meets perhaps the world’s least likely sovereign wealth fund, investing compensation settlement money for Canada’s Little Red River Cree Nation. It is rigorous, disciplined and sophisticated, and reminds us that sustainable finance has been around for centuries.

Credit intelligence specialist OakNorth is working with a consortium of US banks to assess physical and transition climate risk in loan portfolios. The motivation for the banks is clear: self-preservation in the face of growing climate-related disruption.

Credit Suisse is making heavy work of meeting its obligations under a 2017 RMBS settlement with the US Department of Justice. If it wants to make real progress, it will have to bite the bullet soon.

Treasurers need to reassess their approach to interest-rate hedging as monetary policy on either side of the Atlantic continues to diverge.

Aggregate investment banking and markets revenues fell 12% at the big five US investment banks in the first quarter of 2022. Their chief executives were confident that dealflow will return, but were also united in their uncertainty over how central bank responses to inflation will play out in markets.

While Amundi’s new ECM desk seeks the best investor roles from lead banks, Bernstein Research sees the chance for a new kind of ECM business.

Global capital markets deal volumes have fallen not just from their pandemic highs but also from the start of 2019. Undaunted, bankers remain upbeat about prospects. While aggregate activity is down, the detailed picture is certainly more nuanced.

When a group of leading banks were unable to source the roubles needed to deliver in settlement of FX swaps, compression trades saved the day. The episode serves to highlight how fragile very large, complex and interconnected financial markets have become.

Sovereign wealth funds, other investors and banks will soon have to use cryptocurrencies to buy equity in companies building the decentralized web.

Explore Euromoney’s infographic on activity by special purpose acquisition companies over the last two years.

Higher yields and better protections compared with public bonds draw buyers to private placements even as investors cut duration and credit spreads widen.

The last big Wall Street broker-dealer has had a spectacular run in the last 20 years. It now wants to build ‘the best world-class global investment bank’.

Jane Fraser can front Citi’s investor day with good news about consumer divestments in Asia. It is hard to see a Russia sale now, though.

Wyoming is wild, rugged and libertarian. It is now also America’s leading crypto state, home to thriving digital asset banks like Avanti, run by Wall Street veteran Caitlin Long. Can these young firms now get much-prized master accounts with the Federal Reserve?

Energy price volatility driven by war in Ukraine could deliver a windfall to banks such as Goldman Sachs that retain scale in commodity trading. Profits from dealing can also be made without triggering ESG or sanctions-related pain.

The spectre of 2003’s global research settlement is looming over the world of equity block trades.

The ‘Subject matter expert for fine art lending’ has the kind of job everyone wants: appraising art and helping the wealthy borrow against a private collection. But he tells Euromoney that it involves a great deal of time observing, listening and figuring out what the client wants.

The rates sell-off is making it more expensive for high-yield and high-grade borrowers to access the bond markets. Maturities on offer are shortening, and it could be about to get much worse.

After a generation of low inflation, rising consumer and business costs have leapt to the top of the list of factors influencing FX pricing.

Citi’s global head of private banking Ida Liu sits down with Euromoney to discuss her journey to the top of the industry, the value of wellbeing and the importance of eliminating friction from client engagement.

Facebook never recovered from the regulatory hostility that first greeted Libra. It is now selling what is left of Diem while building the very metaverses that might make its stablecoin useful.

A stellar period for the independent investment bank, including its largest-ever acquisition, has set the scene for a strong future, according to CEO Scott Beiser. Its relentless focus on the mid-cap arena and its naturally hedged balance of businesses have created a firm that has quietly become one of the biggest advisory names in the world.

Falls in bond and equity prices that followed the Fed’s hawkish pivot may just be the start, with the key test still to come in new issue markets.

Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley are muscling in on the booming market for private share trading – and potentially disrupting existing technology platforms.

The former CFTC chair who first authorized bitcoin futures sees regulatory complexities ahead for crypto, blockchain and DeFi companies.

Analysts are keeping a close eye on regional as well as US monetary policy as they attempt to plot a course for the currencies of the countries that form the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Big numbers don’t always tell a story, but January saw one pop up in three different places. How they connect is intriguing.

Having closed its onshore private wealth businesses in Brazil and Mexico, the US firm had a standout year in its Latin American private bank in 2021.

Equity capital markets and advisory revenues were the standout numbers at Jefferies in 2021, and the firm says its pipeline remains strong.

The decision to sell Citibanamex ends the ‘Mexican exception’.