Western Europe

Losing your chief executive in messy circumstances is never a good look, but Barclays does at least have momentum in its investment bank as it looks for a fresh start in 2022.

Beyond the headline-grabbing talks on buying Banca Monte dei Paschi, the new chief executive has radically reshaped the bank as he seeks to better harness its potential.

Greater regulatory clarity, and perhaps a sale of Bank of the West, leave the French bank with the happy dilemma of what to do with excess capital.

Ralph Hamers is quietly imposing his vision on UBS, axing senior titles to simplify the structure and eyeing a new US digital bank for affluent customers.

Credit Suisse’s hopes for 2021 were dashed by March, thanks to Greensill’s collapse and Archegos’s implosion. It really needs 2022 to go well.

StanChart had more to lose than most from the disruption of Covid – and more to gain as the markets where it operates recover.

Being France’s biggest retail bank might not sound as appealing as it once was. But Crédit Agricole’s management is focused on the growing number of additional products it is plugging into the network.

After years when the UK and the US banks were Santander’s problem children, those markets are now leading its recovery.

Chief executive Andrea Orcel’s new plan for UniCredit has little of the asset-selling drama of his predecessor. Whether it works better than the old strategy may be longer in the telling.

At the end of each year, Euromoney takes a close look at the performance of 25 key institutions that we cover. Speaking to senior executives at these firms, we assess what went right and what didn’t, together with what might lie ahead. This year, we have also examined the views of those at the top on two important factors for 2022: their own and others’ asset quality, and the disruptive threat of China. Their observations are discussed in the two features below, followed by our reports for 2021 on the Euromoney 25.

Rising inflation expectations matter to the banking industry. Santander CEO José Antonio Álvarez explains, however, that negative real rates will probably persist for the next five or 10 years because of Covid.

A new index aggregates corporate profitability, asset values and debt service capacity, and shows worrying signs of stress even amid low default rates.

Emerging Europe has been slow to join the fight against climate change. Now the region’s biggest banking group is making its voice heard.

Chief executive of commercial banking Doug Petno says advanced payments technology rather than lending is the key to winning mid-market clients.

A second large AT1 deal this year shows increased investor confidence around the bank’s transformation, but timing the deal was tricky.

Alexander Wynaendts has worked in insurance for a quarter of a century, but is not a stranger to investment banking.

Businesses in the UK struggling under Covid-related debts are sitting on assets worth £1 trillion.

Citi has announced a raft of EMEA region hires across Citi Global Wealth, launched in January. It’s a sign the new division is coming together.

Rabobank CEO Wiebe Draijer says that private finance must have a role in financing the transition to a more sustainable, equitable and healthy way of feeding the planet.

António Horta-Osório shifts more capital away from investment banking and into wealth management, while the executive team sells his risk management overhaul as a growth story.

Questions over chief executive’s personal judgement finally end his successful stewardship of the UK lender.

Under new leadership and with new technology, the Dutch merchant bank pivots from shipping loans to digital lending to SMEs across Europe.

The world’s oldest bank lives to see another day, but the taxpayer – and the local workforce – will pay a heavy price

Spac sponsors in Europe are now offering a modest yield to investors for their cash and making part of their own promote performance-related. This has led to the completion of a couple of new listings in the region.

Trading in sterling, listed on Amsterdam, searching for value not growth, offering higher rewards to investors, Europe’s first special purpose acquisition company in months is a ground-breaker.

With local elections fuelling the political sensitivity of UniCredit’s mooted MPS deal, it will be even harder for CEO Andrea Orcel to secure both national support and investor returns.

With in-house asset managers in vogue, UniCredit chief executive Andrea Orcel might try to revisit the bank’s sale of Pioneer to Amundi.

Sustainable agriculture holds the key to reducing emissions and transforming the global food system, says Rabo Carbon Bank’s chief executive.

Speakers at the IIF’s annual meetings play down worries over inflation, even as they recognise the short-term disruptions of the pandemic.

Green bonds are still a tiny percentage of total market outstandings, so maybe borrowers making net-zero pledges should tie all their liabilities to them.