Western Europe

When Stephen Williams joined HSBC more than 20 years ago, the bank was a backmarker in Asian debt markets. When he retires next month, he leaves it top of the heap.

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 margin requirements rising sharply, banks must do a much better job managing surpluses and shortages of collateral across all their businesses.

Scandinavia’s biggest bank is at last outperforming European banks in the way that smaller Nordic lenders did in the 2010s. The jury is out on whether or not this can continue when its more nationally focused Nordic peers regain momentum.

HSBC’s new global wallet offering is the latest in a line of services enabling businesses to make and receive international payments from a single account.

Barclays has long wanted to rebuild the European ECM franchise it got rid of in 1997 with the sale of BZW, but has often struggled to do so. With a foundation of corporate broking in the UK and hiring in continental Europe, it’s finally making some progress.

Since Jes Staley took charge of Barclays at the end of 2015, he has faced constant questions over his ability to reposition the firm as a credible force in investment banking. Sticking to his guns in the face of activist shareholder pressure, he now looks vindicated, but growing from here presents a new challenge.

Corporate insolvencies are poised to rise sharply once pandemic-related state support is removed. In the UK, companies must familiarize themselves with new insolvency regulations as the deadline for the removal of protections looms.

BBVA is relying more on its Latin America business. And the countries in that region are relying more and more on the global bank in turn. BBVA’s global head of country monitoring, Jorge Sáenz-Azcúnaga, explains how he expects this symbiosis to evolve.

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

Basel’s latest effort to improve market resilience is expected to accelerate the development of clearing solutions – but it won’t leave everyone better off.

Other funds have shown how shareholder activism can work in financial stocks, especially in Europe.

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.

With Greensill and Archegos, António Horta-Osório has more on his plate than a medieval King. But Credit Suisse’s new chair could do something that would placate doubters and please investors: pivot firmly to Asia.

Most open-banking solutions introduced to date have been focused on retail users, but the pandemic is driving demand from corporates for new application initiatives.

The bank’s new CEO signals openness to M&A, while flagging investment fees as a key profit driver this year.

Regulators have set high conduct standards for banks in assisting particularly smaller corporate customers with the impact of the transition away from Libor.

Utility and energy companies have tapped strong demand for hybrid bonds to protect their ratings.

While doubling of profit at the investment bank stood out, it was not the bank’s only strong performer.

Fnality applies for a DLT-based sterling payment system pointing the way to faster and more resilient decentralized financial market infrastructure.

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.

A sign of too much risk and exposure in a frothy market or just two banks that didn’t have their risk management in order? Prime brokerage has become a profitable mainstay for several banks but, as Archegos shows us, it punishes the distracted

Raising capital may have been painful, but it is the sensible thing to do. There were bigger surprises when the bank announced first-quarter results.

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.

The US investment bank sidesteps an avoidable reputational own goal as a planned football European Super League collapses.

The European Commission unveils details of its €800 billion NextGenerationEU funding programme, following the playbook of sovereign debt managers.

In just a few days, Deliveroo’s IPO went from having a book that was oversubscribed at the top of the price range to pricing at the bottom and then collapsing in the aftermarket. What went wrong and does it mean anything for other London listing candidates?

The maverick activist is blazing a trail by targeting a big southern European bank – and is warning against the risks of a deal between UniCredit and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena.