Western Europe

Clydesdale CEO downplays IT risks from further mergers and targets RBS SME scheme for 2019.

Participants and analysts have dismissed any concerns about the key findings of the BIS market committee’s electronic markets report relating to the concentration of FX turnover and spot trading fragmentation.

BNPP's role on a government sale of Safran shares has made its paltry year in French ECM look a bit better, but the ultra-tight deal also reflects the pressure of low volumes

Jon Macaskill profiles the two new co-heads of investment banking at UBS.

Corporate and household borrowing in France continues to outpace eurozone peers, as measures are introduced to tackle the increase.

The transition to capitalism has brought prosperity to much of emerging Europe but left large sections of society struggling to catch up – now Austria’s Erste Group is going back to its roots to bring prosperity to the region through social banking.

Triodos Bank is probably the most sustainable bank in the world. Behind every decision it makes – the loans and investments it underwrites, the people it hires, the suppliers it uses, the way it reports and the way it serves its stakeholders – lies sustainability. It also makes a profit. Is it a model for the broader industry?

Any important new market needs its innovators, cheerleaders and pioneers… As banks try to build more responsible and sustainable businesses, these are the champions of impact banking at 10 of the world’s biggest firms. From green and blue finance to financial inclusion and social banking, they are leading the way and setting an agenda for others to follow.

European bank chief executives speak obsessively to Euromoney about new and rebooted digital banking arms – read on for a guide to Dominic O’Neill’s in-depth examination of the strategy and rationale behind these projects, and their chances of success.

From the United Nations and the European Commission to customers and shareholders, the world’s banks face increasing pressure not only to consider their broader role in society but also to take actions that have a positive impact on it. There is no doubt that most chief executives take this challenge seriously. Whether they take it far enough remains to seen.

Partnership could replace broken Barclays links; follows rumours of sale of Société Générale South Africa custody unit to Absa.

FX data providers are surprisingly coy when it comes to discussing the extent to which they have shaken up a market that has been described as ripe for disruption.

Without a robust mechanism for handling chargebacks, merchants will continue to face sizeable losses from both misguided and malicious fraudulent claims.

Commerzbank's online-only bank is a hefty beast, but growing faster than ever

Looking like a social media platform is doing CaixaBank's mobile-only bank no harm at all

ING's online bank is getting ready for a future as an e-commerce portal

Société Générale's online bank is the biggest in France - and one of the most aggressive.

One year on from a reboot, Openbank has doubled customers and is making a profit

BNPP is building a formidable online network across the region

Bank chief executives in Europe are increasingly obsessed with their new or rebooted digital arms. These businesses promise to fend off new competitors and capture a next generation of clients, while piloting front- and back-office innovations. They could even offer the best chance of expanding in the eurozone, making banking union a reality. But will these investments merely play into the hands of the new rivals and hasten the banks’ decline?

Euromoney talks to ECB Single Supervisory Mechanism board member Ignazio Angeloni about the challenges the SSM faces, and how eurozone integration, and in some cases bank mergers, could help improve European banks’ competitiveness.

Part one: Iceland’s banking crisis still fascinates and appals in equal measure. The first steps towards resolution were led by a group of unheralded officials and advisers for whom the events of late 2008 and 2009 were like sending out half a football team to play a competitive match. Ten years after it happened, this is their story.

Regulatory pressures are beginning to force firms to innovate as tech developments make it ever easier for companies to keep digital records of various transactions – and providers are taking advantage.

European vanilla convertible bonds just cannot shake the blue funk they are in, even as other regions power ahead. Non-dilutive and synthetic structures have kept bankers busy, but they don’t suit everyone

August, typically a slow month for capital markets, was a fruitful one for alternative reference rates (ARRs) to Libor.

With appreciation of the merits of dynamic discounting continuing to grow, attention has turned to the extent to which banks are committed to supporting this growth and how to maximize the value of the data generated.

Industry experts observe that while the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) represents an opportunity for corporate treasury to take advantage of real-time payment processing, it will take some time for the full benefits to be realised.

A crisis is forcing a spike in small bank mergers in Italy. It is a more tentative trend in Germany, although these banks’ common desire for independence might make such crises inevitable.

Tackling a pain point in European convertible bonds has allowed a group of former UBS bankers to build an interesting business

A fintech headed by veterans of algorithmic trading in equities aims to transform unregulated gold trading as a pure agency broker.