Western Europe

Three years ago, Raiffeisen Bank International was on the casualty list – today it is again one of the best-performing banks in Europe. New chief executive Johann Strobl discusses restructuring, regulation and getting back to ‘real banking’.

Euromoney looks at the approach taken by regulators to encouraging fintech innovation in North America, after the announcement of a formal information exchange arrangement between the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

February’s bout of extreme volatility in financial markets is likely to herald the end of the easy credit era. But that could be just the beginning of the fall-out.

Collect everything and store it for ever, or only collect some data and destroy it as soon as possible? That is the question facing bank compliance officers struggling with Mifid II and GDPR.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) director in charge of stamping out market abuse sees her work as a dialogue with the industry.

The XIV note blow-up highlights risks lurking in the opaque market in structured notes, but also obscures potential benefits for a wider group of investors and issuers if the market could be opened up.

Efforts to improve the speed of payments being made to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has not seen success, so technology might be used to fill the gap.

MarketFactory chairman James Sinclair sets out the reasons why FX liquidity could fragment further, in a new white paper.

Carve out of NPL servicing; minority owner sought for Eurizon.

In the month since the deadline of the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2), there has been little obvious change in how banks are allowing companies and consumers access to their customer accounts. This does not mean all banks have been standing still.

The findings of JPMorgan’s 2018 e-trading survey underlined yet again the importance of effective execution policies and systems.

Industry experts on whistleblowing have been lobbying hard for reform, but it is still often the case that whistleblowers with the best of intentions have found themselves in legal grey areas, ending up blacklisted, bankrupt and unable to work in the City again.

As correspondent banking becomes fraught with issues, but remains a central aspect of business, the industry is seeing an overhaul of its guidelines to ensure high standards of due diligence while still allowing business to flow.

Italy’s banking crisis might move Mediobanca ever further away from its past as the country’s corporate gatekeeper. But its merchant banking legacy still gives it valuable links and a clubby prestige cherished by clients and shareholders.

After a lot of provisioning and restructuring, CEE banks have returns on equity that others can only dream about.

Volatility in Q3 led to losses for Europe’s multinationals, report shows.

Cap on French banks’ corporate exposures could be transferred across Europe; household leverage outpacing corporate.

If everyone else is keen on consolidation, why aren’t shareholders?

Tax changes are likely to boost their performance far beyond US domestic markets.

Investors can support their local lenders by preparing to sell them.

The collapse of Carillion has raised perennial questions about PPP.

The forex market may have had a quiet 2017 with no big market dislocations, but liquidity is not as deep as it once was, while the buy side is becoming more discerning, driving changes in trading behaviour.

Deutsche’s CEO is telling the world just how much the bank still needs to do to improve, but struggles to make investors see the cost of fixing things as investing for the future.

A bad year as the bank continued to rejig its client base, but management predicts GTB revenues will improve from the second quarter.

Banca Carige pulled off a recapitalization last December that even chief executive Paolo Fiorentino thought difficult. It raised more than four times its market cap, just ahead of an ECB deadline. Euromoney asks how he did it and how the bank can reward its investors.

Equities is a business where only the top handful of banks traditionally make money. It is also a sector with shrinking volumes and revenues. So why are two banks outside the top tier – Citi and HSBC – trying to boost their franchises?

Concerns over rising protectionism reducing the trade in goods might be offset by the growing trend for trade in services.

While regulators across Europe eye up – and in some cases replicate – the FCA’s regulatory sandbox, an EU-wide fintech testing platform remains far from inevitable.

The luxury-asset investment platform is to raise funds by selling tokens that mirror participation certificates under Swiss law, with full KYC and AML checks on buyers.

The latest cryptocurrency price crash is shining the spotlight on the regulation of these borderless, digital currencies, but the rules differ wildly from country to country; global super-regulator IOSCO is set to make an announcement.