Emerging Europe

Fifteen per cent of workers opt in to private system; turnover on WSE seen increasing.

With four months to go before international banks need to start reporting intraday liquidity risk, concerns are escalating that the lack of clear and emphatic guidance on the matter will lead to disparate application of the requirements and the deadline being missed.

CPI inflation fell into negative territory in July, and the market expects the Polish monetary authority to cut rates, but currency concerns, relatively buoyant growth and supply-side drivers of disinflation argue for caution.

Global trade flows are set to increase to $33 trillion by 2020 according to the World Trade Organization, driven in part by the growing south-south trade corridors.

Bulgaria’s ambition to join the euro is slipping further out of reach as the bank run on its fourth-largest lender Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB) brings allegations of corruption and political instability to the fore and further diminishes the country’s standing in Brussels, say analysts.

Corporate treasurers are looking for the simple life, and having more efficient systems in place can bring its own financial rewards – but despite some advances, there is still a long way to go.

The escalating conflict in Ukraine and sanctions placed on Russia by the EU and the US are pushing private Russian money into Asian wealth centres and encouraging the country’s corporates to seek new sources of funding in the region.

The failure of Portuguese lender Banco Espírito Santo (BES) points to lingering fault lines in the financial regulatory framework and knock-on effects for banks outside the EU.

Russian and foreign companies with substantial exposure to Russia are intensifying their efforts to move their money out of the country amid growing fears there could be a liquidity squeeze, as the European Union and US escalate sanctions.

The outrageous swings in fortune of Renaissance Capital over the past 20 years are the stuff of Hollywood legend. But what’s the next instalment for the Moscow-based investment bank? Out of Africa? Or just back to being The Russia House?

In his first major interview, Intesa Sanpaolo’s head of international subsidiary banks talks to Euromoney about the Italian group’s new strategy for its CEE network, why further country exits are out of the question and how he plans to return the division to profitability.

Collaboration between transaction banks and Swift is helping to spread the burden and rocketing cost of compliance, but for some banks' trade finance businesses, client relationships have already been hit hard by the expense.

Key energy suppliers are increasingly politically unstable and Europe faces a rise in prices, even though demand is falling.

Forced conversion planned for autumn; bill could top €4 billion, say analysts.

The Fidesz government has the mandate to convert Hungary’s entire stock of FX retail loans. But that might not be the end of the battle for bankers.

From Estonia to Belarus, many sovereigns have been caught up in a crisis their credit ratings fail to reflect.

The Russian rouble is facing strong headwinds as the political fall-out over the fatal MH17 plane crash and fresh economic sanctions bite, with analysts predicting a tough year ahead for the Bric currency.

Funding levels ‘too good to ignore’; return of Russian supply no threat, say bankers.

Statement of intent rather than a need for funds; DMO defends choice of leads.

Turkey’s economy is growing fast and the country has a large number of infrastructure projects in the pipeline. But with its corporates also on the hunt for more funding, the country’s banks cannot meet all the demand themselves.

RBS has had to cease using BankTrade software after the US federal court upheld the bank was breaching copyright.

Bosnia-Herzegovina is the world’s riskiest sovereign, according to a new model developed to calculate default probabilities, ahead of other high-risk countries such as Belarus, Ukraine and Rwanda.

Chief financial officers, treasurers and finance professionals of more than 200 companies across industries consider cash management and forecasting to be their top priority over the next couple of years, according to new research.

The Ukrainian crisis has come at a bad time for Belarus’s state-driven economy, already in urgent need of external financing to fend off a balance-of-payments crisis.

Over-reliant on foreign investment to balance its books, Turkey is facing an investor retreat in the face of political instability. The long-term solution is a big expansion of domestic investment of untapped savings, but the instability is slowing this too.

Joint investment fund undertakes new deals; Kazakhstan’s nationalized bank sell-offs set to go.

The Washington-led sanctions on Russia, as well as officials and associates in the Putin circle, are toothless, Oleksandr Shlapak, Ukraine’s post-revolution finance minister, tells Euromoney.

When Euromoney penetrated the economy and finance ministries in Kiev in late May, as well as the central bank, it found an atmosphere of unease and uncertainty. A supposed dream-team, which in reality is a collection of talented and driven novices, has a battle on its hands to keep Ukraine’s economy afloat. Can Kubiv, Schlapak and Sheremeta make the transition from protest to pro-growth?

While many analysts reckon a more coherent monetary stance, foreign-investor longs and a modest pace of Fed tapering will continue to buttress the currency, some fear domestic and global shocks will persist.

Hopes that Russian issuers can fund all their needs in Asia’s markets are likely to be misplaced. But it will become a more important market for them, sanctions or not.