Emerging Europe

Euromoney's latest coverage of macroeconomic, FX, fixed income and equity market trends in the oil-producing economy.

The pace of change at Imperial FX during the past 10 months highlights the scale of the task of transitioning from high-street remittance to an online platform.

The Single Euro Payments Area (Sepa) aims to make cash transfers between European countries fast, cheap and simple – but the migration process has proved slow, expensive and complex.

For the banking industry, 2017 was a time of trying finally to resolve issues of the past and avoid new mistakes, yet dig beneath the surface and it was also 12 months of intrigue and, sometimes, farce. Here are Euromoney’s alternative awards for 2017.

What’s holding up a key appointment for the Ukrainian economy and banking system?

Primary issuance back to 2013 levels; private-sector names prove popular with investors

A pair of multibillion-dollar bank bailouts in under a month has roiled Russia’s banking sector and raised questions about the regulator’s competence – Dmitry Tulin, the central bank’s new head of banking supervision, insists such criticism is misguided.

Anyone trying to keep track of attitudes to cryptocurrencies among Russian policymakers could be forgiven for feeling a trifle dizzy going into December.

First foreign investor for troubled sector since 2007; Bancpost acquisition boosts lender to top of domestic market.

Euromoney's recent coverage of macroeconomic, FX, fixed income and equity market trends in Brazil, Russia, India and China.

It is almost a year since the forced nationalization of Ukraine’s biggest bank, whose collapse could have wreaked havoc with the country’s economy. It has cost the country $6 billion and sparked a wave of recriminations and lawsuits. As policymakers try to turn PrivatBank into a viable lender, here’s the inside story of a high-stakes national psychodrama.

Back in June, holders of Eurobonds bailed in during the state takeover of Ukraine’s PrivatBank last year hired a clutch of upmarket American PRs to make the case to western journalists that the nationalization was illegitimate.

Sanctions and regulatory scrutiny stymie sales; western subsidiaries surge back to profit.

Cautious Halyk Bank has been largely immune from the upheavals that have shaken the Kazakh banking sector; will buying troubled market leader KKB bring an end to the group’s bull run or create a new regional player?

Komercijalna Banka was in urgent need of modernization ahead of a planned privatization – enter Alexander Picker, an Austrian who has made a career of bringing socialist-era lenders into the 21st century.

The repolonization of the country’s banking sector may have hit its limit, but are foreign banks still interested?

One large bank bailout may be seen as a misfortune; two certainly raise some questions.

Between 1997 and 2004, Peter Nicholl was governor of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina; he succeeded in establishing economic stability in a country ravaged by war, but how did a New Zealand central banker get the job in the first place?

Big banks have the scale to fund new digital platforms but also face the high cost of maintaining legacy IT.

Sovereign targets credit uplift for euro admission; Lazard advises on SOE restructuring.

There is some debate as to how many countries are part of the Belt and Road Initiative, which sprawls across the Middle East as far as eastern Europe and Egypt. ICBC Standard Bank’s Belt and Road indices track 65 countries (including China).

Euromoney is in the Socar Tower in Baku, Azerbaijan, about a mile from the Caspian Sea. Here, two members of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) holding company’s executive team are describing a complex gas pipeline project reaching from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz gas field in the Caspian, through Azerbaijan and Georgia, the length of Turkey and ultimately across Greece, Albania, the Adriatic Sea and into Italy.

The former Soviet states of central Asia and the Caucasus are ideally placed to benefit from the Belt and Road Initiative, but realizing their full potential will require reform as well as infrastructure development.

Deposit run sparks Russia’s largest-ever bank rescue; central bank criticized for allowing debt-fuelled expansion spree.

A ratings uplift and a better profile for Croatia’s SOE debt could be brought closer with a helping hand from the World Bank

Reversing the country’s reputation will take a long time. At least a start has been made.

In a yield-hungry world, what could be more appetizing to investors than a nation with stability offering 7% on its Eurobonds?

Roman Lokhov has transformed BCS from a Russian retail broker to a full-service investment bank through a combination of technology, transparency and opportunism. Now he is looking to bring a new generation of Russian companies to the global markets.

Euromoney's latest coverage of emerging markets, including FX, fixed income and equity market trends.

Spreads at multi-year lows as demand remains buoyant; Investors reverse underweight positions.