Brazil’s banks stand firm against fintech’s rise.

What practical steps do banks have to take when a client falls foul of a sanction list?

Vaca muerta is an enormous oil and gas field, but it may be too late to exploit it.

Where do the borders of ESG lie – now and in the future? Investors from the US to China are revisiting these questions and finding thorny and often unpalatable answers, even as they dump Russian assets for ethical reasons. The results are set to shape the financial world’s relationship with sustainability for years to come.

In just a few years, the New Eurasian Land Bridge, which conveys rail freight between China and Europe, became a key part of Beijing’s fading Belt and Road Initiative. Thanks to sanctions levied against state operator Russian Railways, that vital trade link threatens to be disrupted – and possibly severed.

Decades of work have been put into building Russia’s financial system. Putin’s war is destroying it overnight.

Russians could try to use cryptocurrencies to dodge sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine, but a move into the mainstream by crypto exchange heads hungry for fiat currency wealth will complicate evasion tactics.

Energy price volatility driven by war in Ukraine could deliver a windfall to banks such as Goldman Sachs that retain scale in commodity trading. Profits from dealing can also be made without triggering ESG or sanctions-related pain.

The spectre of 2003’s global research settlement is looming over the world of equity block trades.

Until recently, poor nations joined the Belt and Road Initiative to secure access to funds flowing to the vast infrastructure project. Then the funds started to dry up. Does this presage a full-scale financial pull-back from the world by China?

Toshiba has unveiled a new restructuring format, but its roster of activist shareholders would much prefer the business be taken private.

For four years, a criminal case brought by an Australian regulator against Citi, Deutsche Bank, ANZ and six bankers who were facing jail has looked ill-judged, acting retrospectively against common market practice in a share placement. Now it has collapsed and lessons need to be learned

SoftBank’s likely choice of the US to list Arm might say something about UK equity investor culture, but using it as evidence that London reform efforts are failing is a step too far.

Share buybacks are suddenly commonplace in European banking, as supervisors are more wary about touching dividends – and because banks lack better use for their new capital surpluses.

The chance to acquire Citi’s Mexican business could attract some unexpected bidders.

Wage inflation leads to substantial cost increases at major Wall Street banks.

The trend continues for ever more dramatic accusations in US legal filings.

Policymakers around the world are rushing to protect retail investors from buying products that are less sustainable than they believe them to be. Why?

Big numbers don’t always tell a story, but January saw one pop up in three different places. How they connect is intriguing.

Brought in to help clean up Credit Suisse, the high-profile Portuguese banker has been forced to quit to preserve what is left of its reputation.

The decision to sell Citibanamex ends the ‘Mexican exception’.

It took all of six days of the new year before the tone was set: XP Inc’s announcement of its acquisition of Banco Modal. The deal will need regulatory approval, but is being warmly endorsed by the target’s management and its minority shareholder, Credit Suisse.

Bond markets must quickly adapt to a likely much earlier and faster reduction of central bank balance sheets.

What does the future hold for Hong Kong, and by default for its overseers in Beijing? Euromoney’s China editor, stuck in lockdown in a Hong Kong hotel, considers the options.

In the face of fierce regulatory pressure in Washington and Beijing, it is hard to see many, or any, Chinese firms going public in New York next year.

Asset managers are following the well-trodden route of bankers in shifting from finance to politics.

The momentum behind the loss-making bank’s IPO had become unstoppable by year-end, even as the range was eventually cut. It now faces intense scrutiny as a public firm.

The controversy around voluntary carbon markets has deterred banks from getting involved. They need to worry less about reputational risk and more about the planet.

Euromoney’s Mystic Maca has looked into the future and it’s all about getting things back to the way they were.

The fiscal deterioration of Latin America’s former totem has more than just the pandemic behind it.