all page content
all page content
Main body page content
LATEST ARTICLES
-
UK pension schemes have made clear their opposition to reduced investors protections, while the FCA may come to regret pushing through its new listing regime.
-
Citi saw impressive growth over 2023 with revenue growth of 16% year on year.
-
OCBC wins the award as Singapore's best digital bank this year for enhancing its digital banking service through a series of initiatives designed to deepen engagement and improve the user experience across its platforms.
-
Hana Bank accounted for 13% of system loans and 15% of system deposits in South Korea by the end of 2023. The bank enjoys a strong domestic franchise, particularly in corporate banking, which has driven a sustained improvement in profitability despite the challenging economic backdrop.
-
Bank Syariah Indonesia (BSI) – established in 2021 following the merger of Bank BRI Syariah, Bank Syariah Mandiri and Bank BNI Syariah – is a leader in Indonesia’s shariah banking system. It had reached 19 million customers by May 2023, and is Indonesia's sixth-largest bank.
-
For its range of initiatives and substantial investment in supporting social and environmental issues in the special administrative region, Bank of China (Hong Kong) wins the award this year.
-
Citi secures the award for Korea’s best investment bank in recognition of its comprehensive range of activity across M&A advisory, debt capital markets and equity capital markets.
-
In 2023, Citi saw operating revenues reach around ¥139 billion ($860 million) and total assets climb to ¥6,097 billion.
-
Citi saw impressive growth across its corporate banking services in Hong Kong in 2023. It saw year-on-year growth in its loan portfolio and funded several significant environmental, social and governance (ESG) financing transactions.
-
Cathay United Bank improved its digital customer service last year and employed artificial intelligence and big data tools to better understand its customers’ credit metrics. This resulted in record digital growth for the bank, with digital user penetration up by nearly 50% over 2022.
-
RCBC launched its new RCBC Pulz digital banking app in 2023 and continued to support for digital inclusion.
-
RCBC expanded its digital offering for small and medium-sized enterprises and saw impressive growth in the segment in 2023. The SME loans portfolio grew by 16.6% to P125.3 billion ($2.15 billion) over the year.
-
Newly onboarded corporate customers at HSBC grew by 21% last year. It introduced Smartserve, which reduces the number of days required to open an account, and Omni Collect, which simplifies the way businesses collect payments.
-
In 2023, HSBC saw its market share of foreign investment into Malaysia reach 30% of total assets under management, making it the leading custodian and clearing bank for foreign institutional investors investing in country’s capital markets. HSBCnet Get Rate, which provides its Malaysian customers with automatic preferential FX rates, was upgraded to allow 24/7 FX booking for companies with EU and US headquarters.
-
HSBC grew profit before tax by 188% in 2023 to SLR38.2 billion ($126 million).
-
HSBC had a good year in India in 2023, with profits up by 19% to $1.51 billion, from $1.27 billion the previous year.
-
HSBC achieved robust growth in 2023 with net profit growing 26% to total $566 million, with growth coming from its commercial, wealth and personal banking businesses.
-
Throughout 2023, HSBC expanded its presence in the mainland Chinese market, strengthening its operations and advancing strategic initiatives across many sectors.
-
HSBC introduced initiatives to tackle parental leave, diversity in its hiring process and to improve support for its transgender employees in Hong Kong last year.
-
In 2023, HSBC further solidified its position as Hong Kong’s best bank under the leadership of Luanne Lim, HSBC Hong Kong’s chief executive. HSBC Group’s market profit before tax soared to $10.7 billion, representing 80% year-on-year growth and contributing 35.3% to the group’s overall pre-tax profit.
-
HSBC helped Singaporean companies like Next Gen Foods and Multiplier Technologies expand overseas in 2023. It also scaled up its support for local businesses expansion in the region by introducing a $1 billion ASEAN (Association of southeast Asian Nations) growth fund for digital platform businesses and a $150 million venture debt offering aimed at scaling high growth companies.
-
OCBC had a busy 2023, launching new FX features, application programming interface (API) integration and improvements to its online platform.
-
OCBC NISP proved an invaluable partner to its small and medium-sized enterprise clients in Indonesia throughout 2023 with the launch of its Nyala Bisnis 2.0 platform and initiatives to empower women-owned SMEs.
-
Few banks have navigated turbulent times so well, posting record revenues on the back of strong net inflows and rising markets.
-
Focusing on its core strengths has helped Deutsche Bank serve corporate clients amid intense geopolitical, technological and environmental challenges.
-
For the volume of sustainable finance being provided to the Turkish economy, as well as innovation in sustainability products, Akbank wins the award as best bank for environmental, social and governance this year.
-
Yet again, DBS stands head and shoulders above the field in Asian wealth management.
-
After depositors fled the wreckage of the US regional banks in 2023 and customers started jumping overboard from a sinking Credit Suisse, even more banks could have been dragged into a systemic crisis. But UBS, rebuilt after the global financial crisis as a strong, sustainable and well-managed institution, responded to the rescue call from a fellow G-Sib. It rescued Switzerland as a financial centre, stopped the panic from spreading and struck a good deal for its own shareholders. Credit Suisse was not a gift. The integration will be tough. But UBS has got off to a good start and could soon relaunch its own growth story.
-
With a chief executive pushing sustainable finance from the very top, HSBC is leading from the front in the global banking industry’s response to the climate emergency.
-
For its mix of sustainable finance structuring expertise and innovation in retail banking, ING wins the award this year.
-
For the second year in a row, HSBC walks away with the award for Asia’s best bank – and deservedly so. Outgoing chief executive Noel Quinn’s decisive move in early 2020 to pivot to Asia by redeploying $100 billion in risk-weighted assets has delivered, generating strong new income streams and squeezing more gains from key product lines such as wealth management and transaction banking.
-
Public-sector clients had to tackle rising rates and geopolitical uncertainty in 2023, while undergoing fundamental restructuring in their sector. HSBC was instrumental in guiding them through the uncertainty.
-
The fourth-biggest bank in Portugal, which has been fully owned by Spain’s CaixaBank since the end of 2018, saw an exceptional performance in 2023. After record results for the firm across the board, Banco BPI is clear winner of the award for Portugal’s best bank.
-
‘Being there’ is one of Citi’s many skills. It is always there for clients: underwriting stock offerings, printing bonds and taking the lead on bridge loans to support complex acquisitions.
-
Barclays has integrated sustainability across its operations and financing activities, significantly reducing emissions and enhancing its commitment to green investment.
-
International banks inevitably capture a large share of international debt issuance from Poland, notably the sovereign and large commercial banks. But Trigon remains a national success story in investment banking as a purely Polish and private-sector player. It has a large local team that includes one of the country’s most extensive equity research capabilities.
-
Barclays wins the award as the UK’s best investment bank. Even though some investors had to wait for the bank’s investor day in February 2024 to hear it once again reaffirm its commitment to the investment bank, staff in the UK had no doubt of this.
-
Bank SinoPac has long focused on initiatives to promote responsible and inclusive finance, primarily by channelling loans to small businesses. The total outstanding of such lending to small and medium-sized enterprises was NT$325 billion ($10 billion) at the end of 2023.
-
The bank has become a global payments powerhouse, delivering innovation and outperformance.
-
For many US regional banks, the priority in the first part of 2023 was simply survival. But for the very best, ambitions went much further than that. For its excellent financial performance, the product of wise decisions made years ago and the continued execution of an impressive strategy, Fifth Third is the US's best super-regional bank.
-
In a tumultuous year for China’s investment banks, marked by a muted IPO market and stricter regulatory oversight, CICC has emerged as the undisputed leader. While prominent Chinese investment banks, such as Citic, have faced investigation case filings from the regulator, CICC has solidified its position at the forefront of the industry, particularly in the domestic M&A space.
-
Techcombank further solidified its leadership in Vietnam’s banking sector in 2023. This has been driven by its five-year transformation journey focusing on investments in digital, data and talent under chief executive Jens Lottner, who took the helm in 2020.
-
Cross-border transactions involving multiple products that combine advisory, equity and debt financing are the bread and butter of a franchise like RBC Capital Markets. The firm’s performance in 2023 makes it a worthy winner of the award for Canada’s best investment bank.
-
Standard Chartered wins the award this year for making several key enhancements to its digital banking platform, supporting strong growth in customer sales and engagement.
-
Even its rivals in Spain admit to feeling the impact last year as CaixaBank moved on from integrating Bankia to concentrating more exclusively on developing its business organically. This is evident, for example, in the savings market, where its customer funds increased by 3.1% in 2023. In insurance, a vital part of the group’s activities, there was also healthy growth, with a 7% volume growth in general and life risk premiums.
-
First Bank of Nigeria (FirstBank) wins the best bank for corporates award this year for its investment in digital, support of sustainability and the financial performance it has delivered.
-
Banco Angolano de Investimentos (BAI) posted impressive financial results for 2023. Profit before tax stood at AKz220 billion ($250 million), almost double its 2022 result (AKz115 billion), and the bank achieved a return on equity of 36%, up from 26% the year before.
-
Afghanistan International Bank (AIB) has once again proven its resilience and adaptability in the midst of severe economic challenges, demonstrating its crucial role as a financial lifeline connecting the country with the world.
-
For its range and quality of corporate banking services, investment in digital, and financial performance, Kotak Mahindra Bank wins the award of India's best bank for corporates this year.
-
The French bank has made steady progress in this business over the last decade and last year was a strong period of new mandates and client expansion.
-
To be the best investment bank in the fastest growing continent you can’t just be here or there, you must be everywhere.
-
Crédit Agricole CIB demonstrated its global capabilities and expertise in sustainability for Hong Kong clients last year, structuring and executing several transactional firsts as well as supporting the growth and development of the broader market.
-
S&P’s regional bank index has just pushed past its March 10, 2023, level, reflecting where these stocks were immediately before the collapse of SVB last year. Those stocks are rising sharply and investors are seeing huge profits, so is this a sign that regional banks have finally emerged from their crisis?
-
President Xi Jinping’s ‘great rebalancing’ is creating a two-speed China: one a stodgy economy; the other full of export-focused corporate superstars. To serve the latter, China’s banks must invest overseas by buying assets or opening branches – and they need to do so fast.
-
Tyler Dickson’s departure from Citi must rank as one of the most predictable moves in investment banking this year, even if where he has ended up is perhaps less obvious. Elsewhere, Citadel Securities is apparently set to make an offer that some of the Street might find difficult to refuse.
-
Donald Trump is now likely to win the US presidential election after a disastrous debate performance by incumbent Joe Biden. Trump 2.0 may bring complications as well as benefits for Wall Street.
-
Derivatives structurers are thriving, but regulators aren’t convinced the biggest Wall Street banks have a firm grasp of their complex exposure.
-
The Siena-based bank has a better bill of health and is once again a target in Italy.
-
With corporates taking a more holistic view of sustainability, banks are under pressure to address concerns over reporting and verification requirements for sustainable working capital, trade finance and liquidity management products.
-
Risk aversion has spread quickly since the call for a snap election in France, from French government bonds, through bank stocks and CDS spreads to now derail the IPO of an Italian maker of luxury trainers.
-
Mexican banks have sold off hard since Claudia Sheinbaum – as widely expected – was confirmed as the country’s next president.
-
For the US to come out in support of voluntary carbon markets even while arguing for their reform is an important step in the drive to seek better standards for what are vital – albeit flawed – mechanisms. But more guidelines on how to certify and trade offsets are no substitute for the real thing.
-
Rising confidence in European banks has raised hopes of a surge in domestic M&A, perhaps laying the foundations for the long-sought ideal of genuinely pan-European firms.
-
Anything except a brief stay on as chairman would cast a baleful shadow over the chief executive’s successor at JPMorgan.
-
Kuwait Finance House (KFH) is Kuwait's best Islamic bank thanks to its strong financial performance and the implementation of several innovative solutions.
-
Allied Bank Limited has made some great enhancements to its product offering and has seen a corresponding improvement in financial performance.
-
Mashreq Al Islami continues to demonstrate its digital leadership in Islamic banking through the breadth and quality of the services and products it provides. It is Euromoney’s best Islamic digital bank this year.
-
Rumours that Chinese insurer Ping An could cut its stake in HSBC further, perhaps selling to a Middle East buyer at a time when Gulf investment is flooding into the People’s Republic, should not come as a surprise.
-
Some companies overhype their eco-credentials, while others hide theirs. Banks are navigating this complex landscape to capitalize on surging demand for sustainable investment.
-
Although the relative health of some nationalized banks may facilitate their privatization, major obstacles to any sales remain.
-
-
-
-
Thailand is enduring a record heatwave, yet its economy is in the deep freeze. Prime minister Srettha Thavisin is frantically jetting around the world trying to woo global corporates and investors, so far to little avail.
-
-
New accounts targeted at low-income customers reflects the reality of intense competition in the sector.
-
UK banks, asset managers and individuals see better returns from dumping UK stocks and investing elsewhere, but the impact eventually becomes ruinous.
-
The UK government wants to invigorate the UK stock market and sell its stake in NatWest. The bank’s private banking arm wants to boost its investment almost anywhere else.
-
BBVA’s bid for Banco Sabadell didn’t appear to be going well when its share price slumped after the announcement. Then Sabadell rejected the offer despite the substantial premium to its own share price.
-
Aditya Birla Finance Limited-Wealth wins this award for the quality and range of its investment research.
-
-
Exactly one year ago, San Francisco-based First Republic Bank was sold by regulators amid a US regional banking crisis. Citizens Financial Group, which had seen the sale as a chance to turbocharge its private banking ambitions, lost out to JPMorgan. But far from being the end of the story, that failed bid was just the beginning. Within weeks the bank had announced First Republic’s Susan deTray as the head of its new private bank, a unit that is now at the heart of a fast-growing wealth franchise.
-
As banks focus more on climate adaptation across their businesses, are they conceding that mitigation efforts are futile?
-
The two European banks are both trying to de-emphasise their investment banks and want to build up areas where they see weakness. Barclays is later to this party than Deutsche, but both will have found encouragement in the first three months of 2024.
-
The standards-setter has come under fire for announcing plans to allow companies to offset Scope 3 emissions as part of net-zero targets. But this kind of compromise has always been inevitable.
-
Junior bankers should relax about the threat to their jobs from AI and lean into opportunities to bluff their way to Wall Street glory.
-
A move back up in rates is creating a PR battle among Wall Street banks. JPMorgan was punished for a cautious outlook, Goldman Sachs promoted strong fixed income trading results and Bank of America projected a Zen approach to rate moves.
-
China’s Project Whitelist, launched at the start of the year, exists to ensure bank funding for property development. But it is there to protect projects, not the developers behind them.
-
Rumours that FAB is in exploratory talks with a Turkish lender, together with hopes for a big-ticket IPO, point to optimism despite the dire outlook on inflation.
-
When clients talk to the world’s biggest listed hedge fund, market complexity, the use of technology and the need for customised solutions loom large in the conversation. Man Group’s president Steven Desmyter tells Euromoney how the firm’s evolving structure and approach reflect the priorities of the asset allocators it serves.
-
The IMF can’t see what dangers may lurk beneath the surface calm of direct lending – but it should be wary of regulators damming an essential funding channel.
-
First investment-grade debt capital markets started to pick up. Then it was high yield and now IPOs, as well as announced M&A
-
The Chinese financial hub just posted its worst first quarter for IPO proceeds in 15 years. With China’s economy stumbling and new local security laws deterring global investors, can anything stop the rot?
-
The Korean banking sector faces many obstacles, but a single, powerful catalyst is driving change.
-
From fast fashion to electric vehicles, Chinese firms are grabbing customers and market share. Meanwhile, the nation’s banks are stuck at home, propping up troubled developers and local governments. It’s an anomalous situation that will benefit the foreign banks.
-
The good news is that bank executives don’t see big loan losses ahead; the bad news is that they lack the confidence and vision to invest in the business.
-
President Javier Milei campaigned on cuts – and that is what he has delivered. But like all extreme diets, the approach is unsustainable. Time to rethink the plan.
-
There almost certainly won’t be a Truss/Kwarteng-style meltdown in the US Treasury market – just persistent inflation, high rates, volatility and likely some form of monetary financing.
-
BDO Private Bank wins the award as the Philippines’ best domestic private bank for the quality and range of expertise and services it provides to high net-worth individuals, families and entrepreneurs.
-
For its impressive commitment to this issue in the country, DBS wins the award for Taiwan’s best for sustainability.
-
DBS wins the award for Taiwan’s best international private bank in recognition of the quality of its services and its leading market position in the country.
-
Julius Baer wins this award for the investment the firm is making in this core Asian market, as well as the global expertise it offers Indian clients.
-
UOB Private Bank wins the award as the only foreign private bank operating onshore in Malaysia.
-
UOB Private Bank wins this award for its commitment to and investment in supporting next generation clients.
-
DBS wins the award for Singapore’s best domestic private bank for the second consecutive year in recognition of its regional expertise, as well as the strength and sophistication of its wealth management offering.
-
DBS wins the award for its strength and innovative leadership in serving family office clients in Singapore.
-
DBS wins the award for its expertise in succession planning.
-
DBS wins this award for the strength and sophistication of its digital solutions.
-
DBS wins this award for best international private bank in Hong Kong in recognition of the quality and breadth of its services and its distinctive regional expertise.
-
Euromoney Private Banking Awards: Hong Kong’s best for family-office services: JPMorgan Private BankJPMorgan Private Bank wins the family office award thanks to the quality and range of products, services and advice it provides wealthy Asian families.
-
Euromoney Private Banking Awards: Hong Kong’s best for philanthropic advisory: JPMorgan Private BankJPMorgan Private Bank wins this award in recognition of its expertise and global connectivity in philanthropic advisory and services.
-
Julius Baer wins the award for Singapore’s best for high net-worth clients in recognition of the impressive range of expertise and capabilities it offers this key client segment.
-
Euromoney Private Banking Awards: Singapore’s best international private bank: JPMorgan Private BankJPMorgan Private Bank wins the international private bank award for the power, range and expertise of its cross-business capabilities.
-
EFG Bank wins the award for its differentiated private-banking offering.
-
Caixabank Private Banking wins the award for best domestic private bank in Spain this year having demonstrated strong performance and launched important enhancements in many sectors.
-
For its mix of global capability with local expertise and philanthropic efforts, JPMorgan wins the award for Sweden’s best international private bank.
-
Carnegie Private Banking wins the Sweden’s best domestic private bank award for the second consecutive year for the growth, investment and development it has made across its private banking business.
-
BPI Private Wealth wins the award for the Philippines’ best for the next generation based on its investment and commitment in educating of this key client segment.
-
Julius Baer’s commitment to Asia has certainly paid off. Bolstered by a team of 1,600 professionals, including over 430 relationship managers, the bank has achieved a doubling of its assets under management in the region since 2016, establishing itself as the largest pure-play private bank in the region.
-
For the quality and breadth of service it provides to family clients, BPI Private Wealth wins the award for the Philippines’ best for family office services.
-
Few things matter more to investors than clarity and foresight. JPMorgan Private Bank's investment strategy team has established itself as an essential navigator, steering clients away from market pitfalls and towards opportunity.
-
360 One Wealth wins this award for the all-round strength of its private banking and wealth management offering in India.
-
In a year that has seen Asia's financial institutions face mounting pressures from geopolitical headwinds, DBS retains its mantle as Asia’s best private bank 2024. This award comes in tandem with two other regional honours: best for family office services and best for high net-worth (HNW) individuals. Its managing director and group head is Joseph Poon.
-
Metrobank wins the award for the Philippines’ best for ultra-high net-worth clients based on the impressive quality of the services it provides to this key client segment.
-
United Overseas Bank (UOB), a stalwart in Singapore's banking sector since 1935, now boasts a robust network of 500 branches and offices across 19 countries. UOB is not only a bank with a long history but is also dedicated to spearheading innovative initiatives for the next generation through dynamic and multifaceted programmes.
-
Bank of East Asia wins the award for the range of environmental, social and governance-related investment products it offers clients.
-
CICC wins this award for the strength and range of wealth management products and services it provides across the wealth segments.
-
Julius Baer has a distinct position in Asia. As the region’s largest pure-play private bank, it is unwavering in its commitment to personalized service.
-
This year, DBS has been named Asia’s best private bank for high-net-worth individuals, a testament to its innovative approach in this competitive wealth-management sector.
-
FortePremier wins this award in recognition of the quality and range of its private banking and lifestyle services in Kazakhstan.
-
Ambit Global Private Client wins this award for its impressive performance in discretionary fund management.
-
With Singapore's ascent to a prominent hub for family offices in Asia, DBS has made quick work of establishing itself as a leading player in the region.
-
JPMorgan Private Bank says that it has “always been intentional about engaging future generations”. People are transitory and money can be too, but it doesn’t have to be. Any family knows wealth can be lost as easily as it can be won, and consistently falling on the right side of that equation means engaging the next generation, and the one after that.
-
“Philanthropy is in our DNA.” So says JPMorgan Private Bank, which for more than 160 years has served as a philanthropy adviser and investment manager to many of the world’s leading charitable institutions and philanthropists.
-
Amid the constant hum of activity in the private-banking world, it can be easy to forget the importance of discretionary portfolio management.
-
Competition in the high net-worth category is fierce: every private bank targets HNW customers, with the aim of making as many as possible of them long-term customers.
-
India is a key market for Julius Baer. Onshore, it is the largest foreign private bank, with a history stretching back more than 30 years, catering to high and ultra-high net-worth customers.
-
In 2023, Singapore attracted S$12.7 billion ($9.43 billion) in fixed asset investments, amid a challenging global environment, according to data from the country’s economic development board. The previous year it was even higher, at S$22.5 billion.
-
Traditionally, the route to acquiring new clients was achieved via the expansion of an adviser’s personal network. This was cultivated by doing the rounds, attending events and conferences, and through referrals. Business was steadily attained, then systematically, over years and even generations, retained.
-
JPMorgan Private Bank clients enjoy the best of both worlds: an intimate relationship with a US lender that is allied to the power of a genuinely global financial leader. It is led by Mary Callahan Erdoes.
-
Reports that the long-rumoured deal has been agreed suggest growing optimism among Argentine bankers about the new administration.
-
Encumbered by an impotent fiscal policy and a sluggish stock market, bank lending could be China’s only route to economic recovery.
-
The Basel committee is shocked – shocked! – that some banks might be reporting inflated leverage ratios.
-
The Fed chair has made a remarkable, virtually unconditional surrender to opponents of his plan for Basel III implementation in the US. The tactical withdrawal is embarrassing, but it makes strategic sense.
-
With some big deals launching this week, Europe’s IPO pipeline is flowing at last. If they do well, they should put to bed the notion that ‘private IPOs’ are what is needed to provide exit routes for sponsors. A handful of recent deals shows that the biggest driver of success is doing the simple things well.
-
The UK Chancellor has big plans for the tech sector.
-
Thinner margins across the banking industry hit smaller banks harder. But investor pressures are also less of an issue for mutually owned lenders.
-
Luring star bankers from rivals – like Citi’s appointment of JPMorgan veteran Viswas Raghavan – can bring hidden costs beyond the expense of replacing stock options for the lucky new hire.
-
The UBS chief investment office’s sustainable and impact investing strategist wants to avoid measurement for the sake of measurement, but responding to client demand for more data while ensuring its readability remains a challenge.
-
The Brazilian government’s changes to the laws governing its tax-exempt debentures have allayed financial market fears that president Lula intends to rely on BNDES to fund billions spending on infrastructure, crowding out private-sector finance.
-
The newest ESG trend in retail banking might be a niche offering for now, but all banks will have to take it seriously someday.
-
Chinese fintech Ant Group has offered UBS a reported $250 million for Credit Suisse’s China joint venture, outbidding Citadel Securities. It is a timely reminder that despite its current malaise, Asia’s largest economy is still a great long-term place to invest.
-
There are sensible elements to CEO Slawomir Krupa’s plans for Societe Generale, but their communication needs attention.
-
In the wake of heavy losses and mis-selling to retail investors, there is an urgent need for an overhaul of risk management in the banking sector.
-
Chief executive Jane Fraser has been true to her promise of a marquee hire to run Citi’s banking division, with the appointment today of JPMorgan veteran Viswas Raghavan. He brings a wealth of both transactional and operational management experience, but the symbolism of his arrival may be just as important.
-
Diego De Giorgi’s arrival as Standard Chartered’s CFO coincides with a shift away from asset shrinkage and a “final push” on digital transformation.
-
Even after the rally on its latest restructuring plan, investors still value the UK bank at such a wide discount to book that management must consider radical action.
-
Barclays chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan intends to stop a low-returning investment bank from dragging the rest of the group down with it. He argues that most of the improvements are within the bank’s own grasp. That is debatable, and in any case hardly reassuring.
-
Direct lenders commanded generous terms on leveraged buyout financing last year, but volumes were low and, now that they show signs of revival, the banks are competing once more.
-
The UK government’s impending sale to retail investors of a big stake in the bank informs the shadow-play guidance on this year’s earnings.
-
One of the first edicts handed down by Citi’s wealth head is to tell all private bankers to track and record client calls. It has ruffled feathers at the US lender, but if it transforms the unit into the powerhouse CEO Jane Fraser wants it to be, then so be it.
-
Funded by green bonds, decarbonized assets are driving emissions upwards in other sectors that supply the necessary raw materials and shipment services. A capital markets transition label ought to factor this in.
-
The hard graft of integrating Credit Suisse still lies ahead, leaving UBS as a concept stock and hopeful investors looking through the efforts of the next three years.
-
A recent rule change means that Brazilian banks will be able to use tax credits related to provision expenses sooner – and the impact could be material.
-
As Beijing works to underpin the equity market, China's fund houses and investment banks are betting on exchange-traded funds as the next big thing. That reflects a market corseted by regulation, where limited options compel a collective herd mentality.
-
Losses on commercial real-estate loans at US regional banks should surprise no one; risk at the heart of the US financial system thanks to weak regulation should shock us all.
-
Extracting value from Russia via a stake in Strabag previously owned by Oleg Deripaska shouldn’t be confused with a proper disentanglement from Russia by Raiffeisen. The main impetus for the transaction may, in fact, lie with Deripaska and Strabag’s other shareholders.
-
Abu Dhabi and Dubai sell themselves as international hubs for tech companies, with new initiatives to support start-ups and scale-ups, but rules around eligibility for equity listings will hinder the Emirates’ tech sectors if they aren’t changed.
-
-
Banks need to start quantifying the legal risks of both climate action and inaction.
-
Management changes expand the responsibilities of Marianne Lake and Jennifer Piepszak, lead candidates to one day head JPMorgan, but there is another contender.
-
-
The SEC wants us to be thinking about special purpose acquisition companies again.
-
Wall Street bankers tempted to pick a fight with the Federal Reserve should take a lesson from the insider trading plea deal by investor Joe Lewis.
-
Opposition to the proposed Basel III endgame for US banks is now so widespread that a climb down by the Federal Reserve is likely. Wall Street bankers like Jamie Dimon can stop crying wolf about increased capital requirements and think carefully about publicly threatening their regulators.
-
Corporate and development banks want their capital to reach the smallest and most impactful of SMEs in frontier markets. Traditional credit ratings and risk assessments can get in the way.
-
Some banks like the idea of external venture capitalists leading their venture businesses, but banker-led units are more likely to cement their inherent advantage.
-
Appealing to issuers by removing investor protections makes no sense when London’s decline as a listing venue stems from domestic investors abandoning the UK market.
-
Regulators are making more mileage out of their settlement with Morgan Stanley than the outcome really deserves.
-
The London Stock Exchange Group’s head of sustainable finance strategic initiatives wants climate data to redefine the act of indexing.
-
The World Bank is issuing ‘outcomes’ bond structures for niche sustainability themes and with new financing mechanisms. Like blue bonds, they are probably going to need some rule-setting.
-
Best Bank: Hana BankHana Bank wins this award for not only growing at a faster rate than its competitors but also for doing so in a way that doesn’t endanger its franchise in the long run.
-
New entrants spur breadth and depth in the country’s capital markets.
-
A team of once-public sector bankers and officials is launching a new private equity fund that aims to identify ‘climate winners’ from the transition to a decarbonized economy. It has identified key industries but its central thesis is regulation.
-
A securitization of pay-as-you-go electricity bills to fund wider access to electricity in Côte d’Ivoire could spark copycat social bonds for affordable housing, telecoms, electricity access and more.
-
The global clubs charged with defining what pace of transition is both scientifically and politically acceptable are only as good-willed as their members.
-
The cost to the government of supporting the Mexican oil firm’s debt could rise to 1.5% of GDP in 2025. Could it walk away?
-
The annual Senate quizzing of US big bank chief executives threw up all the usual favourite partisan arguments, but little else. If this is oversight, it often lacks insight.
-
Failure to mobilize the finance needed to meet the Paris Agreement will be devastating. As those flows to overleveraged countries and companies now stall, radical steps are needed.
-
Restrictions may come at a cost as MSCI considers developed market status.
-
At the start of 2023, analysts sized China and liked what they saw: an economy reopening after three years of Covid isolation, and ready once again to roar. Nothing of the sort has happened and corporates and institutional investors are now fleeing the market in droves.
-
Barclays hopes to win over investors with new return targets and buyback commitments next February, but it really needs a revival in investment banking.
-
National Bank of Ukraine governor Andriy Pyshnyy talks to Euromoney about stabilizing the country’s financial system after the invasion, how rapid shifts to cloud-based banking can work and why cyber risks mean other countries are now seeking Ukraine’s advice about keeping banks running when national electricity infrastructure is down.
-
Regulators are starting to take a more messaging-based approach to sustainable finance, but stopping greenwashing won’t automatically lead to a transition to net zero.
-
The Signa Group of companies is complex, but its problems are simple: debt service costs are going up while property values are going down.
-
As the Chinese property crisis deepens, a new round of bank-led rescue efforts is on the horizon. While banks must shoulder part of the blame for the crisis, their options for action are limited.
-
Thailand wants to give almost every adult in the country money through a digital wallet. It’s an interesting step towards bringing digital finance to the mainstream.
-
The bank must broaden its horizons if performance is to improve.
-
The travails of Zhongzhi, a key player in China’s poorly regulated $3 trillion shadow financing market, underline why a future crisis in the country is more likely, not less.
-
The 28th Conference of the Parties starts in Dubai tomorrow. Dubbed the finance COP, conflicting priorities could turn it into a fossil fuel investor roadshow.
-
First Bank of Nigeria is the country's third-largest bank, accounting for 10.4% of banking system assets at the end of 2022. Despite tackling a sizeable legacy book of impaired lending, it has built a decent corporate banking business that, by the end of 2022, had an annual turnover of more than N5 billion ($6.4 million).
-
The sovereign pushed hard on its first use-of-proceeds green bond, but a sustainability-linked bond was not seen as a practical option for now.
-
Instead of boasting about the billions extracted from the crypto exchange, the US Departments of Justice and Treasury should have closed it down.
-
The use of AI for ESG reporting and assessments is spreading, and regulators can’t keep up. Lenders need to factor in a new set of governance risks that are hard to identify.
-
-
-
-
Big banks are scrutinized on environmental, social and governance matters today as never before and they must often walk a tightrope between competing interests. Citi is no exception.
-
The war in Ukraine has suddenly ramped up demands on the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development after the institution spent years searching for a new role. President Odile Renaud-Basso talks to Euromoney about the bank’s strategy and plans to boost its capacity through a €4 billion capital increase.
-
Enel could trigger the largest step-up event in the sustainability-linked bond market if it misses its CO₂ emissions targets at the end of this year. How the market reacts will set the tone for the future of these instruments.
-
The Swedish regulator digs deep into background of prospective senior managers.
-
The great and the good have assembled again for the Global Financial Leaders investment summit in Hong Kong.
-
Climate change is real and so are the EU’s disclosure rules.
-
Our resident seer hears Ted Pick say don’t worry about the $20 million Morgan Stanley loyalty bonuses.
-
The local sector is in good shape to weather a short-term conflict. If the war drags on and spreads throughout the region, however, the position is far less clear.
-
Data hoarding, ESG illiteracy and credit risk are roadblocks for regional banks looking to establish sustainable supply-chain financing programmes in the Gulf, just as COP28 approaches.
-
Rakuten needs money – and lots of it – as its mobile telecommunications arm continues to burn cash. But it is running out of things to sell, while its debt profile is miserable.
-
A $3.5 billion deal attracts $36 billion of demand, answering the question of whether Swiss banks can return to this market after Credit Suisse's collapse.
-
OTP Bank recorded impressive growth in lending volumes during the awards period and has also advised on some landmark financings.
-
ING Bank’s commitment to sustainable and responsible banking in Germany makes the best bank for environmental, social and governance in the country this year.
-
-
While no charges have been laid against the Adani Group, a new Sebi rulebook addresses a key concern that came from the January stock-market controversy.
-
Net interest margins are shrinking. Banks may need to find new sources to fund customer loans, perhaps even by lending to each other.
-
Singapore’s DBS Bank has spent the past decade transforming itself into one of the world’s best digital banks. But a series of lengthy service outages over the past year has wrongfooted senior management, who have been left to issue apologies and pledge to do better.
-
A local asset management company in Liaoning province just bailed out Shengjing Bank – by borrowing the capital it needed from the very same ailing regional lender.
-
Turkey’s central bank took another step on the path to normalization when penalties for exceeding interest-rate caps on lending were scrapped last week. It is good news for banks, but will it last?
-
Ardshinbank is Armenia’s best bank for environmental, social and governance after demonstrating a commitment to sustainability with its carbon footprint-minimization strategies and green financing work.
-
Barclays has made visible progress across the board in environmental, social and governance, advising on large sustainability financings, enhancing its sustainable mortgages and offering more support to green startups.
-
Some big improvements need to be made in all areas of ESG, but it might be useful to stop trying to reconcile it with how markets function.
-
In a period marked by rapid technological evolution across its entire business, Bank ABC has made several digital enhancements to its corporate product offering. The bank has been named best corporate bank in Bahrain this year in recognition of these transformative efforts, alongside its involvement in a number of important regional transactions.
-
Global banks spent years trying to make China’s vast market work for them, mostly in vain. Today, though, China’s manufacturers are investing in Europe and the US, and turning to Western lenders for advice. The real China opportunity starts here.
-
Syndicated loan arrangers’ relief at US appeals court decision on Kirschner case may prove short-lived.
-
The risk of a new war with Israel will derail any fledgling economic recovery for Lebanon as it attempts to convince private-sector investors of its gas and renewable energy potential.
-
A wealth manager, who came into a legendary but unstable global investment bank and transformed it, hands on a very different and much better firm.
-
Continuity is likely to be the theme as incoming leader inherits a well-performing franchise, but competition in wealth management and the markets businesses, as well as a still-lacklustre environment for investment banking, will be among Pick’s challenges.
-
Up to 60 selected participants will benefit from one year’s access to online courses on Euromoney Learning On-Demand, powered by Finance Unlocked
-
The CEO of Goldman Sachs has (mostly) hung up his cans. His colleagues hope that other noise will now die down too – and they think there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic.
-
KVS Manian has been overlooked in favour of ex-Barclays man Ashok Vaswani. What does it mean for one of India’s finest banks?
-
The Singapore regulator MAS has set guidelines for banks transitioning to net zero. Unusually, it cautions against moving too fast.
-
Citi’s sale of its China consumer wealth portfolio to HSBC for $3.6 billion is a nuanced tale of two banks with increasingly different strategies. As HSBC tilts ever more toward Asia, Citi proves ever more inclined to see all financial services through a global prism.
-
Pressure is growing on Japan’s self-imposed caps on government bond yields. Positive rates must be around the corner, but what will that mean for banks and public debt?
-
Sustainability-linked loans have faced growing criticism for their opacity and concerns around greenwashing. Sustainability-linked loan bonds could help to bring more transparency to the market and help legitimise these structures.
-
While foreign investment in China has fallen, supply-chain shift is a different story. Rather than transferring their main production away from China, manufacturers are cultivating deep regional supply chains across Asia and beyond.
-
Record sustainable finance issuance will still only get you so far.
-
It is rare that a popular, fast-growing and secure financial product is put at risk, but could the boom in FGTS loans in Brazil be under existential threat?
-
If you owe the IMF $3.6 billion, it’s your problem. But if you owe the IMF $36 billion, it is their problem.
-
Even as the industry pleads its solidity, accidents keep happening.
-
Ahead of COP28, the sector needs to focus on lending for energy efficiency in the emerging markets before climate tech startups in developed markets, if decarbonization is the goal.
-
Just three weeks on from the rapturous response to Arm Holdings re-listing on Nasdaq, the prospects for a revival in IPOs suddenly look dim.
-
Patricio Sepúlveda, head of Chile’s public debt office, discusses how programmatic issuance demonstrates commitment to sustainability-linked bond goals and can make these structures more cost effective.
-
European corporates are finding a warm welcome from investors, pushing investment-grade volumes to a 2023 monthly record last month – their biggest total since the start of the interest-rate hiking cycle. But while investors are clearly ready to buy even the more adventurous stories, they still need the reassurance of sensible pricing.
-
Digital sukuk issuance still faces the issue of uneven Shariah interpretation.
-
As a relative outsider, Slawomir Krupa might have appeared better suited to the chief executive job at Societe Generale precisely because it had done so badly under an establishment insider. BNP Paribas’ good performance, by contrast, would make the traditional background of its rumoured chief-executive-in-waiting, Marguerite Bérard, less of a barrier.
-
MUFG’s vast balance sheet has the potential to make a considerable difference to Japan’s net-zero ambitions. But the bank won’t be pulling back from polluters, arguing that money needs to flow to where emissions are, not away from them.
-
SBM Bank has undertaken several structural and strategic initiatives to enhance its offering for small and medium-sized enterprises over the last year and is Mauritius’s best bank for SMEs as a result.
-
Zenith Bank wins best bank for digital solutions in Nigeria following a period of robust growth across its digital channels.
-
Rawbank is the Democratic Republic of the Congo's best bank for digital solutions this year – a challenge in a country where much of the population doesn't have access to the internet or mobile banking.
-
UBS’s extended coverage across multiple time zones and consistent liquidity provision – even during challenging market conditions – has boosted its market share particularly in emerging-market options.
-
Wells Fargo has worked to become a top-tier institutional FX provider by leveraging its robust corporate and commercial FX franchise. To accomplish this, it has been actively building its capabilities in the e-trading space.
-
Real-money clients recognise that their FX trading desks have evolved over the last few years to require a hybrid set of skills combining voice trading with data-driven technology solutions used to create automated trading models.
-
Real-money clients are central to State Street’s franchise, so it makes sense that this is a client segment the bank has performed well in, according to Dale Haver, global head of foreign exchange sales. “We work with real-money clients as partners and are 100% focused on achieving better outcomes for them and their investors.
-
UBS has invested and innovated in its liquidity offering for the last 20 years – the result is its strong reputation for quality and reliability, particularly during periods of market dislocation.
-
In May 2022, CME Group completed a multi-year migration to combine two leading FX trading venues through a common technology and service offering to create a platform spanning futures and options, cash (over-the-counter) and cleared FX, providing access to price discovery, execution quality and transaction cost analysis for market participants including banks, hedge funds and asset managers.
-
Euromoney Foreign Exchange Awards 2023: FX market leader best provider – best FX exchange: CME GroupCME Group operates the largest regulated marketplace for foreign exchange globally and is a leading primary venue for price discovery. The scale of the global offering, deep liquidity, transparency and choice of execution provides clients across geographies with efficient access to global markets.
-
Euromoney Foreign Exchange Awards 2023: Best bank services – best FX bank for research: State StreetMore than 80% of the world’s largest asset managers consume State Street research, as well as global sovereign wealth and pension funds and corporate treasury departments.
-
The release of its new pricing and analytics platform for FX swaps, Neo STIR Analytics, has transformed how UBS engages with clients trading in FX swaps.
-
360T provides a suite of technology solutions that enable corporate treasurers to enhance their FX trading operations and access liquidity from a wide range of providers from around the globe.
-
Societe Generale’s strong historical footprint in Central and Eastern Europe and Africa, together with its growing business in the Middle East, mean that the French bank has a combination of deep knowledge and competitive local presence in the CEEMEA region.
-
CLS settles over $6.5 trillion of payment instructions daily across 18 currencies, protecting more than 70 settlement members and over 35,000 third-party participants from FX settlement risk. It does this by simultaneously settling payments relating to FX trades using its payment-versus-payment (PvP) system.
-
360T’s execution management system (EMS) helps buy-side firms optimise their FX workflows across the entire trade life cycle, leading to increased efficiency, reduced operational risks and a comprehensive audit trail while also streamlining execution.
-
State Street Global Markets (SSGM) is a leading provider of liquidity, financing, and research solutions. Through its GlobalLink business it provides a suite of award-winning electronic foreign exchange trading platforms.
-
360T offers market participants multiple methods of accessing and interacting with the FX market. Its electronic communication network (ECN), 360TGTX, provides access to streaming spot FX and non-deliverable forward liquidity.
-
UBS is a powerhouse in the FX industry with a strong reputation for liquidity provision.
-
SmartTrade Technologies has emerged as a leader in front-office FX technology development.
-
Euromoney Foreign Exchange Awards 2023: Best bank services – best FX bank for wealth management: UBSUBS is recognised in the FX industry as a leading liquidity provider with a presence in all key trading centres around the globe. It is also the largest global wealth manager, with an unrivalled global footprint when it comes to accessing private clients. This has given UBS a unique opportunity that it has successfully capitalised on.
-
D&I is recognised and promoted as one of five core values at Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), the others being Client First, Collaboration, Accountability and Integrity.
-
UBS's single-dealer platform, UBS Neo, has benefited from a full front-to-back transformation over the last four years, enabling the bank to offer clients access to consistent liquidity provisioning in foreign exchange across products and currency pairs.
-
The Lebanese diaspora has come home to pump fresh cash into the country’s economy, but the resulting price surge is a further blow to the lira-earning population.
-
Owned by New World Development (NWD), 11 Skies is a landmark 3.8 million square-foot gross floor area space and forms an integral part of Skycity, located between Hong Kong International Airport and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.
-
Link Real Estate Investment Trust demonstrated a commitment to growth and sustainability during the research period, while making intelligent, strategic deals in a challenging period for the sector.
-
With a presence in 19 markets globally, including Singapore, Hong Kong, China, India and the US as well as Europe, DBS delivered a record total income of S$16.5 billion ($12 billion) in 2022, a 20% increase in net profits to S$8.19 billion, return on equity of 15% and S$20.5 billion in sustainable financing loans.
-
-
-
Slawomir Krupa may yet turn around Societe Generale. But it won’t be by shock and awe.
-
Farmland acquisition for transition agriculture has proved attractive to the climate-focused investment management franchises of large asset managers. Will real-asset investors follow suit?
-
Despite a year of high-profile issuance, all is not well in the sustainability-linked bond market. Teething problems could soon become an existential crisis, raising the risk that investors might decide to abandon the asset class altogether.
-
A Citi survey of family offices finds some unsurprising things to say about the worries of the wealthy – inflation, interest rates and geopolitics – but discovers a shocking lack of preparation for succession planning.
-
The enormous re-listing of Arm Holdings is unrepresentative in many ways, but it still contains a valuable lesson for those coming down the pipe.
-
Social bonds could help deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals by driving private capital into essential services. But impact looks different from one place to the next, so how can issuers report it in a way that makes sense?
-
Beneath the Great Game geopolitics of US-Vietnam relations, there are some intriguing possibilities in the detail.
-
With Article 6 mechanisms formalized, project-based compliance carbon markets could take over the emissions offsetting industry, leaving participants in the voluntary carbon market stranded.
-
Should we take Vivek Ramaswamy literally or seriously?
-
Working together, regulated banks and direct lenders may prevent the coming default cycle from turning into a full-blown credit crunch.
-
Banks and investors opposed to European Union derivatives clearing plans have made an astonishing charge: the EU is worse than the US in jealously guarding its own markets.
-
A tactical retreat on crypto regulation might help SEC chair Gary Gensler to avoid being bogged down in a war of attrition for the rest of his term.
-
A debate in Australia arguing for the liquidation of the sovereign wealth fund has relevance to the global fund community.
-
HKEx chief executive Nicolas Aguzin opened the group’s latest new office in London on Wednesday. His aim: to get more global firms to IPO in Hong Kong and convince investors to put money to work there. But against the backdrop of China’s economic situation, his team will have its work cut out.
-
A handwritten note brings down the curtain on a 38-year journey for bank founder.
-
With a new proposal for long-term debt issuance, US banking regulators have launched the next phase of their war against the lack of confidence that shook the industry in March 2023. But it is becoming increasingly clear that the approach is less about precision strikes and more about a carpet-bombing campaign.
-
Two new platforms show how India is building on top of its digital foundations.
-
Despite the cross-border growth of Hungary’s OTP Bank and the regional potential of Romania’s Banca Transilvania, banking in central and eastern Europe is increasingly a national game.
-
China is having a shocker of a year. Growth has stalled, deflation is back and global firms are moving production elsewhere as they de-risk from China to boost supply-chain resiliency. FDI is down sharply and exports are sinking. Just as Brexit reshaped the UK’s relationship with the world, has Covid done the same for China?
-
The manner of the campaign against chief executive David Solomon risks causing the lasting damage that his internal opponents presumably wish to avoid.
-
Good things could be in store for Libya if harmony at the central bank spreads to the government and sovereign fund.
-
After less than two years, S&P is scrapping its ESG credit indicators and America’s anti-woke politicians are thrilled. But this may not be the win they think it is.
-
Moody’s took a swing at US banks last night. The moves might have seemed indiscriminate, but it’s hard to argue with the conclusions. After the scares of March, the sector is far from out of the woods.
-
It is no surprise to find the ACCC blocking ANZ’s takeover of Suncorp. It is eye-catching, though, to see the regulator naming a deal it would prefer to see happen.
-
Banks including NatWest and JPMorgan are struggling to put out reputational risk-management fires.
-
ADIB’s almost 10-times oversubscribed additional tier-1 issuance shows interest in the product is alive and well for the right issuer, but demand won’t be the same for every bank.
-
If banks want the positive PR associated with facilitating sustainable finance, they need to admit to facilitating dirty finance too.
-
Temasek, as an equity-only sovereign wealth vehicle, had a bad year. A close look at its portfolio positioning helps us understand what it is doing about it.
-
It has been a tough year for Sri Lanka and for the banks operating in the country. Just as the island was exiting the worst of the Covid crisis, Sri Lankans were faced with political upheaval, an economy on the brink of collapse and shortages of everything from food to fuel.
-
For the first time in its 62-year history, the Reserve Bank of Australia has appointed a woman as governor.
-
All private banks are different: in how they project their brand, build business, serve clients and generate fees. But they all seem to have two things in common. They love lending to rich people with big art collections and chatting about ocean preservation.
-
The Kingdom’s government has announced that international firms – many of whom are based in Dubai – that want to work with the state will need to base their regional headquarters in Saudi.
-
UOB’s transformative initiatives have earned it the title of Singapore’s best bank once more.
-
HSBC remained formidable in the Hong Kong market over the past year and is now well positioned to reap the benefits of mainland China and Hong Kong’s post-Covid reopening.
-
Prudence and caution was the mantra at CIMB Bank in the past year, and it served the bank and its chief executive Abdul Rahman Ahmad well. Revenues in 2022 rose 7.6% year on year, net profits before tax rose 38.1% and loans 5.6%. The bank also gained market share in mortgages, auto loans and credit cards.
-
Baiduri Bank remains the standout bank in Brunei. This is not just down to its solid financial growth but also because of its commitment to digitalization, which has enhanced its capabilities in everything from data analytics to customer service.
-
Capital market transactions might be few and far between in Tanzania, but when they do happen, Stanbic Bank Tanzania is often on the deal.
-
Chinese banks have not had an easy ride in recent years. Faltering economic growth, muted domestic demand, tight Covid restrictions and growing scrutiny from regulators have forced them to hunker down and work as best as they can.
-
Hana Bank wins this award for not only growing at a faster rate than its competitors but also for doing so in a way that doesn’t endanger its franchise in the long run.
-
BNP Paribas is the world’s best bank and Morgan Stanley is the world’s best investment bank in Euromoney’s Awards for Excellence 2023. Christian Sewing, chief executive of Deutsche Bank, is named the banker of the year.
-
BNP Paribas’s sustainability strategy for Latin America continues to mature, underpinning the bank’s strong position across the continent. The bank has made considerable efforts to deepen its focus on the three most important sustainability issues in Latin America: protecting biodiversity, promoting social development and decarbonizing hard-to-abate industries.
-
Geopolitical tensions in the region have provided a welcome boost to Armenian banks’ profitability. Ardshinbank stood out during the awards period for making the most of this opportunity under the leadership of chairman of the management board Artak Ananyan. Profit before tax more than quadrupled in 2022, from Dram16 billion ($42 million) to Dram77 billion.
-
Afghanistan International Bank (AIB) remains the most stable and reliable institution in a country facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
-
Football clubs undergoing a period of transition often talk of needing a transfer window or two to get where they need to be. More often than not, this doesn’t work. Better-run teams continue to make clear-minded decisions that keep them ahead of the pack. Catching up is always hard to do.
-
UOB is as committed as ever to serving small and medium-sized enterprises in its home base of Singapore – where it reckons it banks one of every two SMEs – as it is to clients in key markets across the region. From mid-sized corporates on the fringes of requiring capital markets services, to micro-enterprises, clients have come to rely on it for funding, financial advice and best-in-class banking services.
-
Advantageous financial services reforms, abundant natural resources and a young population means there is plenty of potential for long-term economic growth in Angola. The banking sector is dominated by six large lenders, with very little competition from non-bank institutions.
-
Charlie Nunn, who has been chief executive of the UK’s best bank since 2021, announced a new strategy for Lloyds Banking Group in the first quarter of 2022. It didn’t receive much attention as it was announced on the same day that Russia invaded Ukraine. And the new strategy is really the old strategy with a slight shift in the focus beyond cost discipline and scale efficiencies towards investing in growth and doing more for the bank’s market leading 26 million customers.
-
In a quiet year for equity capital markets, BNP Paribas worked on the two main deals that took place: the $1 billion accelerated bookbuild for Energias de Portugal in March this year and the €53 million rights offer for Greenvolt Energias Renovaveis in July 2022.
-
BNP Paribas Fortis is Belgium’s best investment bank this year. It took the top position in the equity capital markets league table during the awards period, from second last year, with a 20% market share, having completed six transactions worth a total of €457 million.
-
BGL BNP Paribas positioned itself as the strongest commercial bank in Luxembourg in 2022.
-
BNP Paribas has also had an excellent year in its corporate and institutional banking division, particularly in its home region. The division posted record revenues in 2022, of €16.5 billion, up 16% on the previous year. The equity and prime services, global banking and securities services units all saw new highs, while global markets had its best year since 2009.
-
Christian Sewing has turned Deutsche Bank around. The firm has a resilience now that would have seemed unlikely when he was appointed chief executive five years ago. By his own admission, some of the toughest work is still to be done. But the past year and the most recent banking crisis have provided a striking validation of the strategy he set in place.
-
Veteran Morgan Stanley investment bankers describe this as the busiest downturn they have ever seen. That is because they have worked on the biggest and most transformative deals in 12 months of shifting values and at times paralyzing uncertainty. The firm has made some cuts, but its new leaders are shaking the business up and bringing in the talent that will be in demand once markets settle.
-
BNP Paribas has a well-earned reputation for steadiness and stability. In the past year, its chief executive, Jean-Laurent Bonnafé, has also reinforced his strategic credentials with the bank’s well-timed exit from its US retail business. Today, the bank stands as the eurozone leader on the global stage and is ready to play a pivotal role in the continent’s financial development.
-
The bank is prepared to make tough decisions to meet its sustainability targets.
-
A massive budget and a focus on in-house development have made the bank a digital innovator.
-
The Singapore bank has strengthened its proposition to serve under-represented communities and aligned its own lending operations to make an impact.
-
In the US, JPMorgan has 55 dedicated private banking offices, from Austin to Seattle, and Cincinnati to Fort Lauderdale. Elsewhere, it focuses heavily on serving high and ultra-high net-worth customers in Europe, where it has eight offices, including the UK and Germany, Asia, through Hong Kong and Singapore, and Latin America, with clients served out of Miami, New York and Switzerland.
-
2023 is shaping up to be the year of the pause for the region’s capital markets.
-
The activist shareholder highlights concerns about a former poster child for private equity ownership of banks.
-
The former Credit Suisse chief is championing Africa.
-
-
Regulators forced banks to skip dividends during Covid, but let them make up payouts later on. They should now do the same for AT1s or risk that market failing.
-
The global disclosure recommendations don’t stand a chance against mandated regional regulation.
-
Societe Generale’s recent African exits, and BNP Paribas’s talks with Orange Bank, highlight how closely Europe’s banks tend to follow each other. Differences are often more a question of strength than strategy.
-
Several Gulf Cooperation Council countries have bank consolidation at the core of economic visions. As governments push for national champions, pressure is building across the industry as banks jostle for position.
-
Could trading of US sovereign credit default swaps trigger a global systemic meltdown? Probably not, but default swap shenanigans aren’t helping to calm jittery markets.
-
The bank has started the process of choosing a successor to CEO James Gorman just as it tries to settle an investigation into its equity block trading practices. This could pose a challenge for Ted Pick.
-
If the UK is to become an international crypto hub, it must focus on bringing regulatory certainty to the industry and the banks that back it.
-
If Olam Agri’s planned dual-listing IPO goes ahead in June it will have a bit of everything: a Singapore-Saudi listing, geopolitics and sovereign funds jostling to defend their nations against strain in global food security.
-
Few banks take the phrase 'digital transformation' more seriously than Dukhan Bank.
-
Amanat Lebuhraya Rakyat Berhad's RM5.5 billion ($1.22 billion) sustainability sukuk murabahah programme.
-
Jabal Omar Development Company’s SAR5.3 billion ($1.4 billion) debt conversion.
-
Mashreq Al Islami is proving year after year that an Islamic bank with industry-leading digital capabilities doesn’t need vast scale to disrupt the regional market.
-
Over the last 24 years, InterVest Capital Partners has established more than 120 leasing and financing programmes, with committed capital topping $15 billion.
-
Kuwait Finance House’s (KFH) commitment to embed sustainability into all that it does officially stems from the nation’s Vision 2035 plan. There is little doubt, however, that the bank itself is running well ahead that schedule.
-
-
-
Banks keep up on the record commentary on the rules.
-
The evolution of Brazil’s central bank payments programme could be good news for banks.
-
Jordan Kuwait Bank has issued the country’s first green bond, a key milestone for sustainability driven capital investments in the country. But getting momentum going in the sector will be an uphill battle.
-
JPMorgan has cleaned up in a deal that sees the regulators waive their own cap on 10% deposit ownership.
-
A curious disruptive technology group proudly announced an investment by Temasek. The problem: it wasn’t true.
-
JPMorgan’s AI model to interpret central bank messaging came out just as it emerged that Jerome Powell had been pranked into discussing policy with Russian provocateurs. Euromoney’s distinctly obvious heuristics model (D’Oh!) might be needed.
-
Relative winners after a year of interest rate hikes include Bank of America and Citigroup. Losers are led by regional US banks, while alternative asset managers argue that higher rates present a historic opportunity.
-
Pouncing on a firm with lots of corporate broking relationships at the low point for IPOs is a smart trade.
-
How on earth, in this environment, did the bank deliver one of its best-ever quarters in Asia?
-
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will host its 32nd annual meeting and business forum in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on 16 -18 May 2023.
-
Proceeds raised in the first three months of this year were 99% lower than the amount raised at the start of 2021.
-
The French investment bank is taking a bet on a double-edged blockchain technology to stay ahead of both the tokenization and sustainability trends.
-
Tech-related bank deals can still get away, but investors call the shots now.
-
The chair of Ping An Asset Management has called again for the break-up of HSBC and spin off of its Asia assets. His argument is a strong and valid one; his problem is that none of the bank’s other main shareholders seems to care.
-
Standard Chartered’s new chief sustainability officer is not shying away from the reality of what the energy transition looks like in emerging markets.
-
There is growing hope among banking and business leaders that the country’s next government can unlock and accelerate needed transformational development and economic reform. Without it, Kuwait risks falling further behind.
-
Australian banks adore residential mortgages. But they are ignoring a cohort of people who are going to run into a lot of trouble with repayments.
-
-
The two bank’s investment banking franchises look enticingly well-matched. But how much business and how many bankers will still be around after the merger?
-
Commercial real-estate losses will not greatly damage big banks in Europe, but the banks themselves could inflict real damage to commercial real estate.
-
Not many new private banking mandates are won thanks to an institution’s abilities in succession planning. But many a client has been lost over a bank's poor succession planning capabilities when this becomes a touch point for clients, as it inevitably does at some stage.
-
Santander’s progress in its family office business is recognised by the judging panel not because of any specific innovation or differentiated approach, but rather for the focus on service quality that sets the bank apart.
-
The consistent growth in both the scale and the quality of Santander’s private banking business in Latin America this year has impressed the judging panel.
-
JPMorgan Private Bank wins this year’s top award, as well as being named the world’s best private bank for ultra-high-net-worth individuals 2023, and the world’s best private bank for investment research 2023.
-
Keep it simple: that is how Julius Baer approaches the pursuit of private banking. That is not to say that what it does is easy.
-
Lots of big lenders claim to be great at serving entrepreneurs. In reality, however, most are not as good at doing this as they would have you believe. Meeting the needs of owners of thriving businesses can be complex, tricky and costly. It requires patience and a well-considered strategy, and a good many banks have neither.
-
Pakistan has been trying to improve financial inclusion for the last 20 years with little success. Are new digital licences the answer?
-
The Credit Suisse deal may have merely accelerated Hamers’ anticipated departure.
-
The failure of venture capital’s favourite bank is bad news for a sector reliant on new injections of cheap capital to sustain loss-making growth.
-
What will UBS’s post-merger sustainable finance strategy look like?
-
First Abu Dhabi Bank’s recent interest in a bid for Standard Chartered and an ill-fated investment in Credit Suisse by Saudi National Bank have put the spotlight on Middle East banks as potential acquirers of international firms.
-
It has been over a decade and a half since a Chinese financial institution bought or invested in a Western counterpart. Beijing sees the West’s banking system as incomprehensibly chaotic and messy, and its own – albeit flawed – as a bastion of stability.
-
Hong Kong conference moves along. Nothing to see here.
-
As well as higher capital requirements for regional US banks, the policy response to the Silicon Valley Bank collapse will likely include increasing the Deposit Insurance Fund, which bigger banks will have to pay for.
-
Recent events call into question most of the core assumptions behind the rules designed to keep banks safe through a liquidity squeeze.
-
Will the fall of Credit Suisse be a seismic moment for private banking? Probably not – the reality is that wealthy clients need their financial advisers too much. Wealth is flighty for sure, but it usually alights nearby at a more stable lender.
-
UBS’s integration of Credit Suisse will be a long and uncertain process, but keeping the latter’s Swiss universal bank may mean the deal eventually comes good.
-
Bankers have been at pains to stress how different the world is today from the dark days of 2008: higher capital; more liquidity; lower credit risk and all that. But while individual banks may be safer than they were, collectively they arguably now face a worse existential crisis. Societies face awkward questions about how they value the utility of the banking sector – and how they should pay for it.
-
UBS shareholders might find plenty not to like in what seems at first glance like a great deal. The bank is making itself more complex at a time when creditors and investors put a premium on simplicity and focus.
-
Michael Klein can’t be expected to ‘devote significant time and attention’ to the unlikely prospect that UBS will allow a CS First Boston spin-off without being paid. Greensill-style invoices for Klein’s theoretical future services could be the answer.
-
Solar thermal technology could offer cheap carbon-free heat for manufacturers. But tech developers are stuck in a financing gap between venture capital and project finance that will be harder to fill after recent bank failures.
-
Credit Suisse came out of the global financial crisis in better shape than many peers. But fragility was never far away – in the years that followed its fortunes would swing back and forth, sometimes violently. Here is the bank’s route to 2023, explained through Euromoney’s own coverage.
-
Unfortunately, while the SNB can provide ample liquidity that Credit Suisse doesn’t really need, it cannot provide the trust and credibility it sorely lacks.
-
It is not clear how the SVB collapse will change banking; but it is clear that the lack of supervision of smaller banks allowed systemic risk to spread worryingly fast.
-
HSBC runs towards the storm as others are fleeing it.
-
Inflation has returned to the country for the first time in 30 years. As it does so, there is a new face at the helm of the Bank of Japan. What does it mean for the megabanks?
-
The collapsing share price of Silicon Valley Bank, triggered by the realization of a loss on a portfolio sale, puts pressure on other US banks that have built up similar books of investments.
-
For one of the most considerate men in capital markets, nothing was ever too much trouble.
-
The EU green bond standard is understandably broad. But because of this, the limits between sustainable and transition finance remain unclear.
-
The COO of Deutsche Bank’s International Private Bank, Sandra Wirfs, tells Euromoney how it has been able not just to slash costs but also to make its wealth management business more cost-efficient than the core bank.
-
The notion that different businesses can produce healthy results by being under the same roof underpins Goldman Sachs’ diversification strategy. After failing to make that work at the first time of asking, its second attempt looks more derivative – but is perhaps likelier to succeed.
-
Some of Goldman’s top brass had an easier time of it than others at its latest investor day.
-
Don’t expect a flood of IPOs, but there are still placements across Asia Pacific.
-
Goldman Sachs likes to mix it up when it comes to choosing peer banks for market share comparisons.
-
Commodity trading could deliver further hefty profits for banks, led by Goldman Sachs, but there are multiple risks as well as opportunities for dealers.
-
From small beginnings as the offshoot of a British merchant bank in 1969, Macquarie has become the world’s largest infrastructure asset manager, a powerful investment bank, a global commodities player and several other things besides. It has built all of this through a distinct culture built on risk management, individual empowerment and a capacity for constant reinvention – but it hasn’t always been popular along the way. A new book by Euromoney’s senior editor in Asia Chris Wright and Joyce Moullakis examines the journey.
-
The former CEO of Cazenove has written an intriguing reflection on his 23-year career at the storied London institution. It captures his view from the heart of the turmoil, but mostly steers clear of score-settling.
-
More blue blood than bad blood at former chief executive’s book launch.
-
Restrictions on upstream oil and gas financing aren’t the silver bullet that the sector needs to achieve its climate goals.
-
The whereabouts of investment banker Bao Fan are unknown just when China wants to attract foreign talent and capital, not deter it.
-
EU banks have been lobbying regulators to ease up on capital rules, warning that they will become permanently uncompetitive with US peers. Investors may be set to close that valuation gap for them.
-
Sustainability is now fundamental to all bank operations. Restructuring to make sure that the right people are in the right sustainability roles has been a challenge for some firms. Euromoney looks at what is needed to become a credible ESG leader.
-
A month ago, First Abu Dhabi Bank said it had looked at Standard Chartered but decided against a bid. Now, it is believed to have changed its mind. What has changed?
-
While the bank plans to spin off its troubled investment bank, the new worry is whether and how soon it can repair the wealth management business.
-
The UK broadcaster’s chair Richard Sharp is familiar with accusations of conflicts of interest from his time at Goldman Sachs.
-
Just back from Davos, the bank’s new head of sustainable finance says the industry needs to do more, and Barclays needs to do more on transition.
-
A report by a US short-seller hammered the stock of India’s Adani Group companies just as one of them tried to raise $2.5 billion in a follow-on. It was not just Adani under attack here, but Modi’s vision of corporate India.
-
Goldman Sachs might wonder if the time is coming to rebrand from being Wall Street’s Bank of Dave (Solomon).
-
Strong collective-action campaigns might hurt some banks' reputations, but they will do little to convince those institutions to change their energy policies.
-
The recent update to the green taxonomy and implementation of the SFDR RTS have received a mixed reception in parts of the EU.
-
The southern Chinese city has set out ambitious plans to become one of the world’s top wealth-management centres. With one of China’s largest onshore pools of private wealth, there is everything to play for.
-
-
-
Some issuers are grabbing the opportunities offered by a new capital markets year. Others would do well to face reality sooner rather than later.
-
-
Macroeconomic disruptions and regulatory scrutiny will drive market participants to adopt a practical environmental, social and governance strategy in the year ahead – one that is less about narrative and more about materiality.
-
It seems difficult to convince investors that higher bank profits are sustainable.
-
The billionaire Winklevoss twins and DCG CEO Barry Silbert have been squabbling over $900 million of frozen customer assets. The SEC has just banged their heads together.
-
-
Some people think that international climate conferences are nothing more than a talking shop. The Secretary General of the UN wants to change all that – with another conference.
-
It’s the time of year for feng shui market predictions.
-
The regulated US bank lost 70% of its deposits in a few weeks. But while that run shows the risks of banking the crypto industry, the key lesson is how it is still standing.
-
Across the Middle East and North Africa, Egypt and its banks boast august credentials when it comes to climate and sustainability. But frameworks and agreements are one thing, creating substantive change across an entire financial sector is quite another.
-
First Abu Dhabi Bank looked long and hard at Standard Chartered, and others will do the same so long as it’s cheap. But any suitor must win the approval of Temasek.
-
Crypto promoters now want traditional financial market regulators to save them; those regulators would rather deliver the final blow.
-
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has lifted the lid on some eye-popping charges against the former CFO of a special purpose acquisition company.
-
Nearshoring has been seen to drive credit growth among the country’s smaller regional banks.
-
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried faces the full wrath of US authorities, as rival agencies compete to make the most hyperbolic charges against the former crypto exchange head. Death by metaphor could be his provisional sentence.
-
AT1s rallied on news that UBS will redeem a key deal in January. But with refinancing costs higher than coupon re-sets, the pressure now passes to other big banks.
-
The gating of Blackstone’s $69 billion private real estate fund Breit highlights the risks in semi-liquid investment vehicles, even ones that perform strongly. Pitching US private market exposure to European and Asian retail investors may be slowed by the setback.
-
The death of Teh Hong Piow, the founder of Malaysia’s Public Bank, marks the end of a distinguished banking life.
-
The UK government has launched a sprawling range of measures to reform the country’s financial sector and markets. But the moves were mostly already under way – it is really all about the optics.
-
While there are some entertaining items – one country banning meat, the UK voting to UnBrexit – Saxo sees recession failing to halt inflation with the world economy on a war footing.
-
On December 1, EU member states agreed on a general approach for the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. The final text shields banks from their full responsibility to prevent environmental harm, thanks in part to France’s post-Brexit ambitions.
-
As a long recession looms for the UK, past successes may be a sign of future problems.
-
Qatari banks are eager to demonstrate their commitment to sustainable banking amid growing public scrutiny of the environmental cost of hosting the World Cup.
-
The climate circus has packed up and left, with everyone disappointed and no one surprised. Some thoughts from a COP first-timer.
-
Beijing recently ordered its state banks, including ICBC and Bank of China, to plough $162 billion worth of fresh credit into the country’s troubled property sector. In doing so, they look not proactive but panicky. A negative hit on lenders’ profits is inevitable.
-
China is stuck. It has spent three years trying to keep Covid at bay, but now irate citizens have spilled onto the streets, questioning the competency of president Xi Jinping, and calling for an end to restrictions – just as transmission rates spike.
-
Euromoney’s Mystic Maca looks into what’s in store next year and sees some big Wall Street reshuffles.
-
Uruguay reignites the debate on transition finance with its sovereign sustainability-linked bond.
-
Credit Suisse directors may sigh with relief that shareholders have approved the latest capital raise, but they are already guiding to yet another big loss.
-
Most governments would have been delighted to do what Iceland managed with its sale of Íslandsbanki shares earlier this year. But an audit of the deal has triggered a war of words with the body responsible for it, as well as some very odd conclusions from an Excel spreadsheet.
-
A groundbreaking repo facility for African sovereign Eurobonds was completed in time for a debut trade as COP27 took place. The road to closing the deal was far from simple.
-
Euromoney meets Damian Payiatakis, Barclays Private Bank’s head of sustainable and impact investing, to talk about how quiet private wealth has been so far at the UN Climate Change Conference.
-
The country has one of the world’s best-performing economies with one of the few emerging market currencies to be appreciating against the dollar. It also has large numbers of highly skilled Russians fleeing across the border to avoid conscription. National Bank of Georgia governor Koba Gvenetadze speaks to Euromoney.
-
The market reaction to the third-quarter results from Brazil’s second-largest private bank has revealed investor sensitivity to banks’ deteriorating asset quality.
-
Saving the planet requires shutting down coal plants while also ensuring the livelihood of the people who depend on them. The ADB has a plan.
-
HSBC’s outgoing CFO, Ewen Stevenson, has mounted a robust case for the bank’s cost performance in an intriguing call with analysts that also featured an appearance by his replacement, Georges Elhedery. As he prepares to leave the bank, Stevenson defended his legacy by taking on the firm’s arch-critic, Ping An.
-
Reports published at COP27 suggest slow but steady progress by banks on interim sector targets for net zero. But political reality, particularly in the US, requires a delicate approach.
-
Bank’s ESG head urges competitors and regulators to respond more quickly to emissions accounting challenge.
-
Words fail Euromoney at the mighty event.
-
Daniel Zelikow, chairman of JPMorgan Development Finance Institution’s governing board, on private-sector development finance, EM policy risk and funding bankable assets.
-
New opportunities in oil and gas as supply is reoriented away from Russia highlight the question of how quickly cuts to financed emissions will match banks’ enthusiasm for growth in clean energy.
-
While its larger rival, Binance, may yet prop up FTX, the failure of the exchange that spent the summer rescuing other failed crypto organizations suggests that none are safe.
-
Climate-smart innovations and regenerative agriculture are attracting tech-savvy equity investors to the farming sector. Access to affordable financing will determine how fast those companies can grow to scale and provide an exit.
-
Announced on Tuesday at COP27, the Transition Plan Taskforce document responds to market demand for more uniformity on corporate plans.
-
With anti-ESG sentiment on the rise amid a global financial tightening, is it time for investors to listen to the anti-woke agenda or double down on social responsibility?
-
As the private sector demands more guidelines, COP27 should promote the development of a global framework on innovative finance.
-
Last week’s financial summit aimed to show investors Hong Kong is open for business. While well attended, it also served as a reminder of how closed off the financial hub has become and how much of its lustre has been lost.
-
-
-
The first nine months of 2022 have seen investment banking revenues plummet globally.
-
Vocal members of the US political right are not happy, creating new laws that ban state investors from backing companies with an ESG agenda. Several fund managers have been quick to take up their cause.
-
The World Cup is set to kick off in Doha on November 20 against the backdrop of recession, war, inflation and rising interest rates elsewhere.
-
Geopolitical and economic turmoil has taken its toll on cash management strategies during 2022. Leading transaction banks emphasize the value of investment in technology as they navigate a choppy market environment.
-
Elon Musk is full of praise for his bankers at Morgan Stanley. It’s a shame his $44 billion Twitter deal is set to cost the bank money rather than earning a tip for good service.
-
The great and the good of global finance gather in Hong Kong this week for a summit that aims to remind the world of the city’s status as an international financial centre.
-
Bankers are sending mixed messages about market strains. Dire warnings about year-end pressures, pleas for regulatory help and assurances that banks can sort this out are being deployed simultaneously.
-
This year has seen banks report markdowns on leveraged finance commitments and related exposures, something that is hardly surprising given what has happened to yields. But even with syndicates struggling to offload some high-profile big deals, the troubles seem oddly muted so far.
-
The UK politician’s recent rapid departure from the Caribbean attracted both local and international attention.
-
Georges Elhedery’s move to the CFO role at HSBC has raised eyebrows among observers seeking to decode it. What does it mean for Elhedery, what happened to incumbent Ewen Stevenson, and what does it say about CEO Noel Quinn?
-
Islamic finance remains a federation of country-level success stories with no comparable global narrative. Does it matter if that’s where it stays?
-
-
-
As rates on government bonds rise and economies shrink, the vast stocks of developed market government debt look unsustainable.
-
Asia’s central banks have fought hard to protect the value of their currencies this year as the dollar has soared. But each of them has a limit to their appetite for that defence.
-
China, the US, Australia and Japan are all conducting a curious courtship with Pacific nations, hoping to build trade relationships, climate resilience and security agreements.
-
Boutique investment bank DAI Magister suggests donor funds could catalyse private equity and debt investment in climate tech, the big theme of COP27.
-
Carbon credit traders want to secure the integrity of the voluntary carbon market while encouraging speculative trading that could fix its liquidity problem.
-
Demand for carbon offsetting credits on the VCM has intensified as corporates look for solutions to reach net zero. But as more and more institutions look to tap this market, can the existing infrastructure cope?
-
In public at least, the Bank of England has been determined to end its gilts intervention when it said it would, but it’s getting harder for the BoE to manage its conflicts – and the market doesn’t know what to believe any more.
-
For one, it brings power to its digital operations, for the other a much-needed injection of funds. But it doesn’t change a grim operating environment.
-
Regulators want to prevent greenwashing; corporates need to abide by the rules. What happens when science doesn’t help?
-
Islamic finance has a choice: continue on its existing path and consolidate its hard-earned gains in market share, or shake the whole thing up. One proposal calls for an end to the fractional-reserve banking system.
-
If Lula wins in Brazil, he is unlikely to focus on the strength of the private-sector banks because fintechs are doing that for him already.
-
Six seemingly random numbers, when threaded together, demonstrate that some kind of negative watershed event may not be too far off in China.
-
Societe Generale has exited, and Citi is winding down in retail, but the two biggest remaining Western European players in Russia are also spending a lot of time working out their exposures and operations in the country.
-
The launch of an SRI-linked sukuk framework this summer is a blueprint for others to follow.
-
New deal adds two-year payment deferral to existing natural-disaster clause to mitigate impact of a future pandemic.
-
A new job running Bayern Munich's finances could be more rewarding for HVB CEO Michael Diederich, especially after UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel’s push for more cuts in Germany.
-
Fossil fuel assets were set to become obsolete in the transition to net zero. But the war in Ukraine is forcing European governments to secure alternative energy sources and driving demand for coal, oil and gas back in the wrong direction. With the global energy transition seemingly pitched against national energy security agendas, banks are trying to navigate a difficult path through the turmoil.
-
China’s property sector is in freefall and Covid lockdowns are throttling growth as bad loans pile up at the banks. As president Xi Jinping prepares for an unprecedented third term, a deluge of crises threatens to destroy the country's four-decade economic miracle.
-
With far-right leader Giorgia Meloni now set to become Italy’s new prime minister, can policies put in place by her predecessor – coupled with reputational self-help – prevent Italian banks from taking another hit?
-
Kwasi Kwarteng’s debt-funded tax giveaway has re-priced UK risk at a stroke, but the high cost may bring scarce benefit.
-
From Spacs and securitized products to executive compensation and supply-chain planning, Credit Suisse could split its investment bank into more than three parts.
-
When Margeir Pétursson bought Bank Lviv in 2006, he had much to learn about operating a bank in a country permanently in Russia’s crosshairs. Talking to Euromoney six months after the invasion, he says there is opportunity among the chaos in this key Ukrainian city.
-
PrivatBank chief executive Gerhard Boesch looks to the future and the bank’s war-delayed privatization.
-
Oleksandr Pysaruk, chief executive of Raiffeisen Bank Ukraine, describes how contingency planning for war rapidly morphed into the real thing.
-
Despite the Russian bombs pounding Ukraine, there have been no wartime bank runs, no bank collapses or even the suggestion of a systemic wobble. That is largely thanks to the work of former National Bank of Ukraine governor Valeria Gontareva. She tells Euromoney that the time for further reform to the stricken country’s banking sector is now.
-
Removing UK bonus caps and undermining the BoE could exacerbate a sterling crisis while entrenching US IB dominance.
-
China has in the past felt compelled to accept the terms of IMF programmes in struggling nations without due consideration of its own views.
-
The pandemic and the war in Ukraine have brutally exposed the fragility of global supply chains.
-
As the world’s biggest investment banks prepare to report third-quarter earnings in October, the signals are bad across the board.
-
Best Bank: HDFC Bank
-
While ING is paring back the retail-banking ambitions held dear by former CEO Ralph Hamers, sustainable finance is helping the wholesale bank become a growth engine for the group.
-
Best Investment Bank: Trigon
-
BNP Paribas has made an environmental, social and governance virtue out of its legacy commitment to the mining and energy sectors in Latin America. A decade ago, the bank saw which way the wind was blowing and, noting that it was towards renewable power turbines, moved early into sustainable finance.
-
BofA Securities wins this year’s award for Latin America’s best bank for transaction services. The bank has been steadily building up its corporate relationships in Latin America, while its digital innovation in this business has cemented its ability to provide local services at the level of the local banks.
-
Best Investment Bank: BofA Securities
-
BofA Securities has had a busy year in which it demonstrated impressive breadth of deal-flow across countries, as well as regional leadership in two of the main product areas. Not only was the bank the best investment bank in Colombia and Peru, but it was also a close challenger for the Mexican and Brazilian awards. It is this unmatched geographical balance that makes BofA the region’s leading investment bank.
-
BTG Pactual’s recent success has been based in large part on the digital platform that it has built in recent years. The bank targets opportunities where financial deepening, disintermediation and technological adoption intersect in Latin America.
-
BTG Pactual isn’t new to winning Euromoney’s regional awards for excellence – but previous successes have been for the bank’s investment banking franchise. This year, Euromoney recognizes BTG Pactual’s successful reversal of the orthodox model of business evolution from retail and corporate banking to investment banking.
-
Best Investment Bank: BofA Securities
-
While the main story of the 2022 Latin America awards is the emergence of BTG Pactual as a retail force, the bank’s senior management team, headed by chief executive Roberto Sallouti, clearly hasn’t let the investment banking team take its eye off the ball.
-
Best Bank: BTG Pactual
-
Best Bank: Lloyds Banking Group
-
It was a knife-edge decision between Citi, stronger in top-end cash management, and HSBC, stronger in trade, this year. Last year, we decided trade was the theme to reward in a Covid-blighted year; this year we looked at progress in payments, where Citi had an excellent year.
-
Always a strong player in small and medium-sized enterprise banking, DBS enjoyed a stellar year driven by digital investments, careful credit management and great progress in India.
-
While it has been a leader for many years in European debt and loan financing, BNP Paribas has in recent years built out its secondary markets businesses. It now includes a full service offering in equities as well as fixed income currencies and commodities (FICC) across research, secondary markets, prime services, derivatives and capital markets.
-
Best Investment Bank: CIMB
-
Best Bank: CaixaBank
-
CaixaBank has its roots in corporate responsibility. It was founded in 1904 with the aim of fostering savings, retirement planning and disability insurance for the working class. The bank provides an interesting blueprint for CSR today through two institutions: the La Caixa Foundation and MicroBank, its specialist microlender.
-
Best Bank: DBS Bank
-
Best Investment Bank: Barclays
-
The wealth management award is in some measure a decision about a model as much as a bank. For the last few years, we have tended to reward the big Swiss houses, UBS and Credit Suisse, who have scale, history and the advantages of being part of a larger bank. In other years, we might consider the Swiss pure-play model, the ultra-high net-worth-only model, the mass-affluent approach.
-
Best Bank: BNP Paribas Fortis
-
Something has been building at JPMorgan. For years, a common question in the industry has been: why isn’t the bank, for all its global strength, doing better in Asia? It has always been close to the top in Asian investment banking but rarely troubles Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley at the very highest table.
-
Best Bank: Techcombank
-
Best Bank: Baiduri Bank
-
Best Bank: Afghanistan International Bank
-
Best Investment Bank: BNP Paribas
-
The bank has achieved growth by extending its traditional private banking services to the mass affluent segment in Brazil.
-
The French bank has been busy with landmark deals and financial innovation.
-
The French bank has long had global scale in fixed income, now it has the same ambitions for its equity franchise too.
-
In a year in which businesses were emerging from the coronavirus pandemic with a strong demand for capital to finance expansion in real estate, manufacturing equipment and distribution facilities, Bank of America was able to offer unmatched support.
-
From energy transition to Libor transition, the French bank is the go-to firm for many corporate clients in a time of flux. This is the result of longstanding relationships and new investment in core sectors of the franchise.
-
Bank of America is thriving. In its home market, it has led the way in retail banking with a distinctive preferred rewards programme that offers retail customers preferential rates across a full range of products from credit cards to mortgages.
-
The bank is successfully exporting its SME expertise and advanced financial technology across Asia.
-
-
-
Celebrating its 190th anniversary this year, making it older than the confederation of Canada itself, Scotiabank has quite a heritage. So does Brian Porter, its chief executive, who has been at the firm for his whole career, stretching back to 1981. But when he took the helm in 2013, his job was to reposition a bank that might best have been described as a mini-HSBC.
-
The drive to make finance sustainable relies on robust data. This is something that the French bank has been working on for a decade.
-
Bank of America is everywhere in the US. It serves one in five mid-sized corporates (those with revenues of between $5 million and $2 billion) and you can’t do that from one national headquarters.
-
Sustainable finance is now at the top of many global banks’ agendas, but it has been there at Bank of America for a very long time already. The bank is committed to deploying $1 trillion towards zero-carbon investments by 2030, but Steve Boland, chief administrative officer, believes this initiative shouldn’t overshadow the bank’s long held belief in pursuing a sustainable growth strategy in relation to its broader corporate responsibilities. It is the continued success of this strategy that makes BofA North America’s best bank for corporate responsibility.
-
Bank of America is the world’s best bank and Goldman Sachs is the world’s best investment bank in Euromoney’s Awards for Excellence 2022.
-
Under the leadership of Brian Moynihan, Bank of America has become the poster child for stakeholder capitalism in banking. Shareholders benefit; previous strong underwriting and ample liquidity enabled it to grow loans strongly in the pandemic recovery; and management is confident it can weather the coming downturn.
-
DBS has taken the boldest step yet in digital DCM, encouraging corporate and financial borrowers to self-issue commercial paper direct to investors. Volumes are strong. The next step, longer-dated bonds, will come soon.
-
Unbeatable data drives everything behind CashPro, and the platform drives payments and treasury at Bank of America in turn.
-
Companies that publicly commit to net zero by 2030 need to be held accountable for those commitments. That won’t happen until their carbon footprint becomes publicly available data.
-
Hong Kong’s capital markets are moribund, its government erratic and directionless, and its economy in disarray. For a city that increasingly looks like anything but Asia’s ‘world city’ is there a route back to normality?
-
The idea of capping the price of Russian oil and gas exports sounds good in theory, but it might be better to test methods for energy rationing.
-
The current market slump gives banks a chance to repel competitors such as crypto firms and fintech lenders.
-
As investors and dealers struggle with inflation levels not seen for 40 years, the only good news is that markets are still functioning… for now.
-
The stablecoin is preparing an audit with a top 12 firm, chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino tells Euromoney. Why is Tether not already providing more transparency on its reserves?
-
Lombard Odier joins Barclays and Nomura in hoping to grow partnerships and shareholdings in a market that is heavily banked but underpinned by a vast institutional bid and a belated surge towards sustainability.
-
Following Terra’s death spiral, regulators will focus on the collateral backing the biggest stablecoins that are essential to the flow of real money into crypto.
-
Bank privatizations are never simple, but the outcry that has erupted in Iceland over a recent sale of Íslandsbanki shares looks set to halt the programme in its tracks – despite the overwhelming success of the bank’s landmark IPO in 2021. With state holding company ISFI now under threat of being closed down, its head takes Euromoney through the drama of the last 12 months.
-
Asset quality is under threat across the region, but particularly in Peru.
-
Euromoney hit the road in style during April, driving for eight hours in the snow to cover one story.
-
-
-
The US government’s case against Archegos Capital sets up a contest to guess which of the fund’s prime brokers was the most gullible at any given time. To keep the game interesting, the answer might not always be Credit Suisse.
-
Elon Musk’s $44 billion Twitter deal could see his bankers shift from cordial competition for fees to a desperate battle to avoid margin losses if the value of his Tesla holdings falls sharply.
-
The first three months of the year have been tough for many investment banking business lines, but Europe’s banks are putting up a good fight against the might of the US firms.
-
Euromoney hosts its first private banking dinner since 2019.
-
The global cryptocurrency platform is sponsoring the relaunch of a 122-year-old live music venue in London.
-
The Swiss bank is still paying for its misdeeds, but this might be a taste of what’s to come for others.
-
In frozen far northern Alberta, Euromoney meets perhaps the world’s least likely sovereign wealth fund, investing compensation settlement money for Canada’s Little Red River Cree Nation. It is rigorous, disciplined and sophisticated, and reminds us that sustainable finance has been around for centuries.
-
-
Kyrylo Shevchenko, governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, has been corresponding with Euromoney as war rages in his country. Here he tells us how the central bank has kept the banking system operational and protected the currency in extraordinary circumstances.
-
Credit Suisse is making heavy work of meeting its obligations under a 2017 RMBS settlement with the US Department of Justice. If it wants to make real progress, it will have to bite the bullet soon.
-
Crédit Agricole’s purchase of a 9.18% in Banco BPM could have benefits, even if it doesn’t presage a full takeover.
-
The IPO of Indonesia’s GoTo is a big moment not just for the issuer but for the exchange that changed the rules to accommodate it and for the entirely domestic joint lead manager group.
-
SocGen’s deal to sell Russian lender Rosbank back to Vladimir Potanin’s Interros Capital is painful, but could help it to move on from the war in Ukraine.
-
A Singapore-based investment vehicle fronted by former Commonwealth Bank of Australia CFO Rob Jesudason aims to invest in financial disruptors that will complement the industry without reinventing it.
-
A number of commodity currencies have received an unexpected boost from the conflict in Ukraine as Western economies look to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels from Russia more rapidly than previously planned.
-
-
Banks need to be hyper-vigilant as threats grow from both malign and accidental disruption.
-
Private equity’s relationship with the Spac asset class? It’s complicated.
-
A combination of geographical position and commodity strength is working in the country’s favour.
-
It looks like Chelsea bid heartbreak for the structuring team at asset manager Centricus, but football financing is a funny old game and it’s never over until the final whistle blows.
-
The event was a showcase for both sustainability and trade agreements.
-
Corporates want to improve sustainability in their supply chains, but, if anything, the barriers to doing so are getting worse.
-
-
With consumer business sales mostly finalized in Asia, attention turns now to Jane Fraser’s commitment to devote the proceeds to growth in the region. We are seeing early signs.
-
A blunder in its exchange-traded notes business is set to cause Barclays a fresh headache that it doesn’t need.
-
The war in Ukraine has further highlighted the benefits of Banco Santander’s diversification across Europe and the Americas, according to executive chairman Ana Botín. However, its European home market may be a big disadvantage in Citi’s looming auction of Mexican lender Banamex.
-
ESG has been an intense focus for banks in recent years – not least for their communications teams. But with war in Ukraine, ESG has hit its first real test – and the talking has stopped.
-
Margin hikes are raising the table stakes in markets from commodities to stock loans. Margins may be a better risk signal than curiously subdued measures like the ViX index of equity volatility.
-
China’s approach to ESG is a jumble of grandiose and contradictory state planning alongside often marvellously successful bottom-up plans by banks and fintechs to instil in consumers a more sustainable lifestyle.
-
The Russia-Ukraine war is a sobering reminder for all treasurers that geopolitical risk can escalate rapidly. The importance of forward planning cannot be overstated.
-
War in Europe changes everything. In the medium term, European countries will spend heavily on new sources of energy, their military and perhaps on food security. In the short run, comes slower growth. The financial markets are barely capable of pricing these hits. They have no capacity at all to price further unprovoked attacks on countries beyond Ukraine, much less a full-on war with Nato or nuclear conflict.
-
Yoon Suk-yeol, South Korea’s new president, is seen as pro-business and pro-market reform. Bankers are delighted, but there’s also a nagging doubt that populist policies that favour retail investors over institutional have crept in to win votes.
-
-
JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citi and Credit Suisse hope more banks will join their syndicated loans platform Versana. Greater efficiency and transparency could also attract new capital to the market.
-
When a group of leading banks were unable to source the roubles needed to deliver in settlement of FX swaps, compression trades saved the day. The episode serves to highlight how fragile very large, complex and interconnected financial markets have become.
-
What practical steps do banks have to take when a client falls foul of a sanction list?
-
Explore Euromoney’s infographic on activity by special purpose acquisition companies over the last two years.
-
Western governments need to wise up to how smart Putin and his people are at hiding and moving their money.
-
Vaca muerta is an enormous oil and gas field, but it may be too late to exploit it.
-
Despite the current financial turmoil, proponents of de-dollarization still have a mountain to climb. But blockchain and digital currencies could put their goal within eventual reach.
-
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.
-
The early days of war in Ukraine saw the price of bitcoin rise. New technology now improves the prospect that wealth stored in crypto may be spent.
-
As the US takes action to tighten sanctions on Russia by banning energy imports, Europe is trying to pull together a plan to wean itself off Russian gas through greater use of LNG and renewables.
-
-
-
The last big Wall Street broker-dealer has had a spectacular run in the last 20 years. It now wants to build ‘the best world-class global investment bank’.
-
It has been a tough few years for Europe’s banks, but they finally seemed to be firmly on the road to recovery in early 2022. Then Russia invaded Ukraine. Will the financial turmoil that follows derail the sector’s hard-fought-for revival?
-
The prospect of China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System vying with or supplanting Swift grabbed attention in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But CIPS isn’t ready for the big time. It is too small and underdeveloped, and is a policy vehicle dominated by Beijing for the purpose of globalizing the yuan.
-
Western governments hope Russian citizens will blame the regime of president Vladimir Putin and seek change. That is a gamble.
-
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.
-
With little chance of a swift resolution to the conflict in Ukraine, the effect on FX markets is being felt well beyond the bounds of the former Soviet Union. But not all reactions have been typical for a crisis.
-
Oligarchs that use shell companies and fake identities may dodge the pain of Russian banks being shut out from Swift, heaping it on innocent people instead.
-
-
Several sovereign funds have either pledged to leave Russia or are considering doing so. But how will they get out? Could their exit enrich those that sanctions are intended to penalize?
-
ING and Intesa Sanpaolo could take bigger hits than Societe Generale in a ‘walk-away’ scenario, according to Autonomous Research.
-
Exclusive: The head of Ukraine’s largest bank tells Euromoney that it is refilling ATMs and keeping branches open even as Russian attacks intensify.
-
The US has named Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and its chief executive in strikingly harsh language as part of its sanctions package. Is RDIF ‘a slush fund for president Vladimir Putin’ or a legitimate vehicle ‘building international relations and supporting constructive ties’?
-
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.
-
In the raging crisis between Russia and Ukraine, fixed income bankers picking over a disrupted new issuance market are finding echoes of the start of the coronavirus pandemic. But they warn that the conflict is only worsening inflation concerns – and that central banks are in a bigger bind than ever.
-
Wyoming is wild, rugged and libertarian. It is now also America’s leading crypto state, home to thriving digital asset banks like Avanti, run by Wall Street veteran Caitlin Long. Can these young firms now get much-prized master accounts with the Federal Reserve?
-
For Putin, the threat of expulsion from Swift carries far less weight than it did in 2014. Russia’s own system for transfer of financial messages can now settle domestic transactions, but the move would still trigger a deep recession in the country.
-
Russia’s incursion dispels vain hopes of manageable tail risk and heralds a bear market correction.
-
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.
-
Portion’s Jason Rosenstein explains why he paid $1.2 million for a plot of virtual land amid the goldrush of corporations launching their brands in the metaverse.
-
Why do Saudi Arabia and Malaysia still overwhelm every other state in Islamic asset management?
-
Money is pouring into the metaverse as investors try to pick the winners from the coming transformation of e-commerce through Web 3. Banks are struggling to find their role. They must do so, because the biggest risk is missing out.
-
The spectre of 2003’s global research settlement is looming over the world of equity block trades.
-
It’s rare to see a sovereign fund backing a digital bank before its launch.
-
The trial of former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng over the 1MDB scandal has been filled with so much tawdry and tantalizing detail that it can be easy to overlook some of the less sensational, but nevertheless remarkable, material.
-
Public blockchains have been shown to allow near immediate settlement of new issues. Why aren’t the primary markets embracing them?
-
The ‘Subject matter expert for fine art lending’ has the kind of job everyone wants: appraising art and helping the wealthy borrow against a private collection. But he tells Euromoney that it involves a great deal of time observing, listening and figuring out what the client wants.
-
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.
-
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.
-
JPMorgan is named the world’s best wealth manager in Euromoney’s latest private banking and wealth management survey. It is testament to the US bank’s global strength in serving the wealthiest families, along with its drive to constantly transform itself and boost diversity as it hires the most talented relationship managers in core markets.
-
The next decade will be one of exceptional value creation in the birthplace of private banking. European entrepreneurs are handing the reins of mid-sized Mittelstand firms to the next generation, while others sell out to global investors and venture capital firms.
-
-
Crossed wires on an analyst call had many scratching their heads.
-
Facebook never recovered from the regulatory hostility that first greeted Libra. It is now selling what is left of Diem while building the very metaverses that might make its stablecoin useful.
-
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.
-
-
-
What is the point of hoarding cash when not even the local convenience store takes it anymore?
-
The first month of 2022 has seen not so much a mean reversion as a collapse in investment banking revenues. Investors must hope this won’t continue.
-
The rationale behind a bank buyback can be different in emerging versus developed markets.
-
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.
-
Last year, social was top of the ESG agenda. Today, it barely merits a mention.
-
Falls in bond and equity prices that followed the Fed’s hawkish pivot may just be the start, with the key test still to come in new issue markets.
-
Policymakers around the world are rushing to protect retail investors from buying products that are less sustainable than they believe them to be. Why?
-
Will the bank’s payouts after a phishing scam set a precedent?
-
Analysts see augmented reality creating new economies worth trillions of dollars in the metaverse, where people are already spending real money on virtual real estate and will want to spend virtual earnings in the real world.
-
Big numbers don’t always tell a story, but January saw one pop up in three different places. How they connect is intriguing.
-
Southeast Asia markets enjoyed a record 2021. Can they build on this?
-
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.
-
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.
-
A year ago, Sber’s stellar profitability looked to be under threat. This year, it has defied the doubters and has just unveiled record net profit for the first nine months of the year.
-
Turkey’s currency continues to flounder, with hardline president Erdoğan apparently determined to prove that the best way to curb inflation is to reduce – rather than increase – interest rates.
-
Euromoney’s Mystic Maca has looked into the future and it’s all about getting things back to the way they were.
-
Emerging Europe has been slow to join the fight against climate change. Now the region’s biggest banking group is making its voice heard.
-
Chief executive of commercial banking Doug Petno says advanced payments technology rather than lending is the key to winning mid-market clients.
-
Central banks have dominated financial markets through years of interest-rate repression that inflated bond and equity valuations. Suddenly inflation, running at highs not seen for decades, threatens all this. Do central banks have the credibility and capacity to cope with the monster from the 1970s that has returned with a vengeance?
-
Earlier this year HSBC chief executive Noel Quinn pledged $6 billion of investment in Asia – half of it outside Greater China. Having recognized he can do so much more in southeast Asia and India, how will he achieve this?
-
-
As COP26 winds up, Euromoney looks at how a big reduction in fossil-fuel consumption might impact the currencies of the world’s leading coal and oil exporters.
-
Rabobank CEO Wiebe Draijer says that private finance must have a role in financing the transition to a more sustainable, equitable and healthy way of feeding the planet.
-
Governments have been slow to impose compulsory cap and trade schemes, but if voluntary markets nudge them along, a new asset class could flourish.
-
Nazir Razak, who built CIMB from an obscure Malaysian merchant bank to a pan-regional universal player, is the youngest of five brothers. The eldest, Najib, was the prime minister who was convicted for his role in the 1MDB scandal. That pitted the two against one another. In the background of the brothers’ opposition was the legacy of their father.
-
The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) is one of the most closely watched developments in climate standards to have been announced at COP26. Although its launch was the culmination of an ambitious project, its work is only just beginning.
-
A new programme announced at COP26 plans to speed up progress away from coal-fired power in Indonesia and the Philippines by buying out plants, shutting them down, and helping to provide a cleaner alternative.
-
Intense competition for assets means that risk is being mispriced.
-
The COP26 summit requires serious and inspired leadership, which its host looks ill-suited to provide.
-
Policymakers in Moscow are finally promising to tackle climate change. Will the Russian private sector follow suit?
-
Investors fear that many Asian governments aren’t doing enough to transition to net zero. They are therefore engaging with the region’s largest utilities hoping for better results. CLP may be an example for others to follow.
-
There has always been great overlap between Shariah-compliant finance and ESG principles. Malaysia is trying to harness the potential that arises from this confluence.
-
A new poll by the data-room technology provider finds that worries over the potential for post-deal value destruction because of climate change have added to a risk environment already heightened by the coronavirus pandemic.
-
President Xi Jinping has set out ambitious plans to decarbonize China’s economy. But most companies and banks, hampered by a lack of top-down regulation, have little idea what ESG is, let alone how to measure and report it. It is a mess – and one that China needs to clear up fast.
-
Before long, investors will pay as close attention to an issuer’s green framework as to its credit rating.
-
China unveiled a plan for its first national parks on Friday, the final day of the COP15 conference in Kunming. It reveals the weight of Party concerns about pollution and biodiversity fragmentation, and their impact on political stability.
-
Supervisors attending this year’s meeting of the Institute of International Finance were at pains to show they would not be rushing to impose capital penalties on banks based on climate stress tests. But the issue is at the heart of a debate over what the limits to regulatory scope should be.
-
The banking sector will never pick its way through the climate change jungle without harmonized regulations. To meet global risks, a global sector needs global standards. It is time for Basel V.
-
The BlackRock chief executive sees a big gap opening up between the commitments of large public companies and banks and the rest of society as inflation hits.
-
Sustainable agriculture holds the key to reducing emissions and transforming the global food system, says Rabo Carbon Bank’s chief executive.
-
Green bonds are still a tiny percentage of total market outstandings, so maybe borrowers making net-zero pledges should tie all their liabilities to them.
-
Bank of America’s Abyd Karmali is on the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures. He spoke to Euromoney ahead of the nature-based COP15 and climate-based COP26 conferences about what is at stake.
-
The issuance of green bonds is that rare thing: a strategy on which the EU and UK agree. That is especially welcome because achieving net zero will require the participation of enormous volumes of private capital.
-
Amazonia Impact Ventures says that financing sustainable agricultural production can reduce deforestation rates.
-
Climate change cannot be tackled in isolation. Biodiversity is an equally important challenge, and the two must be considered in tandem. A new report backed by Singapore’s Temasek spells out the challenge and the opportunity.
-
Want to know what banks will be doing at COP26? Give them a minute and they’ll get back to you…
-
Credit Suisse’s chief sustainability officer is no ESG ideologue. She is at heart a hard-nosed investment banker who sees a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to guide clients to a more sustainable future.
-
South African banks’ sustainable finance challenges reflect the nation’s difficult but vital transition away from coal.
-
Macquarie Group chief executive Shemara Wikramanayake has laid out her bank’s ambitions in green energy, as its Green Investment Group reports a record portfolio.
-
A year after launch, the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets is close to setting standards for a murky market. Board member Chris Leeds discusses the journey so far, the challenges ahead and the opportunities that standardization could create for banks.
-
Annual stress tests of bank balance sheets were one of the last decade’s most obvious supervisory responses to the global financial crisis. With a wave of new bottom-up assessments now getting under way, regulators hope to do something similar with climate risks. Can they do it or will this simply result in a toothless box-ticking exercise?
-
Derivatives could turbocharge environmental, social and governance markets, with a related boost to bank revenues. However, they could also make it harder to monitor exposure.
-
Gas price volatility is delivering profits to speculators. It is a reminder that carbon trading markets could face PR problems if energy dealers are viewed as big beneficiaries.
-
The rising price of oil and gas in this recovery underlines the need for much greater investment in clean energy.
-
Many initiatives have promised to crowd in private capital through the catalytic effect of their own seed investment. Will this one work?
-
James Gifford’s life changed when he hopped aboard a flight from Sydney in 2003. The team he joined in Geneva framed the UN’s Principles for Responsible Investment, created the concept of ‘ESG’ and changed the world.
-
The world has been pressuring Brazil about the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest within its borders for decades. New ESG-style initiatives are being adopted by Brazilian banks and businesses, but it could be the climate impact closer to home that’s creating the impetus for real change.
-
Investors must understand the limits of regulatory efforts to measure climate stress at banks.
-
Gustavo Montezano has been president of BNDES since July 2019. He is on a mission to get Brazil’s state development bank to adapt to the new financial reality of ESG. How the resultant tensions play out will be crucial to the development of Brazil and the world.
-
Can multilateral development banks fight climate change while still promoting economic development in emerging markets? The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is the first to set out concrete plans on how to do this.
-
China faces tough choices in the months ahead. Make the right decisions and it can become the global leader in ESG, a country determined to shed its industrial past and embrace a cleaner, greener future.
-
Australia is not the first country that comes to mind with regards to climate action. But away from the political rhetoric, the exceptionally powerful superannuation funds and corporates are pushing change. The key is an acceptance that in Australia it’s all about transition.
-
Brazil’s central bank attempts to redress the country’s woeful environmental reputation with climate-related stress tests.
-
DBS is the world’s best bank and Morgan Stanley is the world’s best investment bank in Euromoney’s 2021 Awards for Excellence. New awards recognise financial innovation and the growing importance of ESG in banking.
-
The Singapore-based lender has established a new benchmark for SME banking
-
A flurry of new services, including DBS Digital Exchange and Climate Impact X, have kept the Singaporean lender in pole position.
-
The French bank’s innovative and collaborative approach to data is central to its sustainable finance strategy.
-
It’s a sign of a well-run bank when it not only survives a pandemic largely unscathed but uses it as an opportunity to gain ground. Characteristically, DBS’s Piyush Gupta not only kept the bank on course but used the crisis to make two potentially transformative acquisitions, launch two new exchanges and think afresh about what banking should look like.
-
In a year when the race to net zero really got under way, biodiversity protection rose to the top of the agenda and Covid exacerbated the need for social support, one bank stood out for innovation, breadth of coverage and rigorous use of data
-
The great financial innovator shone again in global wealth management.
-
In a tough year, quality and quantity mattered to the public sector. BNP Paribas offered both.
-
The US bank has turned pandemic-inspired strategic conversations with companies into mandates.
-
A full range of best-in-class products, strong advisory capabilities and global reach are more important than ever in post-pandemic corporate banking.
-
The bank is keen to get started on taking the tough decisions needed to achieve net zero.
-
Under the leadership of James Gorman, Morgan Stanley has reshaped its business mix in ways that it thinks will position it for a world in which its clients need more connectivity than ever. Driving that process in its investment bank is co-president Ted Pick.
-
One of the stars of Estonia’s post-Soviet generation, André Küüsvek, talks to Euromoney about escaping lockdown in Kazakhstan, expanding the NIB’s environmental remit and the risks posed by rising inequality.
-
A new analysis of European banks by ShareAction finds that while some firms distinguish themselves in some climate and biodiversity practices, the overall picture is of a sector that still has much work to do.
-
This time last year, Euromoney recognized progress at Deutsche Bank as the best transformation story of 2020. Twelve months on, the German lender might be getting its act together at last. Can it sustain its recovery?
-
Bright people, information overload and impenetrable jargon: our ESG editor Lucy Fitzgeorge-Parker reflects on her first 12 months covering a fast-growing sector.
-
The region's best banks, country by country
-
The New Development Bank will add at least four new member countries next month, with the likes of Bangladesh and Egypt leading the charge to join. A concerted focus on ESG and more private-sector lending are also on the cards for the Shanghai-based multilateral.
-
The region's best banks, country by country
-
The IFC’s Latin America head sees local capital markets growth as key to financing sustainability.
-
The region's best banks, country by country
-
The region's best banks, country by country
-
Under chief executive Bolaji Balogun, Chapel Hill Denham has become Nigeria’s preeminent independent investment bank, rivalling Standard Bank’s Stanbic IBTC for dominance. Its leadership is most evident on the advisory side, where it’s the go-to house in Africa’s biggest economy.
-
Many banks could press strong claims to be western Europe’s best investment bank for the first year of Covid – when all issuers desperately needed financing, corporations and sovereigns sought strategic advice and investors required ideas and liquidity to rapidly adjust market exposures.
-
The region's best banks, country by country
-
As well as winning the best bank and best bank for financing awards, BNP Paribas is also western Europe’s best bank for sustainable finance.
-
The region's best banks, country by country
-
Not the biggest but the most profitable. That’s the strategy of Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) and it’s one that – with a return on average equity of 28.5% in 2020 – it is clearly achieving among its banking competitors in its home country Nigeria and also across Africa.
-
Access Bank sets the digital agenda for banking in Africa. It has been a long journey to this award, a process accelerated by the 2019-approved merger with Diamond Bank, but it has been worth it. The Lagos-headquartered bank compares itself, not to its regional peers, but to the best internationally, such as the UK’s Monzo. At the end of March 2021, it had 9.8 million digital customers and reckons it is adding 500,000 new users each month.
-
DBS’s digital capability was tested to the core by Covid, and it not only stepped up but turned the situation to its advantage. From consumer to institutional, DBS used the opportunity to convert clients to digital channels, benefiting from improved economics as it did so. Before long the government was counting on the bank to disburse emergency payments to those under stress.
-
In a market of more than 5,000 banks, competition in the US is fierce. But among the clutch of sizeable regional banks, one firm has seen a remarkable transition since its IPO in 2014, under the steady leadership of chief executive Bruce Van Saun. Citizens wins the award for the US’s best bank.
-
The region's best banks, country by country
-
Evaluating wealth management capabilities between banks isn’t straightforward because so much of the service verges on the intangible. However, this year there was a hard number that seemed solid enough on which to base the decision. Between the first quarters of 2020 and 2021 XP Private grew its assets under custody by 263% to R$240 billion.
-
It’s not often any bank sits above JPMorgan in an important financing league table, but BNP Paribas far outstrips the US bank as a bookrunner both of syndicated loans and of debt capital markets deals for borrowers in western Europe.
-
The region's best banks, country by country
-
The region's best banks, country by country
-
The region's best banks, country by country
-
No regional lender comes close to competing with Mashreq Bank for the best digital bank award. Under group chief executive Ahmed Abdelaal and head of corporate and investment banking Joel Van Dusen, the Dubai-based lender has become not just a powerhouse in digital but a leader too. It continues to invest heavily in blockchain. Its Trade Tracker platform allows corporates to track all transactions in real time and to view them all in a single window. TradeFursaa sucks in data from the bank’s business lines, then uses AI and big data to identify opportunities for traders and exporters.
-
When Covid began to close in on southeast Asia in 2020, UOB didn’t wait. In February 2020, before any government support and before much of the west had even acknowledged there was a virus to worry about, UOB announced S$3 billion of relief assistance to SME clients.
-
The region's best banks, country by country
-
TD Securities is far from being the biggest investment bank in Canada, but its performance in the awards period saw it post impressive gains in both its investment banking and markets businesses. After many years, it dislodges its bigger rival RBC Capital Markets to win Euromoney’s award for Canada’s best investment bank.
-
DBS retains the award for Asia’s best bank for its outstanding response to the Covid-19 crisis.
-
The region's best banks, country by country
-
The region's best banks, country by country
-
Corporate responsibility is at the heart of what National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) does. It is hard to find worthy projects, causes and charities that the Manama-based lender is not involved in funding and furthering.
-
Business diversification has proved to be a crucial asset for BNP Paribas over the past year. Relatively intact operations such as fixed income trading have provided vital props to its financial performance compared with local rivals that had made deeper cuts to those businesses pre-Covid. Post-pandemic the bank has become even more important as a financier to its western European clients. It has also moved earlier than other top-tier global banks to burnish its sustainability credentials.
-
Many are still a long way from understanding the risk climate change poses to their businesses.
-
China’s lenders are keen to go green, as Ping An Bank chairman Xie Yonglin tells Euromoney. Regulators want that, too – but embracing ESG in a country still in thrall to dirty industry is easier said than done.
-
Private equity has been slow to join the ESG revolution. More firms are waking up to the opportunities on offer as well as the downside risks.
-
Since Jes Staley took charge of Barclays at the end of 2015, he has faced constant questions over his ability to reposition the firm as a credible force in investment banking. Sticking to his guns in the face of activist shareholder pressure, he now looks vindicated, but growing from here presents a new challenge.
-
The two banks plus Singapore’s stock exchange and sovereign wealth vehicle believe they have the collective strength and skills to build Climate Impact X, based initially on southeast Asian forestry and mangrove projects.
-
Biodiversity loss now competes with climate change as the principal challenge for sustainable finance. What does it actually mean for banks and asset managers and what can the private sector do to restore the balance of nature?
-
The former head of Credit Suisse has a network of wealthy investors to provide patient capital to a target and a vision for growth from his time at Prudential.
-
After a lifetime in Vienna, Peter Bosek has moved 1,600 kilometres north to head up Blackstone’s banking operation in the Baltics. He talks to Euromoney about life in Tallinn, how to take advantage of millennials’ new-found enthusiasm for investment and what banks can learn from Netflix.
-
It has the backing of Prince Charles, as well as several big names in banking – but will the Financial Services Taskforce contribute anything new to the fight against climate change?
-
The Spanish group’s rise to private banking prominence didn’t happen overnight. An internal merger helped, as did work integrating Europe and Latin America. The next step will be the biggest of all, as it begins a concerted push into the US.
-
UBS still cream of the crop as JPMorgan, Santander stand tall
-
Brazil should be well placed to benefit from renewed interest in forestry projects, but the country’s restrictive land laws could lead foreign investment to flow elsewhere.
-
Fears over greenwashing claims have often dissuaded issuers from the Middle East from entering the sustainable bond markets. That could be set to change.
-
If the market for sustainable finance is ever to achieve true scale, it needs to crack the tough nut of sustainable trade finance solutions.
-
Previously known as reverse factoring, sustainable supply-chain finance is one of the products currently generating the most interest among both banks and their corporate clients.
-
The US president’s prompt action in rejoining the Paris Agreement has given encouragement to environmentalists at home and abroad. What should be next on his green hit list?
-
European bank shares have rallied even though the pain of loan losses still lies ahead. It is also not clear how they will repay emergency ECB funding
-
Russia’s big state bank wants to be the leading player in the country’s fast-growing e-commerce sector. It could succeed.
-
From Covid relief funds to the COP26 climate summit, sustainability is expected to dominate the global agenda this year as never before.
-
Every bank wants to rebrand as a tech player, but few are aiming as high as Sberbank.
-
Euromoney’s futurologist Mystic Maca gets on a Zoom call with next year, when markets return to a version of normality.
-
A global green recovery is still a distant ambition, but leadership across sectors is slowly coming together.
-
The sheer weight of investor demand for sovereign issuance means that the UK government could be warming up to the idea of a green gilt.
-
A specialist calculation agent reckons now is an ideal time to break into a busy region for equity-linked deals.
-
In 1994, Aditya Puri left Citibank to launch a new institution in a rapidly changing India. As he prepares to retire after 26 years, HDFC Bank stands apart as the strongest and most successful private-sector bank in the country.
-
Mark Carney has put his weight behind a new taskforce to speed up the development of voluntary carbon markets. The aim is to build infrastructure that will create liquid and investable carbon offset markets.
-
JPMorgan was not the only bank that came into the Covid crisis with a strong balance sheet, but, as in 2008, the bank has shown that its diverse business lines and fortress balance sheet are what distinguishes it from the pack.
-
Wholehearted commitment and revamped leadership have helped Barclays find a new vigour in its markets division.
-
It was not the only bank that came into the Covid crisis with a strong balance sheet, but, as in 2008, the bank has shown that its diverse businesses provide plentiful earnings to take big reserves, even while it keeps financing large corporates and small businesses alike. Deposits have flooded in, technology investments have proved their worth and it is winning more business from mid-cap clients inside and outside the US – and it coped with the temporary absence of a legendary chief executive.
-
Whether on Covid-19, systemic racial inequality or climate change, Bank of America’s CEO has demonstrated how the financial industry can respond on every front – and why stakeholder capitalism is not only needed but works
-
JPMorgan named World’s Best Bank in Euromoney Awards for Excellence 2020; Goldman Sachs is the World’s Best Investment Bank; Brian Moynihan at Bank of America is named Banker of the Year; and HDFC’s Aditya Puri receives recognition for Lifetime Achievement.
-
Using its balance sheet to help the transition to net zero emissions, racial equality and economic mobility, while supporting employees through Covid-19 and assisting communities in all markets it operates in, Bank of America has put corporate responsibility at its core.
-
Shenzhen-based Ping An Bank didn’t tweak the rulebook when it set out in pursuit of a better digital strategy. Instead, it tore it up and began again. The Chinese bank’s plans have worked beyond all expectations.
-
Joseph Poon is group head of DBS Private Bank, one of Asia’s leading wealth managers. But the event that drives him today, informing his values and his views on investing and risk management, was stepping aboard a rickety raft in 1976 to flee an impoverished and divided Vietnam.
-
The $40 trillion environmental, social and governance investment industry is built on a bedrock of data from an ever-widening range of sources. Is that data fit for purpose?
-
The greatest wealth transfer in history is taking place, as baby boomers pass the mantle – and their money – to a lucky few millennials, but the process is strewn with obstacles. Inheriting a lot of money is one thing, knowing what to do with it quite another. This is where good relationship managers come in.
-
A bold move by New Zealand’s Jarden to hire some of the finest talent in Australian investment banking and go it alone feeds the sense of a changing competitive landscape.
-
The US bank’s Asia chief executive and former global head of financial institutions group talks to Euromoney about his ambitions in digital, wealth and transaction banking, and about the bank’s future as a leader of both global and local change.
-
We asked respondents to indicate their top providers of cash management, and separately to offer detailed customer satisfaction rankings of providers based on their delivery of essential services. Those responses generate the survey's ‘market leader’ and ‘best service’ rankings.
-
DBS is a bank at the top of its game. For the second year in a row, it not only wins the best bank in Asia award but canters away with it at high speed.
-
Credit Suisse wins the award for Latin America’s best bank for wealth management.
-
The pandemic and following market crisis during 2020 has seen many high net-worth individuals across central and eastern Europe return to the safety and security of large international banks. Among those benefiting from this flight to safety has been Credit Suisse, which has seen increases in net new assets over the first few months of the year.
-
Center-Invest Bank became the first Russian bank to issue a green bond with its R250 million ($3.56 million) offering in November last year. It was a natural step for a bank that has been committed to the environment and responsible banking from its inception.
-
This year's Awards for Excellence recognise the pivotal role banks have performed throughout the pandemic to address the impact on clients, both financial and emotional.
-
The vital role for UK corporate clients played by Barclays was clearer than ever during the coronavirus crisis: the bank arranged £9.9 billion of commercial paper issuance under the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility, almost half of the total.
-
In a region where the greatest amount of wealth is in the hands of entrepreneurs, it is a ‘bank for entrepreneurs’ that many of those wealthy individuals need and that is Credit Suisse. It wins the award this year for Asia’s best bank for wealth management.
-
When Singapore suffered a second spike in coronavirus cases in April, attention turned to the city state’s migrant labourers, an army of essential workers described by a former head of the National University of Singapore’s Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health as society’s “most invisible” members.
-
-
DBS takes the award for Asia’s best bank for transaction services this year.
-
-
Early on in the coronavirus crisis, Credit Suisse’s senior management was instrumental in the design and implementation of Switzerland’s scheme of government-guaranteed loans. The scheme was so successful that other countries later moved to bring their programmes in line with it.
-
It was a year of milestones for Morgan Stanley in sustainability, a journey that began in 2013 with the establishment of the Sustainable Investing Institute under Audrey Choi, the bank’s chief sustainability officer.
-
What CB Bank did right in the early days of Covid-19 was to recognize that the main pressure facing its customers was a shortage of cash.
-
How one US health-insurance plan looked after itself and the providers its policyholders rely on when routine treatment demand started to dry up.
-
A quick reaction to warning signs in Asia meant Atlantic Natural Foods was better positioned than some to deal with Covid-19 – but it still needed flexibility from its bank
-
Bill Demchak, CEO of PNC Financial Services, has spent years building the firm into a formidable force; its exit from BlackRock now sees it on the cusp of a new era.
-
The New Development Bank, born in Shanghai 2015 to help the five ‘Brics' countries, has had a good pandemic, disbursing $4 billion in emergency funding and printing a maiden US dollar bond. Its future plans: more capital, more members and a better credit rating.
-
The US investment bank is finally enjoying the fruits of a decade of investment in Asia. It has spent big to hire the bankers and analysts it needs to drive deal activity in China, Japan and Australia. Now the hard part starts – making money.
-
Industrial Bank is one of the Chinese banks working to ensure the world post-Covid-19 looks as green as can be, through a diversity of green finance products designed to support investment.
-
Euromoney magazine has released the results of its 42nd annual foreign exchange survey, the most comprehensive quantitative and qualitative annual study available on the FX markets.
-
Just like the global financial crisis, Australia is emerging from Covid-19 more strongly than the rest of the developed world. Investment banks here have never been busier, raising huge sums of equity from one of the world’s largest asset pools. In the first of a two-part series on Australian investment banking, we look at the work that came out of a global pandemic.
-
A new Euromoney podcast series traces the relationship between space and the private sector, from the early Cold War state-funded model of Apollo to one in which venture capital backs the most interesting and visionary ideas.
-
In this Euromoney Livestream hosted by Euromoney’s Middle East and Africa editor, we discuss why the economic and health implications of Covid-19 have lead to calls for debt relief, what this might look like for Africa's recovery, and how debt management might look in the future.
-
Mainland Chinese firms invested $72.2 billion in Africa between 2014 and 2018, much of it through the Belt and Road Initiative. Now that Covid-19 has struck, there is a growing sense of unease in Beijing over calls to write off debt to stressed African states.
-
African governments and SOEs owe China more than $150 billion and Covid-19 is limiting their ability to repay. Will this usher in debt-trap diplomacy or are Chinese lenders playing a longer game?
-
Capital markets volumes show how well the industry has adapted since the coronavirus crisis began, but as economies emerge from lockdown, bankers and clients need to look much further ahead.
-
Banks have to prepare for crises; if investors won’t make companies do the same, should someone else?
-
Capital markets bankers and their clients are finding that a lot can be done from home; as lockdowns ease, travel will matter more than offices.
-
Amid the wild price swings and surging volumes in bond and equity markets that characterized the first phase of the pandemic, traders just about coped while working from home. Even as some return to the office, technology must cope with the new ways of working.
-
For wealthy clients, the Covid-19 crisis has afforded an opportunity to test the asset-allocation advice and lending capabilities of their wealth managers
-
Companies never want to sell equity at rock bottom prices, but bank lenders will often only relax covenants and hold off seizing assets if new capital comes in below them. Enter private equity managers with dry powder, snapping up big preferred stock deals to help cash-strapped issuers bolster their capital structures.
-
Having raised liquidity in March, Latin American companies are now trying to assess the best way forward. Will they need new debt, fresh equity, or will the economy return sufficiently for them to simply repay?
-
Fears that the Covid-19 virus might live on banknotes and coins has focused public attention on once esoteric experiments with central bank digital currency. The virus has also exposed the slow pace of emergency government support payments through the conventional banking system, so what once sounded futuristic may be coming soon. CBDC just got real.
-
Central bank intervention has delayed the deluge of insolvency that Covid-19 lockdowns will cause, but it can only plug the dike for so long. Lenders face the grim prospect of deciding who to save and who to let go.
-
Foreign capital is flooding into Chinese bonds, but investors would be wise to scrutinize the myriad ways by which issuers can wriggle out of meeting their obligations. China’s bond markets are vibrant and attractive, but – all too often – unruly.
-
Our team of data specialists are always on hand to answer your questions.
-
A shift away from cash due to the Covid-19 lockdowns should be a godsend for firms such as Revolut, N26, Monzo and Starling. But venture capital funds were already getting fed up with neobanks’ growth-first strategies before the coronavirus caused a slump in core payments revenues. Those with weaker equity backing may struggle to survive.
-
No developed market in the world has blue-chip banks paying higher dividends than those in Australia. It’s implausible to continue doing so during the coronavirus crisis – but banks fear a backlash from the income-loving retirees and retail folk who make up half their investor base.
-
Banks have been trying to rebuild trust since the global financial crisis. They have touted corporate responsibility and stakeholder capitalism as core tenets of their businesses. Covid-19 and the subsequent economic crisis will be a big test of their commitment.
-
In this Euromoney Livestream hosted by Euromoney’s transaction services editor, corporate treasurers discuss the work they are doing to keep business running under lockdown and what their post-pandemic treasury plans could look like.
-
Financial technology is not being employed to its best effect, while the coronavirus financial relief effort is struggling. Banks need to innovate and work with fintechs if they are to ensure that the most vulnerable do not get left behind.
-
From the World Bank to the African Development Bank, multilaterals are pooling cash and human resources to combat the impact of Covid-19 on members. They’re doing a good job with what they have, but, in a capital-constrained world, should they be mobilizing more?
-
The coronavirus crisis has hit Europe so hard and so suddenly that banks have to radically rethink their normal approaches to dealing with a crisis.
-
Some parts of US investment bank earnings in the first quarter of the year looked more like boom than bust as record trading and debt issuance helped offset weakness elsewhere. Now the banks are building reserves to prepare for coming out of lockdown
-
The momentum for environmental finance had been growing, but Covid-19 has forced a pause. Can environmental finance help economies to ‘build back better’? And how can that movement boost environmental finance?
-
UK banks have faced a torrent of criticism for slow delivery of the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme, but the real problem is that the UK is providing loans that need to be repaid. Grants offered by governments such as Germany look better designed.
-
Fast-track financing, infrastructure support and equity investment opportunities: first vice-president Jürgen Rigterink details the development bank’s Covid-19 crisis response – and delivers a warning to banks in its region.
-
Bernhard Spalt talks to Euromoney about banks’ responsibility to lend, the risk of a ‘blame game’ and the prospects for a return to business as usual in emerging Europe.
-
With consumers and businesses demanding instant access to Covid-19 support financing, the RBI chief executive warns of a backlash against banks.
-
The AIIB has spent five years laying down foundations; the next five will define it. This leanest and newest of the multilaterals is responding rapidly to the coronavirus challenge. The lessons it learns now will help boost and broaden its role.
-
The president of the Inter-American Development Bank tells Euromoney how the bank is reacting to the Covid-19 virus and why he thinks the lasting legacy could be a positive one.
-
Global banks are finally getting full access to China’s capital markets. Regulators will let them own joint ventures outright as they roll out a host of services from forex to advisory to wealth management. For Beijing it’s a final frontier – and there’s no going back.
-
When corporates needed access to credit as the Covid-19 crisis ravaged Brazil’s markets, the big banks baulked or raised their costs dramatically. Is this the price of such a consolidated market, one that also provides much-needed stability in times of turmoil?
-
The biggest challenge in German banking has suddenly gone from job cuts to handing out state-guaranteed loans as quickly as possible.
-
Shanghai’s new Nasdaq-style bourse has done more IPOs and raised more capital than any Chinese exchange – including Hong Kong – during the Covid-19 crisis. Questions remain, but so far the Star Market has been a resounding success.
-
Even banks with resilient technology must think differently about how to make their systems fit for the years after the coronavirus panic fades.
-
Euromoney Livestream with special guest: Mahmoud Mohieldin, Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Agenda, United Nations
-
The FX market has quickly adapted to the changes imposed by global Covid-19 response measures. The challenge for the banks will be to manage the next phase of the lockdown when clients will expect them to do more than just keep the lights on.
-
From financial support and flexible working to Zoom ‘happy hours’, choirs, online yoga and mindfulness classes, banks around the world are seeking to address employee mental health during the Covid-19 crisis
-
Diversify or specialize: that has been the question for all the big global corporate and investment banks since the financial crisis of 2008 – we delve into the data to see who did what.
-
Bronte Capital’s John Hempton takes a unique approach to finding the stocks he wants to short; it has given him a cult following in his native Australia and beyond.
-
The country’s financial system has been transformed over the last decade, and the Viet Kieu has played a crucial role in that; Euromoney speaks to some of its leading lights about what they are doing and why.
-
They seemed to be emerging, blinking, into the light of a normal financial system under former president Mauricio Macri, but that moment has gone; the new administration has sent real rates negative, while economic and credit growth look to be years away.
-
Volumes more than doubled in March; before the coronavirus crisis hit, Euromoney spoke to market participants about why portfolio trading will transform bond market liquidity.
-
DBS’s chief executive has transformed it into a globally respected bank and a leader in digital finance. What’s next for the Singapore-based lender? It sees an open door to becoming a truly pan-Asian financial institution, with sustainability at its core
-
HSBC’s strategy shift will see it deploy more capital, assets and risk to the region. The challenge is the same one it faced a decade ago: how to do more in China and southeast Asia. But the truth is that the bank is not as strong beyond Hong Kong as it should be
-
UPDATED June 4: Euromoney is making changes to this year's Awards for Excellence programme to reflect the impact of Covid-19; see new guidelines, dates and categories here.
-
Recruited to set up a national payments system, the central bank’s Olga Skorobogatova has overseen initiatives to protect consumers and promote competition in Russia’s banking sector. In her first interview with international media, she talks sandboxes, blockchain and the challenges of regulating bank ecosystems.
-
Private equity buyers have never had so much cash to put to work; they are already looking to make new investments in companies that will survive the lockdowns.
-
Corporate treasurers are doing everything they can to keep businesses running as smoothly as possible during these challenging times. How do their relationships with bank partners hold up in times of stress?
-
Banks came into the coronavirus pandemic much stronger than they went into the global financial crisis, but will the capital and liquidity buffers they have built be sufficient to see them through the most dramatic economic crash in history?
-
As Covid-19 has spread around the world, there's been an increased focus on the World Bank's pandemic bond. But what exactly is it? And how does it work? Watch this video explainer to find out.
-
-
Paraguay has achieved a lot in the last decade. A raft of laws to underpin the management of its economy – such as inflation targeting and the fiscal responsibility law – created a stable macro-economic environment just before the commodities bust that sent other economies in the region into a downward fiscal spin.
-
A blizzard of monetary and fiscal policy announcements finally began to calm market nerves this week; but bankers and analysts are struggling to figure out what more might be needed – and just what kind of crisis this is.
-
A message from the editor
-
Euromoney's latest coverage of black gold.
-
In June, Singapore’s regulator will hand licences to three new wholesale digital banks in a bid to better serve under-banked SMEs. Euromoney talks to Arival Bank, a fintech firm aiming to snag a licence and use it to fuel its global ambitions.
-
Retail banking has been disrupted. Now comes wholesale’s moment, as banks shift into a higher gear to meet the increasingly onerous demands of digitally connected corporates. Only the best and most adaptable firms are likely to survive.
-
Expo 2020 showcases economic and business opportunities in Dubai. Bankers hope it will lead to a boom in areas such as SME lending and infrastructure investment, but worry that a short-term lift will not be enough to dispel broader concerns about the country’s economy.
-
Despite MSCI index inclusion and a landmark trade by Saudi Aramco, global funds are still $70 billion underweight Gulf equities, but the UAE and Saudi are making progress in deepening markets.
-
The government’s response to the lack of financial inclusion is to build thousands of new banks throughout the country, but it faces a big challenge in weaning potential customers away from the black economy.
-
Euromoney's latest coverage of how Beijing is seeking to globalize the renminbi, through currency swaps and trade-financing facilities; the rise of the offshore bond market; and how fee-hungry banks are salivating at the prospect of the RMB’s growth.
-
The leading banks in Euromoney’s Trade Finance Survey 2020 comment on the highlights of the last 12 months and their expectations for the year to come.
-
UBS Global Wealth Management retains the top spot; JPMorgan is a standout, too.
-
Euromoney Private Banking and Wealth Management Survey 2020: Methodology
-
Best Private Banking Services Overall Net-worth-specific services: Mega HNW (>$250m) UHNW (>$30mln-$250mln) HNW ($5mln-$30mln) Super Affluent ($1mln-$ 5mln) Capital Markets and Advisory ESG/Impact Investing Family Office Services International Clients Investment Management Next Generation Philanthropic Advice Research and Asset Allocation Advice Serving Business Owners Data Management and Security Innovative or Emerging Technology Adoption
-
More than 2,000 private bankers took part in the 2020 Euromoney private banking survey. See who’s up and who’s down globally, regionally and domestically.
-
With Santander Brasil registering record profits and Santander Mexico promising the same, the outlook for the group looks Latin. As its European business stalls, how will the bank be affected by Latin America’s shift from engine of growth to core business?
-
Across the UK, Legal & General has invested over £22 billion in affordable housing, homes for the homeless, clean energy, life sciences, creative industries, and technology and infrastructure. Is this the institutional-scale impact model we have been waiting for?
-
For all the detail, the firm's long-awaited investor day doesn't end the questions about its strategy
-
The global bank has refreshed its senior management but needs to start demonstrating its platform can deliver best-in-class returns.
-
Investors are buying into ICBC’s business growth in diverse areas such as asset management and investment banking.
-
The world-leading bank aims to stay big with long-term investments, no matter what difficult conditions the market throws up.
-
While many European peers languish, Barclays’ transatlantic pivot is paying off – and helping it build elsewhere.
-
Backed by a powerful domestic franchise, Bank of America is performing well through turbulent markets.
-
Returning money to shareholders was an important milestone; building revenues and controlling costs remains the key task.
-
If Brazil does well, Bradesco does well. Its management is confident there are good times ahead.
-
A successful international strategy offers relief from stagnant domestic markets.
-
Analysts think that FAB has the best potential platform of any bank in the region. Can its management deliver?
-
BNP Paribas will reach the end of its three year ‘transformation’ plan in 2020; how has it fared?
-
Spain’s biggest bank is moving further away from its deal-making past, instead seeing a way forward for its troubled US and UK banks in payments and cloud technology.
-
As the bank finally grapples with the restructuring it has needed for years, there are reasons to be optimistic.
-
Investors have rewarded cuts but restructuring may soon recommence, sparking fears of collateral damage in businesses it still cherishes.
-
‘Business as usual’ has been tough for the Swiss bank to achieve over the last 12 months. Management faces a challenge to show the bank will not just survive but thrive.
-
The senior management team at HSBC looks increasingly chaotic. It needs to fix that, before it can fix the bank.
-
The bank may be at the peak of its value creation, as the government looks to promote greater competition in Brazilian banking.
-
Being the world’s leading wealth manager presents challenges in this market environment. UBS is coping relatively well.
-
The Chinese bank is making a big push in areas such as financial inclusion as it targets sustainable ways to build its business and support the Chinese economy.
-
The Qatari bank is investing at home and abroad, growing its loan book and building strong operations in Egypt and Turkey.
-
Despite tough conditions at home and globally, DBS keeps delivering.
-
Italy’s biggest bank has surpassed expectations; higher dividends and share buy-backs could maintain its appeal.
-
With falling rates in Europe and the US, and Turkey still in trouble, only Latin America – especially Mexico – can keep up BBVA’s spirits.
-
The investment bank’s move into new business lines is proving tougher and more expensive than expected.
-
Deep analysis of the performance of Euromoney’s core 25 global banks shows them struggling to drive momentum in the face of difficult markets, high capital requirements and low-to-negative rates.
-
With wealth management outperforming even its senior management’s expectations, the US firm is looking to build in other areas.
-
The bank is penetrating deeper into its home markets to complement its long-standing international growth initiatives.
-
Euromoney’s Private Banking Awards are the most prestigious in the growing area of wealth management. They cover over 60 countries each year, as well as global and regional awards.
-
Voted for by more than 7000 treasury professionals, find out which banks rank top in the Euromoney Trade Finance Survey 2020.
-
HSBC takes the top spot in Euromoney’s survey for the third year in a row.
-
Sustainable financing is gaining ground in corporate Russia as firms look to improve their environmental, social and governance policies ‒ but can the country’s notorious polluters really go green?
-
When RBS floated Citizens Financial in 2014, it was the biggest bank IPO since the financial crisis and investors were sceptical of its prospects ‒ five years on and RoE and EPS have doubled, the stock trades at a premium, and the bank has shown it can compete with bigger US banks and non-banks alike. Chief executive Bruce Van Saun discusses what comes next.
-
The second of our six proposals to make sustainable finance work is for firms to mandate the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
-
What needs to happen for sustainability to be adopted by mainstream finance and move beyond the realm of pledges, panels and press releases? The first of our six recommendations is for banks to sign up to the Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB).
-
Euromoney has drawn up six recommendations for the sustainable finance sector, based on the views of 20 experts in the field. The fourth of our six proposals is to develop transition finance.
-
How can sustainable finance be moved into the mainstream and made to work better? The fifth of our six recommendations is to target deforestation reduction.
-
Leading bankers in sustainable finance fear that, despite the advances and the rhetoric, the industry is not moving quickly enough. Euromoney asked 20 regional and global heads of sustainable finance for their views: what the experts think might surprise you.
-
Euromoney has spoken to 20 sustainable finance experts about what is needed to bring about real progress. The last of our six recommendations is for efforts to be made to incentivize green finance.
-
Euromoney has spoken to 20 sustainable finance experts about what is needed to make efforts more effective. The third of our six recommendations is to push for the standardization of climate risk measurements.
-
A $30 billion bond from AbbVie has given US dollar investment-grade corporate debt volumes a boost late in the year, but net issuance is down and the outlook is mixed. Little visibility on large M&A financings is combining with liability management and late-cycle caution to mean that 2020 might be worse
-
It was a bold call to launch a specialist credit business in Asia in 2009, but SC Lowy celebrates its 10th birthday as an established figure in distressed debt and high yield not just at home but also increasingly in Europe. Events in India, however, where the firm holds a position in Essar Steel, are testing its patience and resolve.
-
There were times in the late 1970s and 1980s when Japan dominated entire editions of Euromoney. We have seen it rise, fall and stagnate, with plenty of banking adventures and misadventures along the way. Here are some of the highlights of our 50 years of coverage.
-
The failure of the We Company IPO and the poor performance of Uber and Lyft suggest that investment banks have lost their ability to price IPOs. But it also raises deeper questions. Were the elevated paper valuations of private companies a fantasy of wealth creation that could never be realized? Is the new private equity capital market, which seemed to be maturing into institutional-grade infrastructure in the last 18 months, broken?