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.

May/June

May/June 2024

It is all about staging when performance is in question.

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.

Some takeovers take time.

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.

SocGen has trader trouble again.

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.