After a record year for fund raising, large fintech companies are now emerging in marketplace lending and payments, with many more newcomers deploying venture capital money raised in $25 million to $50 million chunks to transform capital markets and traditional banking mainstays such as mortgage lending. The fintech start-ups are building revolutionary applications for blockchain, attacking every specialist niche in the financial world and keeping the image of fintech clean with business ventures aimed at inclusion.

The country faces many challenges as it prepares to make itself the global growth leader of tomorrow, not least in infrastructure, capital-market development and up-skilling its workforce. Part of the solution is to make itself more attractive to foreign investors.

February brings with it the cherished annual sight of ANZ coming out in flamboyant fashion ahead of Sydney’s Mardi Gras festival.

With a can-do attitude, the island nation is working hard to move up the league tables by improving domestic conditions for business and inward investment and prompting its international ambitions by signing free-trade agreements with its neighbours.

Stuck to a phone booth in Zurich.

BNP Paribas takes the issue of diversity in the workplace very seriously. A quick glance at its website tells you as much.

It is tempting to wonder if the Libyan Investment Authority’s actions against Goldman Sachs and Société Générale could end up going the same way as Jarndyce and Jarndyce.

Since the financial crisis, plenty of former bankers have sought to restart their careers in a completely new environment. But few have taken the change as far as Heidi Golding.

Plans to pre-fund 2017 in second quarter; Brazil and Argentina imperil growth and investment.

Cheapest access to dollars: politics helps mask economic realities.

Two troubled rights issues should remind banks that underwriting is a discipline, not a formality.

Insurance companies will struggle to fill real asset allocations until the industry gets better at structuring infrastructure risk.

Shores up confidence; retains minority Swiss bank stake.

International banks are picking up the suitcase banking habit in Latin America again. They may find it hard to return.

Buyouts slump to lowest level since 2003; concern grows over forward pipeline.

Adair Turner, who famously took over as chairman of UK bank regulator the Financial Services Authority in September 2008, delivered a thoroughly depressing analysis of the slow and disappointing recovery from the financial crisis at the European Capital Markets Forum last month.

Bank snaps up local advisory firm; M&A activity ‘on upward trajectory’, says CEO.

Asic launches investigations; ANZ, Macquarie and CBA probed.

Corporate debt at record high; NPLs at state lenders also on rise.

Brexit presents a fascinating situation for the financial services community.

Private equity firms quick to exploit oil sector distress; end investors remain cautious.

Polemicists arguing either side of this coin toss abound, from water coolers to Republican primaries. Where once markets drew direction from the pronouncements of Alan Greenspan, they now rise and fall on Chinese numbers. Ironically, no one actually believes the official numbers that China puts out.

Banks off load loans as securitization stalls; start-ups and insurers compete.

CEO to press on with pan-African investment; PLC exit comes as African business turns round.

$94 billion coming due by end-2017; Bahrain pays up after downgrade.

$101 million stolen by cyber-thieves; fears of an inside job.

Mixed regulatory messages cloud the outlook after Italy’s first big bank merger since 2008.

Central bank policy has evolved from unorthodox to downright strange as politicians have failed to take control of the post-crisis economy. Sooner rather later they will confront a stark choice signposted Greece or Ireland.

When the numbers look bleak and central banks are out of tools, cash and gold make sense.

A botched move to take the distressed credit out of Credit Suisse and an ‘acceleration’ of the strategic plan give the impression the bank’s new leader is making it up as he goes along.