Euromoney speaks to providers and users of transaction banking in the Gulf region about the market’s growing importance and the localization of expertise.

New FX mortgage scheme; Government plans state bank

Eurozone banks still have a way to go in deleveraging, but investor concern over weak disclosure might close access to equity.

The untimely death of an intern at Bank of America prompted a spate of headlines about the long hours worked in the City of London and Wall Street. Forcing junior staff to put in exceptionally long hours is clearly counterproductive in any sector of banking, as it is in other industries. But the practice reaches a peak of pointlessness in corporate finance, where the Bank of America intern worked. Pure corporate finance, such as mergers and acquisitions or advisory work, is the area in the City where the greatest nominal effort is applied to the least practical effect.

Former chairman arrested in France; $112 million net profit in first half.

The recently discovered regulatory zeal for a focus on gross leverage ratios at banks, rather than capital assessed on risk-weighted assets, is creating a new set of problems for some of the biggest dealers. Barclays and Deutsche Bank in particular have been put on the back foot by the regulatory bait and switch, which comes at an awkward time – just as key engines of their profitability, such as rates trading, are sputtering.

Billionaire looks beyond Hong Kong; Legacy planning underway

Leads the way with low-trigger temporary write-down deal; Regulators will push banks to issue

The new head of the International Finance Corporation, Jin-Yong Cai, tells Euromoney about the need for the World Bank’s private-sector arm to take more risks and be more activist in developing policy ideas in such areas as infrastructure development and poverty reduction.

Telecoms firm opted to pay up to avoid looming rate rises.

Despite recent positive GDP figures, there is still depressed consumer demand and tight credit in large parts of the single-currency area.

The European Commission’s onerous clampdown on money-market reforms will likely ‘kill off’ constant net-asset value funds and potentially encourage investors and corporate treasurers to place excess cash in bank deposits instead, say analysts.

Revived Glass-Steagall-type legislation might well benefit banks more than they like to believe.

The future structure of housing finance in the US might well not be decided on Capitol Hill or New York, but in a small, working-class suburb of San Francisco.

Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, tells Euromoney why no bank is too big to fail and why Texas has much to teach the rest of the US economy

Japanese newspapers often refer to Koichi Hamada as “the brains behind Abenomics”. During a recent visit to Tokyo, the 77-year-old special adviser to Abe spoke frankly to Euromoney not only about Abenomics, but also the character and nationalism of Japan’s prime minister.

Final rules on margin requirements for non-centrally cleared derivatives are expected in the coming days and are likely to include an exemption for foreign exchange swaps and forwards, analysts say. However, lobbying efforts are likely to swiftly move on to whether FX derivatives should be mandated for clearing.

The Fed should continue with its current quantitative-easing programme, given the prolonged US deleveraging cycle and downside risks to inflation and growth, warns Carmen Reinhart, economics professor at Harvard, as fears grow that the tapering of bond purchases, expected in September, will deepen the sell-off in emerging markets.

Greek lenders have beefed up their liquidity and capital buffers in recent months amid a Europe-wide fall in systemic banking risk, according to the latest projections from a European systemic risk index, Euromoney can reveal.