While the impact on energy is centre stage, the war in Ukraine is also wreaking havoc on soft commodity prices and trade routes. Trade in agricultural commodities is taking a hit. The pool of banks financing these commodities is already dwindling, while the risks for those that remain are growing.

In what was supposed to be a banner year for Poland’s banks, free universal mortgage holidays are set to halve profits in the sector in 2022. Many fear the government will extend the policy as elections approach in 2023. Are Poland’s attacks on mortgage interest margins in the name of fighting Russia-fuelled inflation a sign of things to come elsewhere?

Argentina faces yet another financial crisis and has brought in a new ‘super-minister’ to try to calm the market and placate the IMF. While he will find a sympathetic ear at the fund, not many other international investors are listening anymore.

As scrutiny of the ESG sector intensifies, how can green funds provide the kind of data that the regulators are starting to demand?

The European Central Bank has made it clear that it would look favourably on big bank mergers to create stronger pan-eurozone lenders. But M&A between large lenders in different eurozone states is still stalling through financial and political fragmentation – despite hopes for a closer union after Brexit and the war in Ukraine.

Groups such as Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, CDPQ and British Columbia Investment were forerunners in the development of new private-market asset classes, particularly infrastructure. Euromoney traces the evolution of the funds’ approaches and scale to the point where they are desired partners for private assets worldwide.

Laos faces bankruptcy, but like another crisis-ridden Asian state, Sri Lanka, its future is not in its own hands. That role is played by China, whose aggressive lending has helped to take one country to the brink of default and the other well past it.

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.

Hamburg Commercial Bank is almost unrecognizable from its former incarnation as one of Germany’s most troubled state-owned banks. Now in private hands, it is proving that even legacy banks in the most sheltered parts of European finance can become dynamic and profitable institutions.

The businesses for which Goldman Sachs is most renowned dominated investment banking last year – but so much else is going on. The firm is enjoying the pay-off from a long effort to expand middle-market coverage and has successfully built a transaction banking platform from scratch that it can now scale up.

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.

The results of this year’s Euromoney FX survey highlight the value of long-term strategic investment in forex.

The Duterte presidency had many problems, but it gave the Philippine central bank and finance ministry room to enact significant change in tax, digital reach, infrastructure and fiscal policy. OF Bank will be among its legacies.

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.

War-induced instability in commodity markets has been a boon for Kuwait and its banking sector. But it only serves to underscore how reliant the country still is on hydrocarbons.

Demographics and technology are creating new markets for financial services in population segments long ignored by traditional banks. The region is seeing a feeding frenzy in fintech startups – and the banks are responding with a new strategy: get ready to meet ‘co-opetition’.

Banks in the Gulf are embracing blockchain, fintech, cryptocurrencies and AI as they look to cater to changing consumer demands and a rapidly evolving financial landscape.

Since its establishment at the COP26 conference in 2021, the International Sustainability Standards Board has been busy drafting its first standards. Now they are out for consultation, but ISSB chair Emmanuel Faber is already looking beyond them and to the organization’s broader mission.

As their involvement in fintech matures, large banks are focusing on building standalone digital businesses rather than just taking stakes in third-party startups through venture capital funds and accelerators. Can these new in-house ventures disprove the thesis that incumbent banks can’t create disruptive business models?

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.

DBS’s purchase of Citi’s local consumer business in January was a timely reminder of Taiwan’s allure. Yes, the island lies on a geopolitical fault line and the banking sector is crowded. But it’s also profitable and now welcomes digital disruption.

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 intelligence specialist OakNorth is working with a consortium of US banks to assess physical and transition climate risk in loan portfolios. The motivation for the banks is clear: self-preservation in the face of growing climate-related disruption.

With civil unrest, the resignation of half the cabinet and a standstill on sovereign debt repayment, Sri Lanka’s new finance minister, secretary to the treasury and governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka have a lot to do.

As the economy lands with a thud, there’s a dearth of talent in Colombo’s official ranks. Pragmatic diplomacy might now be a better option for the embattled Rajapaksa clan.

War in Europe has completely upended the narrative around energy transition. Corporates and their banks are now engaged in a more complex conversation around the production – and financing – of oil and gas to replace Russian supplies. This could translate into more aggressive shareholder action as ESG investors fight to keep their near-term green agenda on track.

Without Russia, Raiffeisen will be a different entity – one focused on safer countries in the former Habsburg heartlands. The low home-market profitability that Russia once served to mitigate, however, will be more evident than ever.

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.

In a momentous year for the industry, the top tier of trade finance banks remained remarkably stable in this year’s Trade Finance Survey. Supply chain disruption will continue to bedevil the sector and liquidity provision together with digital innovation will place sizeable demands on trade finance banks in 2022.