Macaskill on Markets

A US climate bill filled with green credits will create business for banks and provide relief from the backlash against ESG products.

West Virginia state treasurer Riley Moore has opened another front in a campaign by Republican officials in the US against banks that promote ESG policies.

HSBC Asset Management’s head of responsible investing has had it up to here with consultants and regulators lecturing him on climate change risk.

Goldman Sachs badly underperformed other US banks in first-quarter fixed income results, setting off a frenzy of speculation about trading positions that could have led to the disappointment.

The news that former president Barack Obama has agreed to speak at a Cantor Fitzgerald healthcare conference for a fee of $400,000 raises two important questions.

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein seems to be on a comfortable glide path towards maximizing the value of the performance stock units that will provide most of his future compensation.

Goldman's new incentive scheme for its top management has some curious quirks.

SoftBank’s $3.3 billion purchase of Fortress Investment Group could mark a shift into shadow banking that is as important as its much-hyped plan for a $100 billion technology fund.

A US federal appeals court ruling on February 21 effectively ended a legal attempt by a group of hedge funds to stop the government from collecting billions of dollars of profits made by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in recent years.

The rally in bank stocks seen after Donald Trump’s election victory had stalled by the time of his inauguration as president on January 20. Fourth-quarter results from US banks were also announced in January, giving bank heads a chance to pitch their prospects relative to competitors.

Blythe Masters had what seemed to be a Hillary Clinton-on-election-night moment when Digital Asset, the firm where Masters is CEO, failed to win a role in the most significant blockchain application yet announced.

Jon 'Mystic Mac' Macaskill takes a look at the year ahead in banking and trading

Bank stocks rallied after Trump’s victory in the US election on hopes that higher trading revenue will outweigh potential disruption to global trade. A second act for traders now beckons.

Donald Trump vilified Wall Street during his presidential campaign in stump speeches and an advert that featured an image of Goldman Sachs CEO and chairman Lloyd Blankfein as a symbol of the “corrupt machine” that needed to be overthrown.

A recent $17.5 billion bond issue by Saudi Arabia was hailed as a resounding success by capital market participants who have a strong interest in further fundraising by the kingdom, including an expected IPO of Saudi Aramco that could break records with a size around $100 billion.

It seems $100 billion is the new benchmark fundraising target for firms looking to make an impact.

Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo should make clawbacks of executive compensation a priority as they try to manage crises that threaten their viability.

It has been over a month since Eric Ben-Artzi publicly declined his half share of a whistleblower award of $16.5 million for telling regulators about Deutsche Bank’s inflation of the value of a $98 billion credit derivatives portfolio during the financial crisis.