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.

There was virtual dancing on Wall Street after investment banks unveiled their first quarter results.

A series of reports by regulators around the German bank’s $2.5 billion fine raise more questions than answers, while serving up embarrassment to remaining senior management.

Bill Winters has some big decisions to mull while he prepares to start his new job as Standard Chartered chief executive.

Soon after Bill Winters was appointed CEO of Standard Chartered, his highest-profile protégé from their shared days at JPMorgan also announced a new job.

CEO Stuart Gulliver helpfully explains HSBC’s former practice of using a Swiss bank account in the name of a Panama registered corporation to take bonus payments for the Hong Kong bank.

Before revelations about HSBC’s private bank, its chairman and CEO were seen as a winning combination. As the fallout becomes increasingly political, could their relationship be coming under threat?

Is Deutsche Bank contemplating a secret Götterdämmerung trade that would hive off sections of its investment bank and offer senior executives an escape route?

New COO Jonathan Moulds will bring a straightforward and sensible approach to the challenges facing Barclays. Will he end up pulling the strings more than CEO Antony Jenkins?

When JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon delivered the welcome news to employees that he had been given the all clear after a recent bout of throat cancer, senior managers in attendance rose to applaud.

Confusion around US insider trading laws has led to a series of recent reverses of insider trading convictions. Perhaps US authorities should look across the Atlantic for inspiration.

The main charge against Goldman Sachs by the US Senate committee investigating commodity market practices was that the bank effectively controlled actions by its metals warehouse subsidiary, Metro International, that created a bottleneck in aluminum supply, and that Goldman could have profited from associated trades in its securities arm.

Paul Simon sang that there are 50 ways to leave your lover, and Goldman Sachs has reminded us that there are just as many ways to sneak a trade through, even when conflicts of interest threaten to drag your reputation back into the mud.

Blackstone and Pimco are talking a good fight when it comes to possible credit market dislocation. The widening in high-yield debt spreads that accompanied a bout of panic in global equity markets in mid October prompted displays of bravado from the investment firms.

Jon Macaskill imagines how the star fund manager might have recorded the reasons behind his shock move from Pimco to Janus Capital. Item one: update his enemy list.

Banking industry analysts are not to be deterred in their quest to quantify the unquantifiable. The new philosopher’s stone for the modern day alchemists of analysis is finding a way to estimate the size and impact of future fines for misconduct by banks. This may not be quite as challenging as transmuting base metal into gold, but it presents difficulties nonetheless.