Still scarred by a leadership crisis in 2014, Ecobank surprised many by looking outside the bank for a new CEO. Ade Ayeyemi already sees himself as an insider just a few weeks into the job – but can he live up to expectations of this ambitious pan-African bank?

Interest rate of 26% for 165-day notes; international return inked in for 2016.

Highest mark of any African Eurobond in 2015; debt sustainability questions linger.

A strong banking sector and growing knowledge economy hold the key to Lebanon’s future growth, central bank governor Riad Salamé tells Euromoney.

Armando Manuel, Angola’s finance minister, says that Angola will still issue a Eurobond despite recurring delays.

Finance minister of heavily indebted nation sees no need to access international capital markets in the coming years.

Ade Ayeyemi says plans to sell a stake in Ecobank’s Nigerian business have been put on hold as current market conditions are not conducive to a successful sale.

Banks in the Middle East are pushing ahead with new digital payment methods as the impact of the falling oil price starts to bite.

Cuts capital reserve requirement; currency still under pressure.

Overall clarity still lacking; US financial system firmly out of bounds.

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) pulled out of a dollar bond in September, halfway through the deal’s execution. Should other regional banks be worried?

Reforms are expected to gather pace in 2016, boosting the country’s investment prospects.

Accessing Africa's FX flows

The drive away from the dollar and towards meaningful use of the kwanza could make Angola’s poor even more vulnerable.

The fall in the oil price and the de-dollarization of the economy has done even more to highlight Angola’s over-dependence on oil. As a result, the diversification of the economy is higher-up on the government’s agenda than ever before.

The international community has lauded Angola for its quick-thinking and tough decision-making following the sharp fall in the oil price. In February, Angola cut AKz1.8 trillion ($14.3 billion) from its AKz7.2 trillion budget – months before Nigeria, the region’s largest economy and oil producer, made any changes to its own economic outlook.

The country’s radical programme has put pressure on the banking sector, which in its short existence has relied heavily on the business brought in by foreign exchange. How can banks stay afloat with a lack of dollars in the system?

As pan-African banks expand across the continent at lightening speed, experts have started to highlight the inadequacy of cross-border banking regulation. Regulatory progress is slow, while pan-African banks admit that the issue is not yet top of their priority list.

The UK and UAE sailed past their original bilateral trade target two years ahead of schedule and have now set the bar even higher – to hit £25 billion a year by 2020. Banks and advisory firms, along with government-sponsored bodies and trade fairs are encouraging small and medium sized enterprises to lead the way. Euromoney gathered representatives from several of these organizations to discuss the future of this burgeoning market

Recent developments in the stock markets of the Middle East have caught the attention of international investors. But they also have the potential to invigorate something that the region has long lacked – a powerful domestic asset management industry.

Saudi Arabia and Iran have been presented chiefly as an opportunity on the equity side, but both markets are attracting interest from the fixed income community as well.

Iran is big. Iranians are fond of telling visitors that it experiences four distinct climates at any one time, from snowbound mountains to deserts, and its 80 million people are spread across a multitude of diverse locations outside Tehran; indeed, the tourist industry, should it ever truly take off, will be pretty much everywhere but the traffic-throttled, daunting sprawl of the capital.

The country’s return to the fold of international finance is likely to be as long and winding as the road to the lifting of sanctions. But that hasn’t stopped forward-thinkers in Tehran’s financial elite plotting a vision for their banks and financial markets. Can it possibly live up to its billing in some quarters as ‘the most exciting investment in the world’?

By anyone’s book, Bank of Palestine has recorded fantastic figures for the first half of 2015. The fact that it has achieved these numbers in such difficult circumstances is testament to the resourcefulness of its people. It’s a trait shown across the Territories. How do they do it?

Farouk Shami is a small man with a big personality and a not inconsiderable mouth. He likes to recall that he left Palestine for America in his youth with about $70 in his pocket; in the intervening 50 years he has invented the world’s first ammonia-free hair colour, made his fortune with a Houston-based hair and skin care company, run for governor of Texas as a Democrat (he wrecked his campaign, he says, by saying that white people don’t want to work in factories) and formed a highly unlikely friendship with Donald Trump.

Chief executive admits concerns; equity trading planned for 2016.

CEO: ‘We’re ready for World Federation’; on FTSE Frontier index watchlist.

Banks and corporates have continued to ratchet up foreign-currency borrowing over the past two years. The big lira sell off this summer amid a local political crisis highlights how much higher funding costs could bring trouble for Turkish banks.

Transaction bankers reveal the opportunities and challenges facing the continent amid signs integration is boosting intra-regional payments.

.