The country’s banking industry is growing fast. New laws designed to encourage foreign investment make it easier for offshore firms to wholly purchase local lenders. But there are plenty of barriers to entry aside from regulation.

Private placements have usurped securitization as Europe’s great SME financing hope. The financial markets support EU commissioner Jonathan Hill’s Capital Markets Union initiative to promote it. But the thriving US market will be hard to compete with, let alone replicate. Which leaves two questions: Can the EU build it? And, even if it can, will issuers and investors come?

Tarpon takes control of Abril for R$1.3 billion; new regulation might limit numbers of higher students.

Rabo and BPCE pioneer samurai deals; Japanese investors see big risks at euro banks.

Basel wants end to use of credit ratings; further regulatory changes deplored.

Yield-hungry treasurers are keeping a close eye on the progress of the European Commission’s proposed changes to money market funds rules, and fear changes to net asset valuations and the role of credit agencies.

International banking alliances offer a number of benefits to treasurers – from FX hedging to cash pooling – while Sepa and the rise of non-bank payment providers have yet to diminish their allure.

While corporates are gearing up for southeast Asian trade integration, a balkanized regime for processing cross-border payments is undermining the intra-regional push.

Onerous KYC regulations are imperilling trade financing and the flow of credit to emerging markets. It is high time banks boost cooperation, aided by technology, to address the challenge, as industry efforts are found wanting, say treasurers.

Everyone was a little nervous at the contents of the first inquiry into the nation’s financial services industry in over 25 years. It isn’t as traumatic as most feared, but it leaves some important issues unanswered.

Basel III law opens up funding; investors bring $1 billion book.

Despite its extension to FX last year, market participants acknowledge it is likely to be some time before they feel the full impact of the liquidity-enhancing trading enablement standardization initiative (TESI).

Banks need new sources of revenue or will remain chained to the wheel of endless cost cutting as they face continuing uncertainty about how to best allocate their capital.

If systemic risk in the banking system really has been reduced as much as chief executives say, why are regulators set to have an even greater impact in 2015?

Regulation now utterly dominates the banking industry and will have an even bigger impact in 2015, not just on bank capital and returns but on the entire legal structure of the industry.

The uncertainty for investors over bank litigation extends beyond hits to bank profits and so, potentially, their ability to pay dividends and service coupons on capital instruments and debt.

US fines provoke re-assessment; Dollar clearing in Europe considered

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.

From the Volcker Rule to the EU’s proposed ring-fencing, inconsistent rules on bank structures, both within the EU and between the US and Europe, are the latest threat to the global banking model.

New AT1 deals from Chinese and UK challenger banks; TLAC securities “must appeal to fixed income investors”

US officials are waging a war to promote the leverage ratio as a binding constraint on banks’ capital frameworks, further imperilling strategic planning for cross-border lenders.

Haunted by the global crisis, policymakers from the US to the UK are erecting national barriers and waging a war against too-big-to-fail banking. Vice-chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp Thomas Hoenig defends the drive toward balkanization.

As 2015 dawns, senior bankers are still poring over the implications of the Financial Stability Board’s proposals to boost their total loss absorbing capacity (TLAC) to ensure that beyond common equity, Additional Tier 1 capital and Tier 2 subordinated debt, banks still have enough liabilities on which losses can be imposed in the event of a failure so that taxpayers never again have to bail them out.

Is the eagerness of bank executives to spend heavily on retraining bankers to change their culture achieving anything?

Asset managers are still losing millions of pounds a year in hidden foreign-exchange bank charges, research shows, despite the advancement of money-saving solutions such as independent live benchmarks and transaction cost analysis (TCA).

With volatility returning to bond markets, investors are fretting once more about illiquidity. Policymakers too worry that it might turn a bond market meltdown systemic. A new project for a shared messaging language to improve the flow of information connecting holders of inventory sounds unglamorous next to all-to-all trading platforms and central limit order books. But the rush of support from both buy-side and sell-side suggests Project Neptune could make a vital contribution.

The full-scale disruptive potential of social trading is beginning to become clear, according to proponents. But there are fears that it is encouraging inexperienced traders to load up with risk in the pursuit of large returns and there have been calls for tougher regulation.

The debate around how to strengthen the regulation of FX markets continues to rage. Advocates highlight examples of regulations that have benefited the markets in the long run, while detractors warn of unintended consequences and cite their own examples of risk-mitigating measures evolving naturally within the industry.

A November rush to market is anticipated, but there are signs of a flight to quality by investors.

Lloyds LME highlights potential risks to investors of early regulatory calls in the booming AT1 market