There is seemingly no easing of risk for the two countries, despite the anticipated third-quarter economic improvement.

Investors beware – countries in the region have been downgraded in Euromoney’s country risk survey this year.

Euromoney asked its panellists to rescore Lebanon’s risks in the aftermath of the port tragedy on August 4, with investors left pondering what’s next for a country now desperately in need of aid and finance for reconstruction.

Analysts can see through the economic and fiscal shock to observe a country with its underlying strengths intact.

The country is showing one of the more concerning trends among Asia’s emerging markets as politics and economics combine to increase investor risks.

El Salvador dives, while Panama copes as trade buckles, remittances drop and fiscal pressures intensify.

Euromoney’s survey shows the pandemic crisis is having both predictable and unexpected effects on economic, political and structural indicators as the world faces the biggest investor shock in living memory.

The country’s risk scores have lagged its central European neighbours since the financial crisis. Is overspending in the mid 2000s entirely to blame, or should the Fidesz government take some responsibility?

In Africa, the more democratic a country is, the higher its Euromoney Country Risk score, but as the continent’s ECR grade stalls, African countries are diverging – politically and economically.

Systemic, contagious sovereign crises seem to have been consigned to history. Governments can raise funds more cheaply than ever and investor demand seems insatiable. But the banking sector remains a source of instability and new threats are emerging, such as trade wars. Is complacency the biggest threat of all?

Some uncomfortable conclusions arise from a close look at Euromoney’s country risk data for Asia since 1982. India’s opening has been rewarded with a dismal decline in its score, while the overthrow of local dictators doesn’t appear to do much for economies either.

Singapore’s emergence as a global financial hub is no accident, and has not happened overnight. The key, according to Ravi Menon – the managing director of financial regulator the Monetary Authority of Singapore – is to plan well, act decisively and, above all, listen.

One country showed the way forward for Latin American sovereigns nearly 35 years ago. Many have tried to follow. Have they succeeded?

Protectionism is undermining an otherwise moderate global outlook as growth continues, labour markets tighten and geopolitical crises calm.

Investor safety has come under close scrutiny since June, resulting in a small but discernible decline in the global average risk score, halting a four-quarter improving trend.

Global risk subsided in the first half of the year, according to Euromoney’s country risk survey, with confidence in Europe maintained and commodity producers benefiting from better terms of trade. Yet with US interest rates rising, and Brexit, Russia and protectionism risks prevailing, investor prospects have more recently become uncertain for the remainder of 2018.

The risks of investing in developed countries eased in Q3 2017 due to strong economic growth, according to economists and other experts. Several large emerging markets (EMs) also became safer as volatility eased worldwide.

What next for the FX market?

Lending to small firms in Europe has traditionally been the preserve of the banks; they have the networks and relationships to originate deals for these types of clients, but non-banks now have this business firmly in their sights. And as more banks and funds start to cooperate in this space, the latter can expect to appear more frequently in transactions for Europe’s small and medium-sized enterprises.

Continental Europe’s top corporate and investment banks showed just how far they continue to trail their US peers as they reported annual results in February.

Italy could be clawing itself out of a pit of worry about its banks, according to the latest Euromoney Bank Risk results.

Last year was far from a vintage year for the big five US corporate and investment banking franchises, with almost no business lines seeing an overall increase in revenues in 2016, but the gains in fixed income sales and trading were enough to inch CIB division revenues up by 1.4% to $142 billion.

For many European bank stocks, 2016 was an unrelentingly awful year.

Are we past the peak for fintech?

For the first nine months of 2016, JPMorgan, the market share leader, reported a decent 14% return on equity for its corporate and investment banking division, based on after-tax net income of $7.384 billion.

Remember the days when it was investment bank divisions that were the drag on banks’ group cost-to-income ratios?

The increasing dominance of global investment banking by US firms is hard to ignore.

It is no secret that China is the biggest game in town in Asia-Pacific investment banking. But it is striking, even alarming, to learn just how utterly dominant it has become.

By: Mark Baker, Louise Bowman, Peter Lee, Dominic O'Neill and Chris Wright

Here you will find more detailed results and analysis of Euromoney's Cash Management Survey 2016.