Search results for

The imminent implementation of T+0 settlement for foreign exchange ought in theory to be an all-round blessing for market participants, reducing Herstatt risk. Some banks will, however, fall outside the system, raising the possibility of a two-tier market with differential spreads. Members will also incur new risks.

Enronitis is spreading fast. How virulent it proves to be, and how quickly the contagion can be contained, is anyone's guess. But its chief symptom - the fear that companies have been systematically misrepresenting their accounts through off-balance-sheet financing, special purpose entities and minimal disclosure - will not be easily suppressed. US regulators hope a fresh dose of rules will provide a remedy. Others say more rules will only mean more loopholes and that what is needed is a complete overhaul of the requirements for company reporting, auditing, governance and analysis worldwide. Only then can confidence in the system be restored, they say.

Canada’s secretary of state (international financial institutions)

Chairman, International Accounting Standards Board

A greater move towards international accounting standards is certain to result from the Enron furore. But already there are signs of regulatory one-upmanship. And bankers worry that the debate on the rights and wrongs of the Enron affair is quickly giving way to a turf battles and point-scoring between regulators and accounting bodies.

The timing could not have been worse for Portugal's governing socialist party. A month ahead of the elections, when it is already lagging behind in the polls, the EU slaps it on the wrist over public spending, an issue central to both parties' campaigns.

Carlos Rohm, vice-chairman of Banco General de Negocios (BGN), is facing charges of fraud in Argentina, based on evidence mainly supplied by his brother, Jose Rohm, the chairman of BGN.

Leaning easily against their sandbagged position, the machine-gunners look decidedly bored and even a little sleepy in the glaring midday sun. Watching the quiet approach road to Karachi's main international airport is, apparently, not the kind of duty that sets pulses racing. The local newspapers may be exercised by the story that a section of the airport is being handed over to American forces as a staging post for Afghanistan - and by the notion that US troops might be hunting for Osama bin Laden inside Pakistan - but Karachi's citizens apparently couldn't care less. The mopping up of Al-Qaeda leaders has become a subject of wry humour rather than passionate outrage. When the Americans called their operation Enduring Freedom did they mean that Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar were going to enjoy enduring freedom? So runs one popular joke.

Germany’s big four private-sector banks have enormous assets but dismal profitability, return on equity and market share and weak cost control. Put well into the shade in retail business by the local savings banks and state banks, which have peculiar funding advantages, they are ill-equipped to meet the challenge of the coming European financial market without frontiers. They are scrabbling around for survival strategies but few of them impress. Jennifer Morris reports on a banking system on its knees

The world’s elite AAA-rated bond issuers will need to be fast on their feet to get the best deals in 2002. Interest rates are on the way up and investors look set to focus on yield rather than quality. Charles Olivier reports on borrowing strategies.

With Asia already suffering from the global economic slowdown before September 11, which companies manage to stand out as the region’s most resilient performers? Euromoney’s sixth annual poll of Asia’s best companies explores which are the cream of the crop and why they are regarded as the region’s leaders.

Investing in credit need not be rocket science. But it definitely requires something more than a dartboard approach. At a time when funds are pouring into Europe's fast-growing credit markets - and when returns are high but so are volatility and the frequency of credit shocks - investors are finding that success in the credit arena boils down to three things: diversification, specialization and, above all, intensive and constant research.