Search results for

When bankers involved in European credit issuance enthuse about the astonishing growth in the market they are only in part talking their own book. The euro revolution means demand is certainly there. Supply of the right mix of paper in the right amounts and with sufficient liquidity is another question. And beyond that there are growing suspicions that most buyers are not taking enough account of risk.

InterSec Research, the international investment management consultant, has produced the first top-50 table of asset managers ranked by European-sourced business. InterSec's Tabitha Rendall reports on the survey's findings

Like the unseen rule-master in the British television show Big Brother, the Basel Accord encourages infantile behaviour among its charges. Within the confines of the system, rational, intelligent adults are transformed into pouting, tantrum-throwing, devious children.

The unthinkable became true when the German government agreed to the demands of the European Commission to abolish state support for Landesbanks and savings banks last month. German private banks were quick to announce their interest in taking over some of the 562 savings banks, which have a market share of around 50% - the highest share of public banks world wide. But it might not be that easy. Although the agreement catapults the process of consolidation of Germany's overcrowded banking sector into a higher gear, it won't happen in the very near future.

Some problems occurred in the production of our Middle Eastern awards last month. The correct text of the awards for best bank in the region and in Kuwait follows below:

Although many industrial companies remain stubbornly unwilling to measure, let alone hedge, their trade credit exposures, there is no shortage of people looking to help them trade away their credit risk.

The number of banks competing for LBO arranger mandates has increased significantly over the past six years. Almost every major continental European bank now has a leveraged loan team. BNP Paribas and HypoVereinsbank are both expanding their coverage as are - to a lesser extent - Crédit Agricole and HSBC.

Technology companies have played a major role in forcing the investment community to start taking intellectual property seriously. Telecoms and their equivalents in the software and biotechnology sectors, for example, are all dependent to a greater or lesser extent on patents and other forms of intellectual property.

A giant advertisement is being pasted on to a billboard sign along one of Mexico City's urban motorways. In bright red colours, the promotion offers to help change your life.

If you're desperately trying to pocket a bigger bonus than you know you deserve, do as the Gesellschaftler in Berlin did. Approve some dodgy credits (take some political donations on the way, too, if you are in the right party) reduce the risk provisions for the loans, then wait until profits amass in the next year, and voila - the bonus is yours to collect.

It was a rare sight. He got onto the downtown F train at 23rd street, the edge of New York's silicon alley, a more sombre place now than it was 12 months ago.

The latest round of bank capital proposals from the Basel Committee offers few incentives to banks to introduce more sophisticated risk rating methods while rasing concerns over increases in regulatory capital.