Search results for

InterSec 250: The changing face of asset management

HSBC's hunger for assets

Falling for corporates

London stock exchange - Now for the details...

Toward an efficient euro-frontier

The ranking of top 200 banks in emerging markets was compiled in conjunction with Fitch IBCA. All information was supplied by Fitch IBCA from commercial banks' annual reports and financial statements. Where possible, figures are presented in consolidated form and banks owned by other financial institutions are not listed separately.

Something strange is happening in the Taiwanese banking sector. Despite the ministry of finance having stated its aim of allowing banks a universal remit, it is now planning to issue industrial banking licences. As Rachel Wu, banking analyst at Warburg Dillon Read in Taipei points out: "Industrial banks create another niche within the financial sector." Acting as an industrial bank in Taiwan entitles the licence holder to arrange a variety of funding instruments for corporates including commercial paper and to undertake venture capital projects. To date, only state-run Chiao Tung Bank has such a license.

According to Moody's Investors Service, there were 82 downgrades of US corporate credit ratings in the second quarter of 1998, the most for any three-month span since 1991 when the US economy was deep in recession. For the first time in nine quarters, the number of downgrades outstripped the number of upgrades (79 ratings were upgraded from April to June 1998).

It's not often investors buy stock for reasons of charity, but Jardine Fleming achieved this feat on June 16 when celebrating its inaugural day as a member of the Singapore stock exchange. It decided to give half of its commissions to charity.

Too many people believe that the Asian crisis is over. It has only just started. Investors are encouraged by the reforms that Asian governments have said they will implement. The World Bank, IMF and US government - if those last two can still be considered separately - have added to the euphoria by praising the governments for the swiftness in capitulating to their demands. And the markets have responded. Capital gains on some Asian benchmarks were 18% in the first quarter.

"Show me the money." The catchphrase that lit up Jerry Maguire, the Oscar-winning film about a sports' agent played by Tom Cruise, could soon have added resonance in financial markets.

What's the chance now of an Emu break-up? Euro-agnostics say the most likely event is the exit of a single country because euroland is too tough for it, or too weak. But just as likely, if not more so, is a fudge and fix by member governments desperate to keep the show on the road - ways would be found of pumping money into a country threatening default.