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In the third and final article on innovation in cash management, Benoit Desserre (Global Head of Payments and Cash Management), Eric Bayle (Head of Payments and Cash Management in the UK) and Bart De Boer (Head of Payments and Cash Management in Germany) discuss recent and future developments in cash management in Europe.

Bankers and corporates are establishing systems to facilitate cross-border payments and FX processes as intra-regional trade grows.

For European banks, the days when a lack of big international operations was seen as a weakness are gone. Nowadays, some of the continent’s biggest and most successful banks are using large market shares in a single market in increasingly profitable ways – setting an example for bigger peers. Euromoney asks their CEOs how they are doing it.

Mauricio Cárdenas, Colombia’s finance minister, has been named Euromoney’s Finance Minister of the Year for 2015.

Mauricio Cárdenas’ fiscal credibility and investment plans have bolstered the country’s defences amid the emerging market rout, while boasting the best economic growth in the region.

Central Bank of Russia governor Elvira Nabiullina is using orthodox but painful policy measures to combat the oil- and sanctions-driven storm that is ravaging the economy.

Elvira Nabiullina, governor of the Central Bank of Russia, has been named Euromoney’s Central Bank Governor of the Year for 2015.

The Brazilian government is pinning its hopes on infrastructure finance to boost GDP growth and help woeful productivity rates. But the source of finance and the viability of some of the proposed projects mean that an infrastructure-led recovery won’t be coming to Brazil’s rescue any time soon.

The merger, 20 years ago, of Chemical and Chase ushered in the era of global banking. It was driven by competition from growing regional competitors, the threat of disintermediation, technological challenges, capital constraints, the desire to serve clients more efficiently and, above all, the need to boost returns to shareholders and unlock value. Those challenges sound all too familiar today. So why aren’t more banks looking at consolidation as a way to beat the post-financial crisis blues?

For several years, bank chief executives have harmed their credibility by promising medium-term earnings targets that they have never come close to hitting. Some have been ousted as a result. No more. In 2015 and beyond, 10% is the new 15% when it comes to projections of future returns on equity. Few are even hitting that lower target, which barely covers their cost of their equity. But there are signs that investors are starting to see the value in lower, less risky, more sustainable returns. And capital costs are falling. Could this be the end of the ROE roller coaster?

Farouk Shami is a small man with a big personality and a not inconsiderable mouth. He likes to recall that he left Palestine for America in his youth with about $70 in his pocket; in the intervening 50 years he has invented the world’s first ammonia-free hair colour, made his fortune with a Houston-based hair and skin care company, run for governor of Texas as a Democrat (he wrecked his campaign, he says, by saying that white people don’t want to work in factories) and formed a highly unlikely friendship with Donald Trump.

Rich in resources, Mongolia has yet to find a way to mine them in such a way to enable the country to throw off its communist legacy. There are high hopes the new head of the state investment bank may be the man for the job.