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One of Europe’s oldest and most powerful banking dynasties is embroiled in a battle over succession plans at the top of Portugal’s Banco Espírito Santo, causing a rift in the bank’s boardroom that has forced the country’s central bank to intervene.

Author and former trader Nassim Taleb, who shook the financial world with his best-selling book on risk The Black Swan, recently spoke at an RBS Insight dinner for clients in Milan. Here, he shares his thoughts on handling the unpredictable.

Inaugural sukuk issued; key constituent quietly leaves.

High-volume European car makers look set to emerge stronger than many thought possible from the lowest sales volumes for 17 years and decades of overcapacity issues. This could release more than EUR15 billion for shareholders, new projects or acquisitions, writes Michael Ward, Head of Diversified Industrials.

Global banking regulators have placed the risk-absorbing capacity of government bonds at the centre of their brave new financial world, ostensibly opening up revenue opportunities for banks in collateral-transformation for OTC purposes.

Investment banks have taken heart from more buoyant equity capital markets, but they are probably putting too much store by potential blockbuster deals such as an Alibaba IPO.

Sterling hit its highest level since the 2008 financial crisis against the yen and a two-year high against the dollar, as the Bank of England (BoE) took a first step to normalize monetary policy in the face of a strong housing market – but it might power higher thanks to a seasonal boost.

Five global coordinators named on deal; Investors look for detail on company activities

Petrobras’s business plan to develop the pre-salt oil fields anticipates that the number of rigs and drillships with drilling capacity greater than 2,000 metres will increase to 65 by 2020 from 15 in 2010. Many of these deliveries will be financed by Petrobras suppliers through the capital markets. Since 2010, Moody’s has publicly rated around $5.4 billion in project bonds associated with the operational phase of offshore drilling and production equipment to be deployed off the coast of Brazil for Petrobras. These secured bonds use special purpose vehicles, but the main ratings component is Petrobras’s long-term operating contract for the rigs or drillships. These off-balance-sheet structures enable Petrobras to use its investment-grade rating to support these deliveries without an impact on its credit rating.

Recent large-scale Chinese acquisitions and consortium agreements in the LatAm financial and energy sectors indicate the People’s Republic’s continuing interest in the region’s resources.

Published in conjunction with Bradesco and Banco Itaú

Stresses are being felt closer to the core as investors pile into the recovery in the periphery of the eurozone.