Asia’s rapidly changing corporate sector is becoming increasingly advanced in how it runs its treasury operations.

The Single Euro Payments Area prompted a wholesale change in how European banking operates and set a precedent for other regions on the possibilities open to them.

The North American banking and treasury market is highly evolved but technology offers many routes to further sophistication.

Limited transparency in securities flows has been a concern for some time. The challenge facing regulators is to address issues around ownership without affecting legitimate transactions.

While banks continue to devote a lot of resources to compliance activity, there are signs that this investment is having less of a negative impact on service innovation.

The number of countries with real-time payment systems continues to rise, raising the importance of addressing issues such as fraud detection and prevention, and collaboration.

ISO 20022 has the potential to bring considerable benefits to regulators and regulated institutions, although the integration challenge should not be underestimated.

The range and diversity of African markets means that investors must tailor their expectations on FX services to the local realities. Good advice is the key.

Despite some successes with regional monetary unions, the prospect of a pan-African currency remains as distant as ever, with the euro offering a cautionary tale.

Accessing Africa's FX flows

As Africa becomes more integrated into the global economy, international developments have a more direct impact on its own growth prospects.

Africa’s growth prospects and favourable demographics are strong incentives for investment, but the best FX advice is essential.

Overall and by sector.

The good times are not entirely over for issuers.

Corporates, both foreign and local, are seeking increasingly sophisticated FX services and advice across the full range of African markets.

China’s push for a New Silk Road under its ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative has been described as the most important economic development of the 21st century. But can President Xi Jinping deliver on his lavish promise of a new world order in trade and commerce?

Fixed or floating? Managed or not? The argument continues to rage within Sub-Saharan African central banks about how best to run and oversee a currency.

The hubs in the New Silk Road

China has turned the concept of a New Silk Road from rhetoric to practical reality in the two years since the initiative was revealed by Xi Jinping. Here are some of the key dates along the journey so far.

Its famous West Lake has been celebrated by poets and writers since the ninth century. Now Hangzhou – which will host the 2022 Asian Games – has been named Best China City 2015 in the first survey of its kind by Euromoney.

The New Silk Road is not a single thoroughfare but – like its ancient predecessor – a long and winding network of cross-continental trade routes by road, rail and sea that will impact upon the lives and livelihoods of billions of people.

Savvy investors are zeroing in on the opportunities in fast-growing African cities.

In a complex and rapidly changing region, good advice and good partners are vital.

Successful, growing corporates are building a reputation outside Africa’s major markets.

With capital markets still in their infancy, private equity is the route taken by many investors lured by African opportunities.

Even as continent-wide growth dips, individual states are set for spectacular performance.

Egypt’s government has made promoting the private sector a policy priority. Philip ter Woort of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development explains why this is needed and what multilaterals can do to help.

Commercial cards are moving beyond mere expenses to become another source of funding in the supply chain, especially for the middle market.

As transaction banking evolves, it faces both challenges and opportunities.

Egypt’s capital markets are firmly back on the radar of international investors, thanks to a pair of high-profile IPOs and the promise of the first sovereign bond for more than five years.