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LATEST ARTICLES
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Having taken a hammering following Mexico’s election results and the Brazilian president's comments on fiscal consolidation, the prospects for the key Latin American currencies over the remainder of 2024 are unclear.
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Proponents of banking-as-a-service will be hoping that UniCredit’s decision to acquire Aion Bank and Vodeno marks a turning point in a sector that has experienced considerable volatility.
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Investing in Latin America’s payment fintechs is having a moment – but will the region’s central banks kill off their revenue model by adopting their own version of Brazil’s PIX?
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New institutional investors are providing liquidity to longstanding Revolut employees and giving a valuation proof point to its stunning revenue and profit growth.
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Its acquisition of Citi’s retail banking business in the Philippines has proven to be a challenge. It has put pressure on the bank’s capital buffers, while Citi’s high-end customers have shown a preference for international players.
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Transaction banks in Asia will have to up their game to satisfy corporates who now view a strong digital offering as a prerequisite to maintaining relationships.
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National champion banks should worry that the latest surveys commissioned by the Competition and Markets Authority might prompt loss of more primary accounts.
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Falling inflation has sparked an early surge in credit demand, which offers the prospect of banking normalization – a potential boon given the negative real interest rates banks are earning on their government securities portfolios.
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Corporates, asset managers and hedge funds appear to be willing to work with FX service providers to improve the latter’s offerings despite concerns over core services.
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Guidelines published by China’s cabinet pledged to boost the quality of its capital markets. But they neither understand nor trust the vibrant-yet-turbulent nature of that financial system.
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New transition bond includes step-down, as new ‘green infrastructure’ bond issued.
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Bank of Cyprus’s decision to shift its listing back to Athens also shows how far Greece has recovered.
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For years, India’s capital markets underwhelmed. Now, the country is the beating heart of IPO activity in Asia, with a raft of big-ticket stock listings expected in late 2024 and 2025. Fees are up, PE firms cannot buy assets fast enough, and global firms want to raise capital onshore.
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The bank's new CEO has posted his first market-beating quarterly results, but the firm's exposure to lower-income segments could limit longer-term upside.
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Unable to sell companies or raise new funds, desperate private equity managers are funding distributions from debt at the portfolio level. That structurally subordinates limited partners. They don’t like it – and neither do regulators.
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A report from Citi asks if Mexican banks must increase interest rates on their deposit base.
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The spectre of increased liability for financial officers looms large over the UK government’s plans to reform the audit profession.
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Huge international debt capital market issuance in September and October is forecast as investors may seek to take any US Treasury benefit through wider spreads.
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A perfect storm – triggered by the Sahm Rule, AI-driven transactions and the unwinding of the yen carry trade – sent the Japanese and global stock markets on a wild ride. While the Bank of Japan gains more flexibility to raise rates after the unwinding, investors remain optimistic about the long-term prospects of Japanese equities.
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India’s first international financial services centre was created by premier Narendra Modi in 2008. Today, Gift City is a flourishing hub near Ahmedabad in the country’s arid northwest. K Rajaraman, chair of the International Financial Services Centres Authority, tells Euromoney why the zone is vital to India’s financial and economic aspirations.
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When Piyush Gupta was named chief executive of DBS in 2009, the Singapore lender was going nowhere in particular. He gave it drive and direction, buying assets around Asia and transforming it into the world’s best bank. A series of tech outages put him in the spotlight for the wrong reasons, but Gupta will leave DBS in March with his head held high and his legacy intact. His capable and charismatic successor Tan Su Shan, the first woman to run southeast Asia’s largest bank, has big shoes to fill.
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Senior Indonesian officials have floated the idea of transforming the island paradise into a private-wealth hub to rival Hong Kong and Singapore. Jakarta certainly needs to do something to ensure that more of the wealth created onshore stays onshore.
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New highways, bridges and tunnels make travelling in Mumbai easier than it has been in decades. A new metro line is set to open in late 2024, but the city can still be gruelling to navigate. If it wants to be a global financial hub, there is still so much more to do.
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As multinationals navigate the complexities of developing Asian businesses – amid supply-chain reconfigurations, the rise of sustainable financing and the penetration of e-commerce – treasurers are playing a bigger role in strategic decision-making.
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Buying Axa IM would be BNP Paribas chief executive Jean-Laurent Bonnafé’s biggest acquisition. It has been a long time in the making.
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Alongside UniCredit’s recent acquisition of Polish financial technology company Vodeno, the US private equity takeover of VeloBank is another sign of renewed optimism in Poland.
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The spike in bitcoin after the shooting at a Donald Trump election rally was a reminder that for all the claims of increased maturity, the world’s largest cryptocurrency remains unpredictable.
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Revolut is strongly profitable while growing fast, diversifying revenues and finally being admitted to the banking club. Watch out.
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After years of being off the table due to historically low interest rates, treasurers can now realistically look to profit from rate differentials between currencies.
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The role of Mediobanca adds to the similarities between BBVA’s hostile bid for Banco Sabadell and Intesa Sanpaolo’s takeover of UBI Banca in 2020. But there are stark differences of institutional character, politics and timing.
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Wholesale banking head Andrew Bester explains the renowned retail bank’s ambition to win new revenues building on its expertise in sustainable finance.
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Despite Asia boasting the world’s highest mobile payment penetration rate, digital banks in the region have failed to meet expectations. Traditional banks in many Asian markets no longer view them as serious competitors. What explains this underwhelming performance and are there any exceptions?
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Political instability in France, coupled with better EU-UK relations, could threaten Paris’ ability to rival London as a financial centre. But a focus on institutional clients among French and other EU banks is already helping London’s resilience – a trend that shows little sign of abating.
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A report published by management consultancy Baringa at the end of May suggested that UK firms face the largest-ever increase in debt-driven costs between now and the end of 2026.
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Six months into his job, Rafael Consing, president and CEO of MIF, explains the mandate, approach and targets of this newly launched sovereign wealth fund, as well as its potential to catalyze foreign investment and transform the country's energy and infrastructure sectors.
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Even if banks hold loans in a static portfolio, their underlying cash flows change constantly. Now new technology is helping lenders to manage and trade them.
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India’s wealth-management sector is growing fast, with new advisory firms constantly springing up. This is catnip to private equity firms keen to invest in the best growth-oriented private banks. But who will win this race and who will fall short?
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UK pension schemes have made clear their opposition to reduced investors protections, while the FCA may come to regret pushing through its new listing regime.
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Banks are refining their single-dealer platforms to replicate the price comparison benefits of the multi-dealer model while accentuating the former’s unique features.
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The disconnect between global economic growth and commodity prices is focusing treasurers’ minds on hedging exposures to everything from cocoa to cobalt.
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S&P’s regional bank index has just pushed past its March 10, 2023, level, reflecting where these stocks were immediately before the collapse of SVB last year. Those stocks are rising sharply and investors are seeing huge profits, so is this a sign that regional banks have finally emerged from their crisis?
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HSBC’s choice of a new CEO to replace Noel Quinn was long flagged. Elhedery’s fortune is to be handed the reins of power in an extended period of calm for the UK lender, which benefited immensely from Quinn’s calm stoicism. But deteriorating Sino-US relations mean that turbulence for the London- and Hong Kong-listed lender is sure to return.
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The bank is targeting the often-overlooked service sector with structured solutions, along with identifying embedded finance as a fast-growing segment. With the launch of Global Trade Solutions, it goes beyond traditional product offerings and financing.
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The Singapore state-owned fund has unveiled plans to invest $10 billion in India and to plough more capital into the US and Japan. At the same time, it is quietly retreating from China, once its largest investment market, but now beset by underperforming capital markets, weak growth and bleak consumption data.
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President Xi Jinping’s ‘great rebalancing’ is creating a two-speed China: one a stodgy economy; the other full of export-focused corporate superstars. To serve the latter, China’s banks must invest overseas by buying assets or opening branches – and they need to do so fast.
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Tyler Dickson’s departure from Citi must rank as one of the most predictable moves in investment banking this year, even if where he has ended up is perhaps less obvious. Elsewhere, Citadel Securities is apparently set to make an offer that some of the Street might find difficult to refuse.
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Bankruptcies in the buy-now-pay-later market, together with tighter regulation, present an opportunity for banks to steal a march on pure-play providers.
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France’s political and banking troubles obscure good momentum in Societe Generale’s corporate and investment bank. Yes, capital is constrained, but the bank says it is moving in the right direction.
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The bank’s decision to sell a large minority stake in Credit Suisse’s former China JV to BSAM, a Beijing-based fund it has known for decades, is a setback for Ken Griffin’s Citadel Securities. The US firm is still committed to expanding in China’s troubled market.
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Diego De Giorgi’s arrival at Standard Chartered has coincided with important changes at the bank. He talks to Euromoney about the transition from investment banker to chief financial officer, and how the firm can further leverage its advantages amid growing profitability and geopolitical risk.
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Currency volatility benchmarking has become a useful tool for FX traders but is by no means the only option for informing trades.
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The limitations of the Alternative Investment Market are forcing many companies to explore other sources of funding. Nevertheless, there is optimism that the market for small and medium-sized growth companies can be revived.
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CEO Leandro Miranda tells Euromoney that the firm will use recently granted CVM license and secured deal mandates to raise equity.
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Basel-endgame pushback has reduced the urgency for US banks to relieve capital, but investor appetite for significant risk transfer trades is spilling over to Europe.
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Donald Trump is now likely to win the US presidential election after a disastrous debate performance by incumbent Joe Biden. Trump 2.0 may bring complications as well as benefits for Wall Street.
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Mamerto Tangonan, the deputy governor and head of the payments and currency management sector at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, tells Euromoney how southeast Asian countries are using advances in digital payments to revolutionize cross-border transactions.
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There is pressure on corporate treasurers to maximise the benefits of embedded finance, despite the lack of additional resources.
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The region’s tough economic history, coupled with its strength in soft and hard commodities, makes it best positioned to tackle today’s challenges.
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Derivatives structurers are thriving, but regulators aren’t convinced the biggest Wall Street banks have a firm grasp of their complex exposure.
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The Siena-based bank has a better bill of health and is once again a target in Italy.
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The immediate aftermath of the launch of T+1 settlement in the US on May 28 suggests the acceleration has not yet translated into increased FX risk. But it is still too early to tell what the longer-term impact will be.
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Despite an overwhelmingly Italian business in retail, Intesa Sanpaolo has stepped up its share of corporate and investment banking revenue outside the country. In its global growth markets, divisional chief Mauro Micillo says the firm is here to stay.
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With corporates taking a more holistic view of sustainability, banks are under pressure to address concerns over reporting and verification requirements for sustainable working capital, trade finance and liquidity management products.
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Risk aversion has spread quickly since the call for a snap election in France, from French government bonds, through bank stocks and CDS spreads to now derail the IPO of an Italian maker of luxury trainers.
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Euromoney recently sat down in Dubai with the heads of investment banking for HSBC in the Middle East. The conversation focused on the burgeoning trade and deal flow between the Gulf region and Asia, what investors on both sides are looking for and why they like what they see.
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The South Korean automaker is on track to raise upward of $3 billion via the listing of its India unit in Mumbai. If successful, it will surely compel more global firms to raise capital in south Asia’s largest market.
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MBridge, China’s cross-border digital currency initiative, has entered the minimum viable product stage. It is the world’s most advanced cross-border CBDC and stands on the cusp of playing a pivotal role in the de-dollarization process.
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The recent resurgence in M&A activity has driven interest in deal-contingent hedging as firms look for a buffer against unfavourable FX or interest-rate movements.
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Mexican banks have sold off hard since Claudia Sheinbaum – as widely expected – was confirmed as the country’s next president.
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It is getting tougher for investors to execute block trades of more than €2 million in Europe’s fragmented equity markets. Matching buyers and sellers needs a return to negotiation and away from pure electronic trading.
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The absence of staking and the earlier approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds have sucked much of the excitement out of the SEC’s surprising decision to greenlight spot Ethereum ETFs.
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After years of retrenchment, Commerzbank’s head of corporate clients Michael Kotzbauer tells Euromoney of a tentative return to growth. The bank has dodged Germany’s commercial real estate slump but is having to adapt to a worsening geopolitical backdrop. Capital and cost efficiency remain big priorities.
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For the US to come out in support of voluntary carbon markets even while arguing for their reform is an important step in the drive to seek better standards for what are vital – albeit flawed – mechanisms. But more guidelines on how to certify and trade offsets are no substitute for the real thing.
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Rising confidence in European banks has raised hopes of a surge in domestic M&A, perhaps laying the foundations for the long-sought ideal of genuinely pan-European firms.
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Hefty convertible bond sales by the likes of Chinese firms Lenovo and Alibaba, plus renewed interest in issuance from corporate Japan, have the market chattering. Is the market here to stay in Asia, or could a single soggy offering cause it to slam shut again?
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Does the high number of drawn-out insolvency cases in the UK suggest a failure of regulation?
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John Mathews, head of UHNW Americas for UBS in New York, tells Euromoney why the US’s private banking model is so successful, why the Swiss firm is really in the life counselling business, and explains why it has targeted US ultra-high net worth clients.
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As securities markets shift to T+1, repo is already going intraday with DLR the first of what may be many digital trading platforms to offer JPM Coin for the cash leg.
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By starting from a blank sheet of paper, Royal Bank of Canada hopes its new US cash-management platform will allow it to capture a greater share of wallet from existing clients while not being held back by legacy technology.
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Corporate treasurers are playing it safe when balancing the merits of exploiting improved access to capital against the risk of unexpected economic shocks and business interruption.
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Though HSBC retrenched from other Latin American markets, it stayed in Mexico, and country chief Jorge Arce says that the bank is well-positioned to take advantage of the nation’s unique blend of structural growth drivers.
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Financial markets reacted calmly to news of an early UK election, expecting whoever wins to stick to the fiscal rules. But whoever wins must also cope with rising debts and onerous interest payments.
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President Macron’s newfound zeal for cross-border financial M&A is creating a headache for France’s big banks.
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The prospect of interest rate cuts from the Fed in 2024 is disappearing. Japan and Korea are among those feeling the heat.
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Will increased transparency in the European corporate bond market lead to higher transaction costs for large trades?
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The bank is looking to capitalise on its local presence in Latin America as Korean and Chinese firms intensify their nearshoring efforts.
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Unlike other firms in Latin America, BTG Pactual hides its growing retail digital banking business within its wealth-management division. Why?
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Anything except a brief stay on as chairman would cast a baleful shadow over the chief executive’s successor at JPMorgan.
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In an interview with Euromoney, European Banking Authority chair José Manuel Campa joins the European Central Bank and others in pressuring banks to do more to prepare for geopolitical risks spreading from Russia to China, the US and Middle East.
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Rumours that Chinese insurer Ping An could cut its stake in HSBC further, perhaps selling to a Middle East buyer at a time when Gulf investment is flooding into the People’s Republic, should not come as a surprise.
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The latest in a string of big appointments at debt capital markets-focused fintech NowCM is a reflection of how the firm must increasingly institutionalize itself as it grows. Markus Sauerland tells Euromoney why change is so difficult in the financial world.
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Banks and regulators are keen to use instant payments to reduce the influence of Visa and Mastercard on the European payments industry – but replacing these two dominant players will be far from easy.
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Some companies overhype their eco-credentials, while others hide theirs. Banks are navigating this complex landscape to capitalize on surging demand for sustainable investment.
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Although the relative health of some nationalized banks may facilitate their privatization, major obstacles to any sales remain.
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Naz Vahid is to leave Citi after nearly four decades as one of the US bank’s most effective and innovative wealth managers.
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Blurring the lines in foreign exchange between automation, traditional AI and generative AI runs the risk of undermining trading services by setting unrealistic expectations.
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Thailand is enduring a record heatwave, yet its economy is in the deep freeze. Prime minister Srettha Thavisin is frantically jetting around the world trying to woo global corporates and investors, so far to little avail.
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Chief financial officers and finance directors have much to gain from bundling treasury services if they can convince senior management that such offerings deliver value for money.
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New accounts targeted at low-income customers reflects the reality of intense competition in the sector.
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UK banks, asset managers and individuals see better returns from dumping UK stocks and investing elsewhere, but the impact eventually becomes ruinous.
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The UK government wants to invigorate the UK stock market and sell its stake in NatWest. The bank’s private banking arm wants to boost its investment almost anywhere else.
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BBVA’s bid for Banco Sabadell didn’t appear to be going well when its share price slumped after the announcement. Then Sabadell rejected the offer despite the substantial premium to its own share price.
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Twenty-five years ago in Spain, ING launched a branchless bank – still its biggest greenfield retail operation. Euromoney asks Iberia chief executive Ignacio Juliá Vilar what still makes it stand out from both incumbents and newer arrivals.
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UOB’s acquisition of Citi’s consumer assets in four southeast Asia markets strengthens its status in one of the world’s fastest growing regions. The Singapore lender’s CEO Wee Ee Cheong talks to Euromoney about why this matters and what comes next.
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Several Chinese bubble-tea makers are looking at Hong Kong IPOs. When high-end tea maker Nayuki listed three years ago investors drank it up, but the deal now trades 90% below its listing price. Can a new group of issuers revive the market?
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As mandated real-time payments loom, Europe’s banks and other payment providers must look at modernising legacy infrastructure.
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Corporates’ longstanding complaint on banks’ payments offerings is that they don’t know what they are being charged for but suspect it is too much. Airwallex now provides an alternative at global scale.
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BBVA could have bought Banco Sabadell much more cheaply in 2020. Sabadell’s CEO César González-Bueno has since turned his bank around. But BBVA’s return to the negotiating table comes at a time when European banking may be moving to a new and more confident phase.
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Exactly one year ago, San Francisco-based First Republic Bank was sold by regulators amid a US regional banking crisis. Citizens Financial Group, which had seen the sale as a chance to turbocharge its private banking ambitions, lost out to JPMorgan. But far from being the end of the story, that failed bid was just the beginning. Within weeks the bank had announced First Republic’s Susan deTray as the head of its new private bank, a unit that is now at the heart of a fast-growing wealth franchise.
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Restructuring HSBC, like painting the Forth bridge, is a never-ending job. While Noel Quinn has done well, the board must not make another ham-fisted transition.
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A lack of consensus on whether recent under-performance of Asian currencies will impact China’s willingness to let its own currency weaken is leading to disparate views on near-term valuations.
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Recently rebranded and expanded, Wealth at Work is Citi’s most dynamic generator of wealth revenues. Its leader, Naz Vahid, sits down in New York with Euromoney to explain her vision for its future.
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As banks focus more on climate adaptation across their businesses, are they conceding that mitigation efforts are futile?
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The body responsible for settling about $6.5 trillion of global daily FX trades has decided against extending its deadlines to accommodate non-US participants who still want to use its next-day settlement service. But it expects the impact to be limited – far too limited to justify the complexity that a change would impose on its members.
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The two European banks are both trying to de-emphasise their investment banks and want to build up areas where they see weakness. Barclays is later to this party than Deutsche, but both will have found encouragement in the first three months of 2024.
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Digital negotiable instruments offer the prospect of improved working capital and better liquidity, but they face implementation challenges.
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Direct lenders to risky borrowers take comfort from their seniority in the creditor hierarchy. But stressed borrowers could jeopardise this as they struggle to attract new funding.
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The Brazilian neobank is growing its number of clients faster than perhaps any financial institution on earth. Combine this with static unit costs and the operational leverage potential is big. CFO Guilherme Lago explains how its business model is now focused on the next five to 10 years as open banking generates unprecedented price transparency, customer portability and opportunity.
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The standards-setter has come under fire for announcing plans to allow companies to offset Scope 3 emissions as part of net-zero targets. But this kind of compromise has always been inevitable.
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A private credit market growing so fast, away from the oversight of bank regulators, may be a new source of systemic risk. With smaller investors taking greater exposure to an asset class whose high returns and low losses look almost too good to be true, there could be trouble ahead.
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Junior bankers should relax about the threat to their jobs from AI and lean into opportunities to bluff their way to Wall Street glory.
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Intesa Sanpaolo’s Isybank is the latest in-house neobank to run into trouble. But the desire to migrate core-banking systems onto the cloud is still encouraging other banks to follow this strategy.
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Quarterly survey reveals that UK finance professionals may be feeling more upbeat about prospects, but that this is yet to translate into a willingness to take greater risk onto balance sheets.
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A move back up in rates is creating a PR battle among Wall Street banks. JPMorgan was punished for a cautious outlook, Goldman Sachs promoted strong fixed income trading results and Bank of America projected a Zen approach to rate moves.
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UK fintechs attracted more investment than all European rivals combined in a tough funding market last year, but a broken IPO market leaves them with nowhere to go.
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China’s Project Whitelist, launched at the start of the year, exists to ensure bank funding for property development. But it is there to protect projects, not the developers behind them.
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Rumours that FAB is in exploratory talks with a Turkish lender, together with hopes for a big-ticket IPO, point to optimism despite the dire outlook on inflation.
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Previous changes of policy direction have left analysts undecided on whether to attribute recent sharp corrections to the renminbi reference rate to accident or design – or even a combination of the two.
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When clients talk to the world’s biggest listed hedge fund, market complexity, the use of technology and the need for customised solutions loom large in the conversation. Man Group’s president Steven Desmyter tells Euromoney how the firm’s evolving structure and approach reflect the priorities of the asset allocators it serves.
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Morgan Stanley’s wealth business went from 2.5 million client relationships to 18 million over the course of a couple of years. Now, a quartet of steely US regulators is looking at how the division manages potentially risky clients. Given its rapid pace of growth, this is perhaps less of a surprise than it initially appears.
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The EU’s Instant Payments Regulation may have fired the starting gun on real-time payments in Europe, but many banks remain stuck in the blocks.
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The IMF can’t see what dangers may lurk beneath the surface calm of direct lending – but it should be wary of regulators damming an essential funding channel.
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First investment-grade debt capital markets started to pick up. Then it was high yield and now IPOs, as well as announced M&A
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The Singapore lender is looking to India in search of new business and growth opportunities, its chief executive Piyush Gupta tells Euromoney. Long term, it aims to emulate onshore the country’s best private-sector lenders, HDFC and Kotak Mahindra.
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The Chinese financial hub just posted its worst first quarter for IPO proceeds in 15 years. With China’s economy stumbling and new local security laws deterring global investors, can anything stop the rot?
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As banks retreat to their home markets, they must find reliable partners to serve corporate customers overseas or risk losing them.
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The challenges around distributed ledger technology implementation and integration for bond issuance have proved more significant than early proponents had hoped.
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Isbank’s chief executive Hakan Aran sees embedded finance and an innovative approach to bank branches as the future as the Turkish bank looks to rebuild on a better market environment for its 100-year anniversary.
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The Korean banking sector faces many obstacles, but a single, powerful catalyst is driving change.
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From fast fashion to electric vehicles, Chinese firms are grabbing customers and market share. Meanwhile, the nation’s banks are stuck at home, propping up troubled developers and local governments. It’s an anomalous situation that will benefit the foreign banks.
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The good news is that bank executives don’t see big loan losses ahead; the bad news is that they lack the confidence and vision to invest in the business.
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XP has succeeded in Brazil by using its technological efficiencies to win on digital experience and price. But now the incumbents are catching up and XP chief executive Thiago Maffra is focusing on developing service beyond pure online delivery.
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The Greek bailout fund’s exit from Piraeus Bank last month was the country’s biggest post-crisis privatization. The bank’s chief executive, Christos Megalou, tells Euromoney that this is more than a capital-return story. It’s also about growth: in the economy, in wealth and asset management, and, thanks to neobank Snappi, internationally.
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Despite overlapping in a number of key workflow areas, asset managers continue to face challenges with FX order management systems that struggle to emulate the capabilities of systems designed to manage execution.
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Market conditions have heightened concerns over the potential cost of failed securities settlement as the world’s largest financial market prepares to move to T+1.
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President Javier Milei campaigned on cuts – and that is what he has delivered. But like all extreme diets, the approach is unsustainable. Time to rethink the plan.
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After a decade of restructuring, EFG International ramped up hiring last year – above all from Credit Suisse. Chief executive Giorgio Pradelli talks about the firm’s scope to lead a wave of Swiss-bank consolidation, while doubling down on new wealth from the Middle East and Asia.
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The paradox of Itaú is that it has maintained its leadership of Brazil’s banking sector with an ease and assuredness in recent years that belies the radical and continual transformation going on under the surface. The bank’s CFO, Alexsandro Broedel, tells Euromoney that its management’s only real constant is to view every new player as an existential threat – and react accordingly.
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There almost certainly won’t be a Truss/Kwarteng-style meltdown in the US Treasury market – just persistent inflation, high rates, volatility and likely some form of monetary financing.
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Credit Suisse’s domestic bank was arguably the failed group’s best and strongest division. One year after the rescue, UBS is not the only one trying to feast on its domestic wealth-management and corporate-banking leftovers. Other Swiss and international players also hope to benefit from the longer-term fallout in Switzerland. Will the rush to pick up the remnants of the fallen champion pay off?
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The decision by the US SEC to drop mandatory Scope 3 reporting weakens global emissions reporting standards. However, many corporate issuers are already using Scope 3 performance targets on sustainability-linked transactions for non-regulatory reasons. Are the debt and equities markets leading companies onto ESG ground upon which regulators fear to tread?
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Stock market reform has not only revitalized the country's capital markets but has also permeated the real economy. Countries like Korea are quickly following suit. Interestingly, China also seems to be drawing inspiration.
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Global money is flooding into India to profit from high-performing stocks, a booming economy, and the ease of investing via Gift City, a growing financial hub in Gujarat. Local wealth is flowing the other way, notably to Dubai. It’s a gold mine for private banks, and the process has only just begun.
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Norwegian wealth manager Formue has been growing revenues and assets since opening in 2000. It has done this by financially educating people who never gave much thought to wealth planning and by getting people to like it.
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While welcome, initiatives by the government and financial sector bodies designed to make it easier for companies to raise funds in the UK face a number of obstacles.
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As Japan puts an end to the global negative interest rate era, its central bank's QE programme remains in place and may be a model for peers. Investors maintain a bullish outlook on the stock market.
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A wall of liquidity among investors has helped to drive a busy start to the year for bond issuers, as they rush to capture tight spreads.
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Reports that the long-rumoured deal has been agreed suggest growing optimism among Argentine bankers about the new administration.
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In a world of higher interest rates, economic uncertainties and data overload, corporate treasurers are turning to cutting-edge tools and strategies to predict and optimize their cash flows.
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Carry traders are going to have to work hard to maintain the momentum of the last few months if expectations of interest rate cuts in the US and hikes in Japan come to pass.
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The German lender’s decision to put its chips on southeast Asia is paying off handsomely. Under the leadership of Asia CEO Alexander von zur Mühlen, Deutsche Bank has doubled its capital in Vietnam and Indonesia, with more to come, moved a host of global roles to the region, and has seen Asean eclipse its India and China business in terms of growth and absolute numbers.
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Asset managers and industry regulators face operational challenges around the tokenization of private assets.
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Encumbered by an impotent fiscal policy and a sluggish stock market, bank lending could be China’s only route to economic recovery.
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Caution at local commercial banks – coupled with the eagerness of large investment banks to foster relationships with private equity players – means large real-estate deals fuelled by back leverage could be primed for a comeback in Europe.
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Corporates seeking to leverage sustainable investment opportunities continue to be restricted by the lack of reliable data on which to base their assessments.
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The Basel committee is shocked – shocked! – that some banks might be reporting inflated leverage ratios.
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The UK startup is now a fully regulated bank and private funds are backing its vision to embed regulated banking in non-financial companies as well as fintechs.
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The Fed chair has made a remarkable, virtually unconditional surrender to opponents of his plan for Basel III implementation in the US. The tactical withdrawal is embarrassing, but it makes strategic sense.
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With some big deals launching this week, Europe’s IPO pipeline is flowing at last. If they do well, they should put to bed the notion that ‘private IPOs’ are what is needed to provide exit routes for sponsors. A handful of recent deals shows that the biggest driver of success is doing the simple things well.
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The UK Chancellor has big plans for the tech sector.
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Many vendors believe corporate treasurers should be doing more to eliminate superfluous accounts, protect payment data and direct resources to improving paper-based processes.
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Thinner margins across the banking industry hit smaller banks harder. But investor pressures are also less of an issue for mutually owned lenders.
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For a deeply unpopular government with little room to manoeuvre, the chance to bribe voters with a cheap offer of bank shares is irresistible. The bank in question is now well-run and profitable while its stock still trades at a discount. But the great NatWest share offer will do little to revive UK capital markets.
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Luring star bankers from rivals – like Citi’s appointment of JPMorgan veteran Viswas Raghavan – can bring hidden costs beyond the expense of replacing stock options for the lucky new hire.
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The UBS chief investment office’s sustainable and impact investing strategist wants to avoid measurement for the sake of measurement, but responding to client demand for more data while ensuring its readability remains a challenge.
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The leading neobanks in Brazil seem to have hit their stride in terms of profitability just as some of the traditional banks have stumbled. Are these firms the future of Brazilian banking?
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The Brazilian government’s changes to the laws governing its tax-exempt debentures have allayed financial market fears that president Lula intends to rely on BNDES to fund billions spending on infrastructure, crowding out private-sector finance.
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The newest ESG trend in retail banking might be a niche offering for now, but all banks will have to take it seriously someday.
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Chief executive Carlos Eduardo Guimarães says that he expects the bank’s return on equity to double to between 20% and 22% in the next two years.
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Banco Inter reported return on equity of 8.5% in the fourth quarter of 2023 but is now targeting a return on equity of 30% by 2028, CFO Santiago Stel tells Euromoney.
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Perception appears to be just as important as reality when it comes to buy-side firms viewing themselves as FX liquidity providers.
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Leading commercial banks are focusing on their approach to relationship management to reassure corporate customers that they are being listened to.
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Chinese fintech Ant Group has offered UBS a reported $250 million for Credit Suisse’s China joint venture, outbidding Citadel Securities. It is a timely reminder that despite its current malaise, Asia’s largest economy is still a great long-term place to invest.
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There are sensible elements to CEO Slawomir Krupa’s plans for Societe Generale, but their communication needs attention.
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In 2020, Deutsche Bank’s Asia chief, Alexander von zur Mühlen, placed more of his chips on fast-growing southeast Asia. As global firms diversify out of China, his prescience and willingness to deliver on his convictions is starting to pay off.
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Investors and staff at Societe Generale are slowly starting to understand chief executive Slawomir Krupa’s brutally honest approach to the bank’s many challenges. Taking them with him as he embarks on his restructuring plan may prove a more delicate task.
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There was a big rise in the number of respondents to Euromoney’s Trade Finance Survey 2024 who received an increase in credit from their trade banks last year – 45.7%, up from 41.8% in 2023.
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More than 60% of respondents to Euromoney’s 2024 trade finance survey expect an increase in use of trade financing over the next three years.
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Some 50.6% of respondents to this year’s Euromoney Trade Finance Survey say the cost of credit from their trade banks has increased over the past 12 months, compared with 45.4% in 2023.
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In the wake of heavy losses and mis-selling to retail investors, there is an urgent need for an overhaul of risk management in the banking sector.
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Chief executive Jane Fraser has been true to her promise of a marquee hire to run Citi’s banking division, with the appointment today of JPMorgan veteran Viswas Raghavan. He brings a wealth of both transactional and operational management experience, but the symbolism of his arrival may be just as important.
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Diego De Giorgi’s arrival as Standard Chartered’s CFO coincides with a shift away from asset shrinkage and a “final push” on digital transformation.
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Domestic companies launch banking-as-a-service models as the country's central bank creates space for new entrants.
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A private debt hangover in real estate is threatening middle-class retirement savings across Germany. Local banks, which focused more on senior loans, should be safer. But are these lenders ready to finance the recovery in commercial property that the German market so badly needs?
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Traditional custodians are maintaining their dominance in the face of growing fintech activity in the sector.
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Even after the rally on its latest restructuring plan, investors still value the UK bank at such a wide discount to book that management must consider radical action.
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Barclays chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan intends to stop a low-returning investment bank from dragging the rest of the group down with it. He argues that most of the improvements are within the bank’s own grasp. That is debatable, and in any case hardly reassuring.
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Direct lenders commanded generous terms on leveraged buyout financing last year, but volumes were low and, now that they show signs of revival, the banks are competing once more.
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The UK government’s impending sale to retail investors of a big stake in the bank informs the shadow-play guidance on this year’s earnings.
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Boosting the role of corporate treasury by enabling it to centralize group-wide FX management may sound appealing, but implementation and cost challenges should not be underestimated.
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One of the first edicts handed down by Citi’s wealth head is to tell all private bankers to track and record client calls. It has ruffled feathers at the US lender, but if it transforms the unit into the powerhouse CEO Jane Fraser wants it to be, then so be it.
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Accommodating credit markets mean that corporates are keen to get fundraising completed ahead of elections on both sides of the Atlantic.
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Funded by green bonds, decarbonized assets are driving emissions upwards in other sectors that supply the necessary raw materials and shipment services. A capital markets transition label ought to factor this in.
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Bankers in the Middle East are intensifying their focus on succession planning as the first wave of intergenerational wealth transfer looms.
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He leaves the Australian financial firm after transforming its commodities and global markets division, and despite being widely tipped as likely to succeed current CEO Shemara Wikramanayake.
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The hard graft of integrating Credit Suisse still lies ahead, leaving UBS as a concept stock and hopeful investors looking through the efforts of the next three years.
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Corporates continue to exhibit worrying levels of complacency when it comes to the implications of rate rises for their bottom line.
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Former bank examiner Alessandro DiNello stresses resiliency of deposits as NYCB strives to build capital after higher provisions and ratings downgrades.
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No industry will be more overwhelmingly affected by new forms of artificial intelligence – both generative-AI and other technology to come – than banking. Costly but cost-effective, it is up to banks to make AI work for them, not the other way around.
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A recent rule change means that Brazilian banks will be able to use tax credits related to provision expenses sooner – and the impact could be material.
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Citi’s head of Asia treasury and trade solutions has retired after 40 years at the US bank. He tells Euromoney what he would do if he were a 20-something graduate today, and why it helps to be both a specialist and a jack-of-all-trades in the industry now.
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Investors will be hoping that the fall in the value of Bitcoin since US regulators approved the listing and trading of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded products is not a sign of things to come.
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After a dire couple of years, the hope had been that the only way was up for US regional bank M&A. But this week’s trauma at New York Community Bank has demonstrated some of the problems that can catch out the unwary as expansion takes them into new regulatory territory.
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As Beijing works to underpin the equity market, China's fund houses and investment banks are betting on exchange-traded funds as the next big thing. That reflects a market corseted by regulation, where limited options compel a collective herd mentality.
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Losses on commercial real-estate loans at US regional banks should surprise no one; risk at the heart of the US financial system thanks to weak regulation should shock us all.
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Internal and external reforms are under way as the new president signals a break with the previous administration.
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Extracting value from Russia via a stake in Strabag previously owned by Oleg Deripaska shouldn’t be confused with a proper disentanglement from Russia by Raiffeisen. The main impetus for the transaction may, in fact, lie with Deripaska and Strabag’s other shareholders.
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Trade-receivables securitization transactions are flourishing as corporates seek more affordable access to long-term financing.
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Abu Dhabi and Dubai sell themselves as international hubs for tech companies, with new initiatives to support start-ups and scale-ups, but rules around eligibility for equity listings will hinder the Emirates’ tech sectors if they aren’t changed.
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Banks need to start quantifying the legal risks of both climate action and inaction.
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Management changes expand the responsibilities of Marianne Lake and Jennifer Piepszak, lead candidates to one day head JPMorgan, but there is another contender.
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The SEC wants us to be thinking about special purpose acquisition companies again.
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Uneven progress towards financial market reform across the continent continues to pose a challenge for ambitious African corporates.
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Wall Street bankers tempted to pick a fight with the Federal Reserve should take a lesson from the insider trading plea deal by investor Joe Lewis.
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Opposition to the proposed Basel III endgame for US banks is now so widespread that a climb down by the Federal Reserve is likely. Wall Street bankers like Jamie Dimon can stop crying wolf about increased capital requirements and think carefully about publicly threatening their regulators.
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While the world’s biggest markets are still preparing for T+1 settlement, talk is growing of the next step – but going any faster would mean a total reworking of how markets function.
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It is not hard to find short-term worries over global markets’ state of readiness for the US’s transition to one-day settlement in late May. But even if the UK, Europe and those Asian markets still using two-day settlement can adapt to the shift in the longer term, they will also face intense pressure to lessen their dislocation from the US cycle by copying its move. Many also fear the ultimate end-game of same-day or even instant settlement.
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The Sino-Swiss corridor, set up to encourage Chinese firms to sell global depositary receipts to international investors in the European state, took off fast in 2022. But a host of challenges, from Chinese regulatory concerns to an apparent lack of global interest, has stalled its progress.
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The midcap broker needs new business lines to survive a prolonged IPO drought.
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Corporate and development banks want their capital to reach the smallest and most impactful of SMEs in frontier markets. Traditional credit ratings and risk assessments can get in the way.
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Record regional bank profits, plus strong capital ratios in Western Europe, have fuelled hope for more bank acquisitions in Central and Eastern Europe. The uncertain effect of recent court rulings on Swiss franc mortgages, however, is a big obstacle to deals in Poland.
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Corporates are adopting a variety of approaches to mitigate the impact of uncertainty in foreign exchange markets caused by divergence in economic policy and performance.
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They already dominate the investment banking business in Europe, and now the leading US banks have their eyes on an even bigger prize. They see their vast investments in the digital technology transforming payments and transaction services and their retained global presences as the keys to winning even greater revenues from Europe’s midsize corporates.
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Some banks like the idea of external venture capitalists leading their venture businesses, but banker-led units are more likely to cement their inherent advantage.
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Appealing to issuers by removing investor protections makes no sense when London’s decline as a listing venue stems from domestic investors abandoning the UK market.
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It has become fashionable to describe private credit as an opaque and fast inflating bubble that could bring crisis to the global financial system. But in Asia even banks and regulators hope it will grow to bridge the yawning financing gap.
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Many factors explain Japan’s renewed allure to global corporate and financial institutions. Inbound FDI is rising, with local stock prices regularly hitting record highs. Is the economy’s long-awaited renaissance a passing phase or here to stay?
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Collaboration between national banks has seen widespread adoption of mobile payments schemes. The French and German-led approach of focusing on a single European scheme could therefore be seen as a distraction. But is it the only real way of keeping US payment companies at bay?
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Regulators are making more mileage out of their settlement with Morgan Stanley than the outcome really deserves.
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Morgan Stanley has for years touted its expertise and adherence to confidentiality as reasons to choose it over rivals for equity block trades. But charges brought by regulators over leakages of confidential information by the bank’s former head of US equity syndicate and another employee now make its historic claims look embarrassing.
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With its economy embattled and investors fleeing in droves, getting good data on China has never been more important. There are some great analysts and research shops out there. But too many China-facing reports suffer from a lack of imagination, groupthink brought on by a fear of irritating Beijing and an over-reliance on state data. That must change.
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The London Stock Exchange Group’s head of sustainable finance strategic initiatives wants climate data to redefine the act of indexing.
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Brazil’s banks have been talking a good game about capturing the outperformance of smaller, privately held companies in the country. Now a new banking advisory firm – packed with senior bankers – has made this segment its entire business strategy.
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Implementing real-time payments can have consequences for corporates who underestimate the impact of cash leaving their business more quickly. Even as solutions become cheaper to implement, corporates are being cautious.
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The World Bank is issuing ‘outcomes’ bond structures for niche sustainability themes and with new financing mechanisms. Like blue bonds, they are probably going to need some rule-setting.
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Ambitious brokerage firms have precipitated a shift in demand for FX licences, with interest in regulated European and Asian markets on the increase at the expense of offshore jurisdictions.
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After overseeing radical transformations at Bawag and Hamburg Commercial Bank, Cerberus Capital Management now has ultimate control of HSBC’s French retail bank. Former UniCredit banker Niccolò Ubertalli is running the new business, and reveals a very different strategy to the private equity company’s German-speaking antecedents in European banking.
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Proposed regulatory changes will not dull treasurers’ appetite for money-market funds, even if interest rates are cut more aggressively than expected.
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Hong Kong-based Chinese investment banks, plagued by the market’s liquidity issues, are looking to China's economic pivot and the renminbi's rise as a fundraising currency to restore their fortunes.
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Many companies still ignore the contribution that properly resourced treasury teams make to corporate performance.
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Is the CME’s new spot FX marketplace further evidence of the trend towards futures and options trading, and away from private deals?
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Elevated inflation and interest rates have focused treasury attention on the importance of diversification, particularly for those with an environmental, social or governance focus.
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Recently, investors have welcomed Turkish USD debt with open arms. As 2024 approaches, prospective borrowers will be hoping that the renewed interest can last.
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A team of once-public sector bankers and officials is launching a new private equity fund that aims to identify ‘climate winners’ from the transition to a decarbonized economy. It has identified key industries but its central thesis is regulation.
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Outgoing supervisory chair Andrea Enria warns against ‘complacency’ – despite higher capital ratios at eurozone banks – as he announces new requirements on banks to tackle investment-banking leverage, liquidity shortages and leveraged finance risks.
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A securitization of pay-as-you-go electricity bills to fund wider access to electricity in Côte d’Ivoire could spark copycat social bonds for affordable housing, telecoms, electricity access and more.
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The global clubs charged with defining what pace of transition is both scientifically and politically acceptable are only as good-willed as their members.
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Outside Switzerland, European banks largely escaped the banking turmoil last March. That hasn’t prevented supervisors using it as an excuse to ratchet up the pressure. Ahead of its 10th anniversary as a supervisor, is the ECB – as some bankers suggest – getting too intrusive?
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Strategic adjustments, such as those resulting from mergers or acquisitions, represent a valuable opportunity for corporates to enhance their payment infrastructure.
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The cost to the government of supporting the Mexican oil firm’s debt could rise to 1.5% of GDP in 2025. Could it walk away?
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BR Partners grew steadily up until its successful IPO in 2021. However, tougher markets since that float have led to a period of relative consolidation. Will 2024 see a resumption of chief executive Ricardo Lacerda’s ambitious empire building?
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Siemens is anchor client for a new rules-based approach to banking.
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The annual Senate quizzing of US big bank chief executives threw up all the usual favourite partisan arguments, but little else. If this is oversight, it often lacks insight.
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Failure to mobilize the finance needed to meet the Paris Agreement will be devastating. As those flows to overleveraged countries and companies now stall, radical steps are needed.
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The appointment of Marcelo Noronha as chief executive of Bradesco should probably have taken place five years ago. Is he still the right man for the job?
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The chief executive of Newton Investment Management is a forthright believer in the power of active investors to effect change at the companies they invest in, and thinks tinkering with market rules is unlikely to boost the appeal of London-listed equities.
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Many corporates are realising the benefits of intercompany netting on FX risk, trading and cash-flow visibility.
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Spoiled for choice, FX brokers have become more strategic – and selective – when it comes to choosing liquidity providers.
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Restrictions may come at a cost as MSCI considers developed market status.
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At the start of 2023, analysts sized China and liked what they saw: an economy reopening after three years of Covid isolation, and ready once again to roar. Nothing of the sort has happened and corporates and institutional investors are now fleeing the market in droves.
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Barclays hopes to win over investors with new return targets and buyback commitments next February, but it really needs a revival in investment banking.
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National Bank of Ukraine governor Andriy Pyshnyy talks to Euromoney about stabilizing the country’s financial system after the invasion, how rapid shifts to cloud-based banking can work and why cyber risks mean other countries are now seeking Ukraine’s advice about keeping banks running when national electricity infrastructure is down.
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Regulators are starting to take a more messaging-based approach to sustainable finance, but stopping greenwashing won’t automatically lead to a transition to net zero.
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The commodities firm still needs large banking groups and a range of options when it comes to supporting its operations.
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The Signa Group of companies is complex, but its problems are simple: debt service costs are going up while property values are going down.
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As the Chinese property crisis deepens, a new round of bank-led rescue efforts is on the horizon. While banks must shoulder part of the blame for the crisis, their options for action are limited.
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Thailand wants to give almost every adult in the country money through a digital wallet. It’s an interesting step towards bringing digital finance to the mainstream.
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The bank must broaden its horizons if performance is to improve.
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The travails of Zhongzhi, a key player in China’s poorly regulated $3 trillion shadow financing market, underline why a future crisis in the country is more likely, not less.
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The 28th Conference of the Parties starts in Dubai tomorrow. Dubbed the finance COP, conflicting priorities could turn it into a fossil fuel investor roadshow.
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More and more bond trading is automated. As volatility now shifts from rates to credit that will provide a stern examination of new trade execution tools.
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While many African countries experienced lower interbank FX turnover and saw their foreign-exchange reserves dwindle last year, there are grounds for optimism that 2023 will turn out to be a better year at both regional and national level.
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The sovereign pushed hard on its first use-of-proceeds green bond, but a sustainability-linked bond was not seen as a practical option for now.
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Instead of boasting about the billions extracted from the crypto exchange, the US Departments of Justice and Treasury should have closed it down.
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The use of AI for ESG reporting and assessments is spreading, and regulators can’t keep up. Lenders need to factor in a new set of governance risks that are hard to identify.
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Markets jump on the news that Javier Milei will be Argentina’s next president. A large devaluation is needed, but that leads to the risk of deposit flight.
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Kenyan authorities have cleared Flutterwave of wrongdoing following an anti-money-laundering case in the East African nation. Nevertheless, industry confidence in the Africa-focused payments company remains mixed.
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While the dollar’s international supremacy is unchallenged for now, the wider landscape is shifting. Companies are raising more funding in renminbi and the currency’s use in international payments and settlements is growing.
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The overall use of cash will continue to fall, but the decline of bank branch networks means that businesses now face a headache in handling physical takings.
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While the air at the Singapore Fintech Festival was full of grand ideas about GenAI, real innovation was taking place in the weeds of fintech development.
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When Kevin Gartside was medically discharged from the British army in 2012 after three tours of duty in Iraq, he was unsure what to do next. He saw cross-over appeal in banking, an industry with a surprisingly flat operating structure that prizes punctuality, teamwork, adaptability and decision making.
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Standard Chartered’s corporate and institutional bank can increase its profitability even when rates fall, divisional head Simon Cooper tells Euromoney. After reaping the benefit of investments in cash management, he is now turning to the financial markets business, especially credit – reinforcing efforts to grow clients in Europe and the Americas.
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Sector shows strong profit performance in the third quarter as asset quality improves.
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Jane Fraser, chief executive of Citi since March 2021, has a mighty task on her hands. Like so many of her predecessors, she faces the puzzle of how to articulate an identity for a bank that always seems to be trying to do too much at once. So far, she has focused on redefining the scope of the firm and most recently on adapting its structure to fit that. The hardest part – fixing the bank’s woeful returns – is still to come.
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Big banks are scrutinized on environmental, social and governance matters today as never before and they must often walk a tightrope between competing interests. Citi is no exception.
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As Citi presses on with its consumer-banking exits around the world, the job of defining what its international network now represents falls to its newly appointed head of international, Ernesto Torres Cantú.
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Andy Sieg is back again from Merrill Lynch, and has big plans for Citi’s new global wealth franchise.
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Exiting consumer banking in a range of markets around the world was one of Jane Fraser's first steps when she became Citi’s chief executive. The immensely complex task would need the safest of hands.
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Competition for deposits is influencing pricing decisions on commercial loans. However, the major cash-management banks insist that they have maintained both deposit levels and lending rates.
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The war in Ukraine has suddenly ramped up demands on the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development after the institution spent years searching for a new role. President Odile Renaud-Basso talks to Euromoney about the bank’s strategy and plans to boost its capacity through a €4 billion capital increase.
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Enel could trigger the largest step-up event in the sustainability-linked bond market if it misses its CO₂ emissions targets at the end of this year. How the market reacts will set the tone for the future of these instruments.
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The Swedish regulator digs deep into background of prospective senior managers.
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The great and the good have assembled again for the Global Financial Leaders investment summit in Hong Kong.
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Climate change is real and so are the EU’s disclosure rules.
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Our resident seer hears Ted Pick say don’t worry about the $20 million Morgan Stanley loyalty bonuses.
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UK banks that focus on tech are seemingly rewarded with greater customer trust.
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The local sector is in good shape to weather a short-term conflict. If the war drags on and spreads throughout the region, however, the position is far less clear.
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Data hoarding, ESG illiteracy and credit risk are roadblocks for regional banks looking to establish sustainable supply-chain financing programmes in the Gulf, just as COP28 approaches.
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Corporates are taking a big punt on markets remaining relatively benign, given their apparent lack of confidence in existing FX technology and systems.
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Rakuten needs money – and lots of it – as its mobile telecommunications arm continues to burn cash. But it is running out of things to sell, while its debt profile is miserable.
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A $3.5 billion deal attracts $36 billion of demand, answering the question of whether Swiss banks can return to this market after Credit Suisse's collapse.
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While no charges have been laid against the Adani Group, a new Sebi rulebook addresses a key concern that came from the January stock-market controversy.
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The AFX marketplace provides a new venue for US regional and community banks to lend and borrow from each other overnight. It could be the foundation for a new credit-sensitive benchmark rate.
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Net interest margins are shrinking. Banks may need to find new sources to fund customer loans, perhaps even by lending to each other.
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Mongolia’s five big lenders have successfully completed their IPOs, doubling the size of the local stock market. But the challenge of attracting more foreign institutional investment remains.
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Singapore’s DBS Bank has spent the past decade transforming itself into one of the world’s best digital banks. But a series of lengthy service outages over the past year has wrongfooted senior management, who have been left to issue apologies and pledge to do better.
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Private banking clients have begun exploring alternative asset allocation strategies in Brazil. Euromoney talks to the founders of a startup that is tapping into this demand with a strategy focused on special situations.
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Transaction banks must help their corporate clients to make the best use of new technologies, but without burdening them with unsustainable IT spending commitments.
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A local asset management company in Liaoning province just bailed out Shengjing Bank – by borrowing the capital it needed from the very same ailing regional lender.
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High interest-rate regulations skew credit portfolio allocation and stifle new entrants to the sector, but the new president may have other challenges to solve first.
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Turkey’s central bank took another step on the path to normalization when penalties for exceeding interest-rate caps on lending were scrapped last week. It is good news for banks, but will it last?
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Some big improvements need to be made in all areas of ESG, but it might be useful to stop trying to reconcile it with how markets function.
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Lack of standardization is one of the main reasons why API adoption has been slow in certain markets.
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Liquidity concerns and the search for yield are encouraging corporates to expand their roster of cash management service providers.
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The big cash management banks are confident that offering a wider range of services will enable them to maintain their market strength.
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Singapore’s big-three lenders – UOB, DBS and OCBC – have won Euromoney awards for best SME bank in Asia each year since 2016, two of them taking the global award as well. Why?
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New technology ventures and trading platforms promise compressed settlement times and improved liquidity in a secondary loans market increasingly dependent on non-bank investors.
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Global banks spent years trying to make China’s vast market work for them, mostly in vain. Today, though, China’s manufacturers are investing in Europe and the US, and turning to Western lenders for advice. The real China opportunity starts here.
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The big custody banks are pursuing a variety of digital-asset custody strategies to encourage wider market participation from institutional clients.
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Syndicated loan arrangers’ relief at US appeals court decision on Kirschner case may prove short-lived.
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The risk of a new war with Israel will derail any fledgling economic recovery for Lebanon as it attempts to convince private-sector investors of its gas and renewable energy potential.
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Banks say they are working hard to maintain an edge in an increasingly crowded and fragmented cross-border retail payments market.
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A wealth manager, who came into a legendary but unstable global investment bank and transformed it, hands on a very different and much better firm.
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Continuity is likely to be the theme as incoming leader inherits a well-performing franchise, but competition in wealth management and the markets businesses, as well as a still-lacklustre environment for investment banking, will be among Pick’s challenges.
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The CEO of Goldman Sachs has (mostly) hung up his cans. His colleagues hope that other noise will now die down too – and they think there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic.
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KVS Manian has been overlooked in favour of ex-Barclays man Ashok Vaswani. What does it mean for one of India’s finest banks?
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Latin America has been a relative backwater for private equity firms. Could better equity market conditions in the region drive an uptick in activity?
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The Singapore regulator MAS has set guidelines for banks transitioning to net zero. Unusually, it cautions against moving too fast.
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Citi’s sale of its China consumer wealth portfolio to HSBC for $3.6 billion is a nuanced tale of two banks with increasingly different strategies. As HSBC tilts ever more toward Asia, Citi proves ever more inclined to see all financial services through a global prism.
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Global financial regulators are right to pay more attention to non-bank risks, John Schindler, secretary general of the Financial Stability Board tells Euromoney. But is there a danger of losing sight of the most important piece of the system to preserve: the banks?
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While banks have accelerated digital solutions across business lines, accomplishing end-to-end digitalization of global trade remains far beyond their reach. The complexity of supply-chain finance remains a challenge, and banks continue to hunt for scalable solutions. Embedded finance could be the answer.
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The inability of trade-finance participants to fully leverage the value of the data generated by transactions remains a source of frustration, particularly for small businesses.
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In one of his last interviews in office, Ignazio Visco sets the record straight on his controversial 12 years as Italy’s central bank governor: a period of almost constant crisis. Today, the country’s NPL problems seem cured but, as he acknowledges, simmering risks remain.
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Pressure is growing on Japan’s self-imposed caps on government bond yields. Positive rates must be around the corner, but what will that mean for banks and public debt?
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Banks may be retreating from lending directly to small and medium-sized enterprises, but by lending to credit specialists with good technology they can still be a source of funding for the sector.
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Sustainability-linked loans have faced growing criticism for their opacity and concerns around greenwashing. Sustainability-linked loan bonds could help to bring more transparency to the market and help legitimise these structures.
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The controversy surrounding My Forex Funds has reinforced the view that tighter regulation of foreign-exchange proprietary trading firms is inevitable.
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Widespread use of ISO 20022 could have a far-reaching impact on supply-chain finance by facilitating faster processing of transactions.
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While foreign investment in China has fallen, supply-chain shift is a different story. Rather than transferring their main production away from China, manufacturers are cultivating deep regional supply chains across Asia and beyond.
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It took five years for the invoice finance specialist Accelerated Payments to advance its first €1 billion, but just nine months for the next €500 million.
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Record sustainable finance issuance will still only get you so far.
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Digital banks look to online games to help drive retention.
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It is rare that a popular, fast-growing and secure financial product is put at risk, but could the boom in FGTS loans in Brazil be under existential threat?
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Bidding $2.5 billion for the bulk of Credit Suisse’s sub-Saharan Africa ultra-high net-worth private bank book 18 months ago has been a ‘game changer’ for Barclays in the region, the UK bank’s Africa market head Amol Prabhu tells Euromoney.
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If you owe the IMF $3.6 billion, it’s your problem. But if you owe the IMF $36 billion, it is their problem.
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Even as the industry pleads its solidity, accidents keep happening.
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Deutsche Bank’s Mexico team says the country is vital for Latin American credibility and that nearshoring will drive FDI in the coming decade.
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Ahead of COP28, the sector needs to focus on lending for energy efficiency in the emerging markets before climate tech startups in developed markets, if decarbonization is the goal.
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Latin American issuance was solid, if unspectacular in the first half of this year. However, with politics, sticker price resistance and refinancing needs skewed to 2024, the next half may be more difficult.
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Transaction banks are collaborating with ERP system vendors and other fintechs to maximise corporate use cases for ISO 20022.
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Just three weeks on from the rapturous response to Arm Holdings re-listing on Nasdaq, the prospects for a revival in IPOs suddenly look dim.
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Patricio Sepúlveda, head of Chile’s public debt office, discusses how programmatic issuance demonstrates commitment to sustainability-linked bond goals and can make these structures more cost effective.
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A market-beating increase in UniCredit’s share price is just the beginning, chief executive Andrea Orcel tells Euromoney. He must now prove the many remaining sceptics wrong and show the bank can still thrive when net interest margins fall and credit costs rise.
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More banks have announced partnerships with asset managers to place loans into private debt funds that offer investors better risk-adjusted returns than bank equity.
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European corporates are finding a warm welcome from investors, pushing investment-grade volumes to a 2023 monthly record last month – their biggest total since the start of the interest-rate hiking cycle. But while investors are clearly ready to buy even the more adventurous stories, they still need the reassurance of sensible pricing.
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Digital sukuk issuance still faces the issue of uneven Shariah interpretation.
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As a relative outsider, Slawomir Krupa might have appeared better suited to the chief executive job at Societe Generale precisely because it had done so badly under an establishment insider. BNP Paribas’ good performance, by contrast, would make the traditional background of its rumoured chief-executive-in-waiting, Marguerite Bérard, less of a barrier.
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The relaxation of visa rules has turbocharged the recent flow of wealth into Dubai. The nature of these flows can, however, make them a mixed opportunity for the UAE’s private bankers.
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MUFG’s vast balance sheet has the potential to make a considerable difference to Japan’s net-zero ambitions. But the bank won’t be pulling back from polluters, arguing that money needs to flow to where emissions are, not away from them.
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Corporate treasury expectations for on-demand financial information are yet to be addressed. The difficulty of gathering data from disparate systems should not be underestimated.
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Building a consensus approach that avoids a steady stream of small fines for misreporting long and short stock positions may be a new model for joint action on regulation.
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The Lebanese diaspora has come home to pump fresh cash into the country’s economy, but the resulting price surge is a further blow to the lira-earning population.
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Real estate has been particularly exposed to the slowdown in bank lending. Nevertheless, logistics remains a bright spot as retail sites continue to adapt and office oversupply persists.
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Private foundations were once the preserve of a narrow group of the monied elite. Today, they are the fastest-growing source of private-sector philanthropy in the US and across the developed world.
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BlackRock joins Allfunds initiative to distribute new variants of private equity and credit funds to wealthy individuals.
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Euromoney talks to Jacques Levet, chief digital officer at BNP Paribas, about the competitive advantage that newly acquired FX fintech Kantox offers.
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Slawomir Krupa may yet turn around Societe Generale. But it won’t be by shock and awe.
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Farmland acquisition for transition agriculture has proved attractive to the climate-focused investment management franchises of large asset managers. Will real-asset investors follow suit?
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Despite a year of high-profile issuance, all is not well in the sustainability-linked bond market. Teething problems could soon become an existential crisis, raising the risk that investors might decide to abandon the asset class altogether.
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A Citi survey of family offices finds some unsurprising things to say about the worries of the wealthy – inflation, interest rates and geopolitics – but discovers a shocking lack of preparation for succession planning.
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Despite tweaks to improve efficiency, Societe Generale’s new strategy has received a lukewarm reception. New CEO Slawomir Krupa has lifted the capital target, but revenues will remain flat, and there is a lack of news on asset sales.
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Bankers at Lloyds say that progress in FX, fixed income and structured finance this year reflects chief executive Charlie Nunn’s strategy for targeted growth in corporate and institutional banking.
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The enormous re-listing of Arm Holdings is unrepresentative in many ways, but it still contains a valuable lesson for those coming down the pipe.
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Social bonds could help deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals by driving private capital into essential services. But impact looks different from one place to the next, so how can issuers report it in a way that makes sense?
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Market participants have welcomed recent moves to enhance FX liquidity by increasing the efficiency of credit payments for trades.
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Borrowers that financed cheaply in 2021 will soon hit a maturity wall. Many will struggle to refinance at higher cost. Some will default. Private credit managers – still magnets for institutional capital – are set to step in and bridge some of the financing gap left by the banks.
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Beneath the Great Game geopolitics of US-Vietnam relations, there are some intriguing possibilities in the detail.
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Securities finance practitioners are taking a mix of approaches to managing cash, funding and liquidity in a shortened settlement cycle.
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With Article 6 mechanisms formalized, project-based compliance carbon markets could take over the emissions offsetting industry, leaving participants in the voluntary carbon market stranded.
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Should we take Vivek Ramaswamy literally or seriously?
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Working together, regulated banks and direct lenders may prevent the coming default cycle from turning into a full-blown credit crunch.
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Financial market practitioners might be forgiven for reflecting on a job well done now that the final Libor panel has ended its submissions. The journey has been immense, but the focus is turning to loose ends, including the argument that just won’t go away: is there a place for credit-sensitive rates in a post-Libor world?
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As other investment banks cut staff, HSBC has been hiring to build a leading bank in tech and healthcare.
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Banks and investors opposed to European Union derivatives clearing plans have made an astonishing charge: the EU is worse than the US in jealously guarding its own markets.
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A tactical retreat on crypto regulation might help SEC chair Gary Gensler to avoid being bogged down in a war of attrition for the rest of his term.
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A debate in Australia arguing for the liquidation of the sovereign wealth fund has relevance to the global fund community.
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Overall volatility in commodities markets may have dropped from the highs of last year, but uncertainty in specific sectors continues to put pressure on corporate hedging strategies.
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For decades, transaction banking was a profitable but largely ignored corner of the banking industry. Then Covid happened. Today, bank chiefs see it as critical to everything they do. Given the challenges ahead – collaborating with fintechs and embedding ESG principles in global supply chains – the revolution under way in this business is unstoppable.
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After years of easy Eurobond access and ramped-up Chinese lending, developing economies are now caught between rising interest rates and geopolitical tensions, making debt restructurings more numerous and more complicated. Despite some progress in inter-creditor talks, many debtor nations face an uncertain financial future.
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HKEx chief executive Nicolas Aguzin opened the group’s latest new office in London on Wednesday. His aim: to get more global firms to IPO in Hong Kong and convince investors to put money to work there. But against the backdrop of China’s economic situation, his team will have its work cut out.
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A handwritten note brings down the curtain on a 38-year journey for bank founder.
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The frontrunner in the Argentine presidential election campaign has said he wants to abolish the peso and replace it with the US dollar. Is it blue-sky thinking or just greenback dreaming?
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Private bankers are eyeing PE and venture capital investments as digital platforms emerge in Brazil, but personal advisory remains critical.
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After buying parts of BNP Paribas and Societe Generale, Orabank is African banking group Vista’s boldest acquisition yet. Despite coups and sovereign debt distress, Vista’s founder and chairman Simon Tiemtoré tells Euromoney how he can succeed where other higher profile ventures have failed.
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The Brazilian bank is focused on new initiatives aimed at boosting active-user rates, including a new global app and buy-now-pay-later product.
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Corporates appreciate the value of APIs when it comes to connectivity for services such as payment order transfers, cash balance updates and payment status updates. But a lack of uniform data standards continues to hinder their wider adoption.
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With a new proposal for long-term debt issuance, US banking regulators have launched the next phase of their war against the lack of confidence that shook the industry in March 2023. But it is becoming increasingly clear that the approach is less about precision strikes and more about a carpet-bombing campaign.
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Two new platforms show how India is building on top of its digital foundations.
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Despite the cross-border growth of Hungary’s OTP Bank and the regional potential of Romania’s Banca Transilvania, banking in central and eastern Europe is increasingly a national game.
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Banks are calling for greater cooperation from regulators as they address demands for cheaper and faster cross-border payments.
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China is having a shocker of a year. Growth has stalled, deflation is back and global firms are moving production elsewhere as they de-risk from China to boost supply-chain resiliency. FDI is down sharply and exports are sinking. Just as Brexit reshaped the UK’s relationship with the world, has Covid done the same for China?
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The manner of the campaign against chief executive David Solomon risks causing the lasting damage that his internal opponents presumably wish to avoid.
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Outbound Chinese M&A deal-flow has slowed to a crawl even as inbound activity remains steady. So focus in the region is moving elsewhere: to rising India, steady-and-lucrative Australia and even Japan, where once-bloated conglomerates are streamlining portfolios under intense pressure from activist shareholders.
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Good things could be in store for Libya if harmony at the central bank spreads to the government and sovereign fund.
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European corporates have been the big losers from lower overall FX market volatility in the first half of 2023 as EUR/USD normalised while the yen and yuan continued to struggle.
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The volume of payments processed outside the traditional banking sector is growing rapidly. But banks remain confident that they can remain competitive against non-bank or fintech alternative platforms.
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The political response to rising bank profits should focus more on debt distress than on deposit rates and taxation.
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After less than two years, S&P is scrapping its ESG credit indicators and America’s anti-woke politicians are thrilled. But this may not be the win they think it is.
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Despite its roots in the region, HSBC’s Asian woes have sometimes seemed endemic. It has been overly dependent on Hong Kong and too often caught in Sino-US crosshairs. But under regional co-CEOs Surendra Rosha and David Liao, the lender has regained its confidence, is more regionally diverse than ever, and is busy posting record profits.
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The second-quarter earnings season saw more detail from US banks on how they are preparing for the worst in commercial real estate exposures. We look at how the data shapes up for the super-regional sector.
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The domestic economy is flatlining while interest rates continue to rise, but the booming banking sector has helped overall UK corporate payouts keep pace with those elsewhere.
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Moody’s took a swing at US banks last night. The moves might have seemed indiscriminate, but it’s hard to argue with the conclusions. After the scares of March, the sector is far from out of the woods.
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It is no surprise to find the ACCC blocking ANZ’s takeover of Suncorp. It is eye-catching, though, to see the regulator naming a deal it would prefer to see happen.
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The investment firm founded by securitization experts in 2015 has grown to an $8 billion portfolio of 60 companies without managing any third-party funds and still sees big potential returns, notably in football clubs, from applying the discipline of structured finance to operating businesses.
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While central banks announce the latest controlled tests on blockchain-based digital money, a handful of leading commercial banks are already in full production.
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Despite suggestions that corporates in North America are keen to work with a wider variety of FX counterparties, global banks are relaxed about the potential impact of March’s banking crisis on this lucrative business line.
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With Apple set to take an even bigger bite out of UK in-person transaction volumes, rival providers of payment technology will be looking to up their game.
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Tottenham Hotspur’s Joe Lewis was indicted for insider trading just before yen volatility presented an opportunity for profitable currency dealing.
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Thirty percent of Singapore sovereign fund’s portfolio is in private equity or real estate. Surely this is as good as it gets for private markets.
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Goldman Sachs is losing a key executive in the very business it is relying on to turn the firm's fortunes around.
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Thames Water has become the highest profile example of a UK corporation that finds itself hamstrung by inflation-linked bonds issued at a time when persistent high inflation and economic stagnation seemed unlikely bedfellows.
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Accessing funds via debt capital or private placement may seem like an onerous task, but a growing number of corporates see it as an opportunity to mitigate the impact of changes to bank-capital deployment.
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Banks including NatWest and JPMorgan are struggling to put out reputational risk-management fires.
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The NatWest chief executive’s resignation ends a solid if unexciting three-and-a-half years at the helm.
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BlackRock, JPMorgan and McKinsey are working on plans for a new development finance institution focused on Ukraine’s reconstruction. The project has already had to temper some ambitions, but its advisers still hope it can propel flows of private-sector money to Ukraine in years to come.
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Credit growth is a key driver of stellar earnings from India’s banks as the country completes its recovery from Covid-19, but another driver is digital traction.
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Analysts are looking beyond China for clues as to where the main Asian currencies will go over the remainder of 2023 as they try to second-guess Japan’s monetary policy plans.
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ADIB’s almost 10-times oversubscribed additional tier-1 issuance shows interest in the product is alive and well for the right issuer, but demand won’t be the same for every bank.
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The increased corporate focus on environmental, social and governance issues is impacting treasury teams that can struggle to justify their initiatives.
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Wealth management had a tough 2022. Assets under management fell across the board, undermined by global uncertainty. But one region is not struggling. More wealth than ever is being formed in the Middle East, and more of it than ever is staying there. Private banks are hiring as fast as they can and expanding their repertoire in Shariah-compliant asset classes.
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The German lender has named Claudio de Sanctis as its new head of private bank and created a single, unified division – part of longstanding plans to generate more income from the business by rooting out inefficiencies and tapping into new global income streams.
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If banks want the positive PR associated with facilitating sustainable finance, they need to admit to facilitating dirty finance too.
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Temasek, as an equity-only sovereign wealth vehicle, had a bad year. A close look at its portfolio positioning helps us understand what it is doing about it.
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Big banks capable of competing with US players are part of Europe’s geostrategic interests, Deutsche Bank CEO tells audience at Euromoney dinner.
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Trade and currency wars have boosted Brazil’s agribusiness sector in the past couple of years. Higher prices for soft commodities have, however, accelerated a trend that has been noticeable for many years: the country’s inward focus.