Western Europe

The established banks have mixed feelings about the growth of buy-now-pay-later as they ponder new payment options that are undercutting lucrative credit-card transactions.

As conventional banks, asset managers and regulators embrace crypto, the institution warns this large and volatile asset class poses new risks to the world financial system.

Annual stress tests of bank balance sheets were one of the last decade’s most obvious supervisory responses to the global financial crisis. With a wave of new bottom-up assessments now getting under way, regulators hope to do something similar with climate risks. Can they do it or will this simply result in a toothless box-ticking exercise?

Derivatives could turbocharge environmental, social and governance markets, with a related boost to bank revenues. However, they could also make it harder to monitor exposure.

Gas price volatility is delivering profits to speculators. It is a reminder that carbon trading markets could face PR problems if energy dealers are viewed as big beneficiaries.

Relief on dividends is not enough to propel the sector back to greatness.

Sustainable finance and renewable energy are becoming more important for the French firm, as it reduces its emphasis on equity derivatives.

Adewale Ogunleye was rich and already retired from American Football when he learned what a basis point was. He’s now head of a new UBS wealth segment called Athletes & Entertainers that helps sports icons and singers plan their financial future.

Societe Generale’s decision to launch a joint treasury management solution with Kyriba is just the latest example of banks and technology vendors collaborating to offer more sophisticated treasury functionality.

The US bank has launched the next generation of its global virtual account management solution to clients in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands.

One of the stars of Estonia’s post-Soviet generation, André Küüsvek, talks to Euromoney about escaping lockdown in Kazakhstan, expanding the NIB’s environmental remit and the risks posed by rising inequality.

While big banks and institutional investors spent years trying to bend blockchain for use in traditional finance, they missed out on the boom in crypto prices and the income from decentralized finance. Now, alarmed by stretched valuations and zero yields in conventional markets, they just want in. The race is on to build a sturdy infrastructure to support the stream of old money into new digital assets that could become a flood.

A new analysis of European banks by ShareAction finds that while some firms distinguish themselves in some climate and biodiversity practices, the overall picture is of a sector that still has much work to do.

Deutsche Bank’s restructuring has not been thrown off course by the pandemic, but upside surprises can hide risks. Discipline will be needed to avoid the temptations of the past.

This time last year, Euromoney recognized progress at Deutsche Bank as the best transformation story of 2020. Twelve months on, the German lender might be getting its act together at last. Can it sustain its recovery?

Two years ago, Deutsche pulled back in ECM. Now, in Asia, it wants back in.

In September, the EU will issue bills through the auction system operated by the Banque de France for the French Trésor. But they will not immediately be a reference safe asset for European capital markets.

As fintechs approach 10% of the banking and payments universe, the pioneer venture investor and founder of Capital One says banks must learn to partner with them or begin to lose ground.

David Wildermuth, the new chief risk officer at Credit Suisse, may have much of the heavy lifting done by the time he arrives at his desk in Zurich.

It is the deal everyone was waiting for – but UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel has to appear guarded, as he enters exclusive negotiations with Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena.

Recent reports concerning a payment made by Deutsche Bank to Europe’s largest winery are a reminder that disputes over FX derivatives mis-selling have yet to run their course.

The Swiss bank claims a resilient performance lies beneath the meagre returns after de-risking post-Archegos and Greensill, but big questions remain.

More focus on keeping a client happy than keeping the bank solvent; a risk management department that wasn’t tough enough and enabled bad practice; a willful reduction in margin; and two co-heads who each believed the other ran the relevant business. The report into Credit Suisse’s Archegos debacle makes grim reading.

The big question remains when governments will return to fiscal consolidation. How will NPLs fare when taxpayer support is withdrawn is also in doubt.

Barclays wants to be compared with the big five US investment banks. So let’s do that.

With investors already struggling to generate positive yields on most money market funds, managers are concerned that proposed legislative changes could render some funds unviable.

The EU’s Recovery and Resilience Fund (RRF) is spurring talk of growth at Greek banks. But for their investors, it’s still all about last decade’s legacy.

The $33 billion valuation in neobank Revolut’s latest funding round puts it in the same league as lenders with trillions of assets and billions in profit.

Banks are slowly realising the commercial promise of data and data analytics products, but there is still a long way to go for many institutions to move beyond services that deliver limited business insight.

As Covid cases surge, the widespread hope that economic growth will contain defaults and banks will emerge unscathed looks optimistic.