Western Europe

Cryptocurrencies have a specific use-case in countries where local currencies are in crisis, but elsewhere they remain a volatile speculative investment and will struggle to take off as a means of payment.

The traditional debt specialist is aiming to round out its growing European franchise with an equity capital markets advisory business.

Former PwC executive Robert Swaak is a 'safe pair of hands', but a money laundering investigation and negative rates heighten existential doubt at ABN Amro.

Lender lures China Merchants Bank’s head of private banking to oversee the Swiss bank’s onshore wealth management ops.

Welcome to the 2020s.

Spain’s biggest bank is moving further away from its deal-making past, instead seeing a way forward for its troubled US and UK banks in payments and cloud technology.

With falling rates in Europe and the US, and Turkey still in trouble, only Latin America – especially Mexico – can keep up BBVA’s spirits.

As the bank finally grapples with the restructuring it has needed for years, there are reasons to be optimistic.

‘Business as usual’ has been tough for the Swiss bank to achieve over the last 12 months. Management faces a challenge to show the bank will not just survive but thrive.

The senior management team at HSBC looks increasingly chaotic. It needs to fix that, before it can fix the bank.

While many European peers languish, Barclays’ transatlantic pivot is paying off – and helping it build elsewhere.

BNP Paribas will reach the end of its three year ‘transformation’ plan in 2020; how has it fared?

Returning money to shareholders was an important milestone; building revenues and controlling costs remains the key task.

Investors have rewarded cuts but restructuring may soon recommence, sparking fears of collateral damage in businesses it still cherishes.

Being the world’s leading wealth manager presents challenges in this market environment. UBS is coping relatively well.

A no-growth decade won’t stop bankers from chasing fees and trading profits. Mystic Maca looks even further ahead.

Swift hopes its know your customer (KYC) registry, now open to corporate partners, will succeed in ways in which others have failed, given the institution's not-for profit and cooperative position.

Leading exchanges have seen little return from their investment in electronic trading venues and face some tough decisions over how to increase revenues.

The year 2020 is going to be a big one in the world of failed trades.

The needle may slowly be moving, but if we continue at this pace sustainable finance will still be a niche rather than integrated into all finance by the end of the century.

It is an almost unchallenged truth that the next crisis will be triggered by over-leveraged corporate borrowers crumbling under the weight of cheap debt that they have taken on over the last decade. Right in the middle of this are the CLO buyers that have made much of that lending possible. But rather than taking fright at the prospect of a slew of triple-C credits in their pools, CLO managers are running straight towards it.

Small companies with short trading histories and thin credit files make up a growing part of the economy that established banks are not set up to serve.

Leonardo Del Vecchio’s arrival as the biggest shareholder in Mediobanca caught CEO Alberto Nagel off guard, stirring debate about Nagel’s handling of the bank’s stake in Generali. Nagel insists he can find an acquisition in wealth management that is good enough to justify selling. But is his and Mediobanca’s influence in the country on the wane?

Intesa Sanpaolo chief executive Carlo Messina bristles at the idea that Italian finance should be an underdog in Europe. His bank can prove otherwise and, he says, lower interest rates will only make its fee businesses shine more brightly. But in a stagnating economy with tech-savvy challengers gaining share and other Italian banks recovering, are acquisitions the only way for Intesa to grow and retain the favour of investors and clients?

When RBS floated Citizens Financial in 2014, it was the biggest bank IPO since the financial crisis and investors were sceptical of its prospects ‒ five years on and RoE and EPS have doubled, the stock trades at a premium, and the bank has shown it can compete with bigger US banks and non-banks alike. Chief executive Bruce Van Saun discusses what comes next.

As Italy’s biggest bank unveils a new plan and new targets, CEO Jean Pierre Mustier says negative rates and Basel III reforms mean “8% is the new 10%” for European banks’ returns on equity

The international exchange’s clearing offering for EUR/USD and GBP/USD cross-currency swap transactions marks another modest step towards wider use of central clearing in FX.

Year after year, research highlights the gap between what impact investment consumers want and what they are being offered by advisers, banks and pension funds. The UK’s new Impact Investing Institute hopes to bring everyone to the table to change this.

It appears that basic errors rather than deliberate attempts to game the system lay behind Citi’s large miscalculations of UK RWAs and CET1.

The Italian fashion house’s sustainability linked loan, arranged by Crédit Agricole, builds the catwalk for other retailers to follow suit.