Western Europe

The German bank’s transaction banking franchise will be central to the success of its new corporate banking division.

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

Spanish bank profitability will sink even further as left-wing populists Podemos enter a coalition with the socialist party, making a private-sector future for Bankia ever more remote.

Origin’s simple, scalable technology solution to the inefficiencies of generating final legal documents for MTNs shows the path to success for fintechs in capital markets.

UBS’s country head refuses to comment on whether Banco do Brasil has been given a ‘call option on the bank’s Brazilian IB business’.

Finance minister Olaf Scholz has laid out Germany’s negotiating position for the completion of banking union, a pre-requisite for much-needed consolidation.

Implementation of FX transaction cost analysis (TCA) appears to have stalled, with the impracticality of conducting analysis across every available venue encouraging many parties to rely on venues or dealers to measure execution, despite concerns over transparency and impartiality.

A merger is still CEO Martin Zielke’s only real hope.

European bank shares have sunk to levels not seen since 2008, and even some of the region’s bank CEOs admit it is hard to make a compelling investment case for them. Euromoney speaks to the people at the top about their potential to re-emerge as global leaders.

European banks don’t have a continental market, right? Wrong. Even if they cannot do full-blown mergers, the cross-border consolidation of specific business lines offers a way of gaining some of the economies of scale that US and Chinese banks enjoy.

Third-quarter earnings show it is time for decisive action.

Corporates often perceive options as an expensive means of hedging FX risk compared with forwards, but a number of market developments have increased their attractiveness as a tool for reducing currency exposure.

Esma no longer feels it needs to impose EU-wide leverage limits on the FX contracts for difference (CFDs) market, but there is little evidence to suggest its efforts to protect retail traders have done anything other than push business offshore.

While the IMF highlights mispriced corporate debt as a systemic danger, so too is misvalued unlisted equity.

Frank Vang-Jensen, Nordea’s new CEO, is living up to his reputation as a cost axeman, but claims he can reverse the bank’s recent market-share losses at the same time.

This year’s dovish turn in global monetary policy is difficult for most eurozone lenders, but it’s propping up Greek banks, spurring demand for NPL sales; but if these banks return to normality and grow their loan books, negative rates could still end up causing them pain.

The Trade Club Alliance, a new 14-bank partnership to match SME exporters and importers, reflects greater willingness among banks – especially in Europe – to work together against low-cost newcomers, while relinquishing their own global ambitions.

Clients have had a much easier time than their banks in Germany, but fintech innovation is creating ways for the likes of Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank to thrive, even in the country’s SME heartlands.

The head of transaction banking at SEB says: 'Corporate clients ask us what we are doing to become a green bank.'

The bank's managing director of commercialisation and propositions for global transaction banking says: 'Why shouldn’t banking be just as simple as booking a hotel or ordering a taxi?'

The global head of transaction banking at StanChart says: 'We will see better results if we work together.'

The bank's global head of liquidity and cash management says: 'We need to stay on top of emerging trends.'

To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, clean up water supplies, prevent the loss of biodiversity, mitigate fire and flood risk and meet the nutritional requirements of a growing population the world must improve its regenerative and sustainable agricultural practices – new tools and support from the financial services industry are needed to fund that transition.

Deutsche Bank’s decision to exit equities but continue with ECM is a startling move, but it reflects the reality of the industry as much as it does the bank’s own uncomfortable position.

As entrepreneurs seek to improve institutional-grade custody and security for trading in crypto assets, conventional financial market participants remain suspicious.

Deutsche Bank has taken the radical step of getting rid of its equities business, but thinks it can still offer ECM. Can it?

Corporates' increasing need to use treasury resources more efficiently has persuaded BNP Paribas to partner with fintech Kantox to offer a new dynamic hedging solution to clients.

The company is expanding its UK-tested platform through an agreement with Euronext to bring the retail bid into follow-on offers from listed SMEs across Europe.

The Deutsche Bank CFO is adamant that not only are his bank’s new ambitions achievable despite a fragile environment, but clients are also supportive.

The delay in the introduction of strong customer authentication under the second EU Payments Services Directive has not been universally welcomed, but it represents a valuable opportunity to make consumers more security-aware.