Corporate Social Responsibility

Management | Corporate Boards
Led by investors such as Carl Icahn, Bill Ackman and Jeff Smith, and targeting companies from DuPont to PepsiCo, campaigns by activist investors have become a common occurrence in the United States in the past few decades.

Thomas Gass, assistant secretary-general for policy coordination and interagency affairs in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs at the United Nations, talked with Global Finance about the UN’s new Sustainable Development Goals and how the private sector can help.

Management | Auto Manufacturers
The Volkswagen emissions scandal, which saw the company fudge emissions tests to make its cars appear less polluting, has resulted in a new CEO appointment, the suspension of key executives and a proposed group restructure.

Islamic Finance | Bank Negara’s decision to halt issuing shariah-compliant bonds has left a big hole in the Islamic debt market. Filling the void will take time.

Newsmakers | United Nations
When the United Nations Global Compact was launched 15 years ago at the New York Stock Exchange, Lise Kingo was entrenched on the corporate responsibility frontline in Europe.
 

Winterkorn is forced to resign after it was revealed the company was guilty of manipulating diesel emission tests.

Annual Awards honoring the Best Islamic Financial Institutions in the world.

Global Salon | Global Finance sat down with Ommeed Sathe, vice president and head of impact investing at Newark, New Jersey-based insurer Prudential Financial, to discuss how corporate social responsibility and profitable investing can go hand in hand.

Special Report | Private Banking
Offshore banking, the booking and management of assets outside an individual’s country of domicile, has taken a beating since the financial crisis.

Q&A with Moataz Natafji, general manager, BLOM Development Bank, the Islamic subsidiary of BLOM Bank, Beirut, Lebanon

Q&A with Mike Maguid Abdelaaty, president, American Finance House Lariba, Whittier, California

Special Report | Pensions & Benefits Management
Combating economic trends, regulators and even demographics, funds are forced to think outside the box.

Best Islamic Financial Institutions | Introduction
Islamic finance is breaking out, as long-awaited regulatory reform takes hold in key nations, boosting transparency and driving new business.

Morocco | In recent years, Morocco has successfully attracted a growing flow of foreign capital, becoming the top foreign direct investment recipient in the Maghreb region (Northwest Africa), and one of the largest in the African continent.

SEC & Executive Compensation | Five years after the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform act, several of its controversial corporate governance provisions on executive compensation continue to wend their way through the system.

Capital Markets | Debt
Issuance of green bonds, which raise funds to support environmentally beneficial activities, more than tripled last year, to $36 billion, according to the World Bank.

Newsmakers | Nicaragua
When Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega announced last December a plan to construct a controversial transoceanic waterway that would provide an alternative to the Panama Canal, he vowed the project would create jobs and bring prosperity to the hemisphere’s second-poorest nation.

Management | Metrics
Corporations and analysts turn to scores of metrics—return on assets, working capital and others—to determine a company’s financial health. Another, the ratio of debt to internal funds, is one of the most widely used benchmarks. But a new study suggests that the debt-to-funds ratio isn’t all that accurate in predicting or explaining default risk.

Newsmakers | United States
A new crack appeared in the corporate glass ceiling in February, when Cathy Engelbert was appointed CEO of Deloitte US, becoming the first woman to lead one of the Big Four audit and consulting firms in the United States.

Trends | Credit Ratings
More than six years after the housing market crashed—dragging the world economy and stock markets down with it—Standard & Poor’s settled in early February with the Securities and Exchange Commission for its alleged part in triggering the meltdown. The price was relatively cheap, as these things go: $1.4 billion with no admission of wrongdoing.