Gordon Platt

Slow GDP growth clouds outlook: Mobile technology is bringing banking to the continent’s unbanked, and is expected to help stimulate growth.

Bank of America is sharing its success with the communities in which it operates, with a focus on ESG activities, says chairman and CEO Brian Moynihan.

Short-term pain, long-term gain: The one-time impact of the new US tax law masks strong improvements.

High-speed 5G networks and Cloud data centers are giving digital efforts across the region a big boost.

In late June, when women are finally allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, many observers predict an uptick in economic activity. 

The Middle East is striving to adapt to rapid economic and social change—with some success. 

Sunil Kaushal, Standard Chartered Bank’s regional chief executive of Africa and the Middle East, speaks with Global Finance about where he sees potential for growth in the high-risk region.

Egypt is leading the region’s economic rebound, with special attention paid to nurturing the strong growth potential of smaller businesses.

Egypt’s entrepreneurs need innovative financial services delivered via mobile phone to become successful contributors to the economy, says CIB’s chairman and managing director, Hisham Ezz Al-Arab.

The creation of an African free-trade area is the first step towards a pan-African single market of 1.2 billion people.

The Trump administration's economic policy decisions are being shaped by national security concerns.

M&A activity is heating up as companies take advantage of low-cost debt and large cash reserves.

Thanks to a new agreement, businesses can assume that the UK will be fully out of the EU by January 2021. The UK will remain in the single market and customs union until the end of 2020.

 'Programmatic M&A' is the path that holds the most promise, according to the consultancy, as opposed to infrequent large deals which 'hurt value creation'.

Political stability, a fast-growing economy and a sustained program of economic reforms are among the reasons for the feverish pace of takeover activity in the south Asian republic.

Chris Laws, global head of product development, compliance and supply solutions for Dun & Bradstreet, explains how new technologies are providing ever deeper analysis to deliver reputational and financial risk mitigation

The Saudi kingdom seems to be on a path of radical change, broadening options for women and opening to new sectors, but a ruling-family schism could derail the effort.

  The dollar tumbled to a three-year, trade-weighted low in January, even as the 10-year US Treasury note yield rose above 2.6% for the first time since 2014. This drop confounded analysts, who forecasted a stronger dollar based on expectations ...

  Apple says it will make a “direct contribution” to the US economy of $350 billion in the next five years, creating more than 20,000 new jobs. The iPhone maker did not say, however, how much of that spending would ...

From Bigger Yields To Better Yields: Lively competition from strong and agile smaller banks is driving big trade-finance providers to focus on profitability rather than market share.

The situation came to a head late last year when the Iran government proposed an austere budget for 2018. Subsidies on basic goods and services for the poor were subject to proposed cuts, as fuel prices were set to rise by as much as 50%.

After performing through some volatile years, corporate currency-risk managers earn growing respect.

The foreign exchange industry is embracing principles to nourish a robust, fair and transparent market for currency trading—without threat of law.

Westfield has developed shopping venues in such prime locations as London’s Shepherd Bush, New York’s World Trade Center and Los Angeles’ Century City. 

As Saudi Arabia seeks to create a modern economy, entertainment is one of the industries being promoted as a replacement for oil. 

Trading market volume has declined, even as outstanding corporate debt has increased in recent years.

Qatar’s reserves nearly doubled to $39 billion due to the  change giving it more foreign-currency liquidity.

Qatar has staved off disaster with new alliances. Still, the regional conflict must be resolved for long-term health.

Prince Mohammed bin Salman put 11 princes and nearly 200 high-ranking officials, under arrest for corruption.

US treasury bond yields could rise sharply in 2018, as central-bank liquidity begins to recede and heavy new supply hits the market.

New restrictions will make it costlier for corporations to hedge erratic currency markets—but could also make the financial system safer.

Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has pledged to phase out Libor by 2021. 

These futures would be China’s first such contract open to direct trading by foreign enterprises. If successful, the country could create similar contracts for other strategic commodities.

The company has changed plans to split into three separate companies following the merger between Dow Chemicals and DuPont.

The US administration cited national security concerns in following the recommendation of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), which could get new powers to increase scrutiny of deals by foreign buyers.

Ever since it became a bank holding company in 2008 to stay afloat in the financial crisis, the bank was urged by US Federal Reserve to rely more on ‘sticky’ consumer deposits to lower its risk profile.

Global Finance grades the world’s central bank governors on how well they have performed in the past year.

BEST BANK IN NORTH AMERICA Bank of America Bank of America turned in another solid earnings report in the second quarter, with all of its businesses delivering strong results and several setting records. Net income increased 10% to $5.3 billion. ...

With an enticing yield of 6.75%, Iraq attracted $6.6 billion in orders for its $1 billion issue of five-and-a-half-year bonds in early August, its first independent bond sale in more than a decade.

In our October issue, Global Finance presents its latest annual grading of the world's central bank governors. Here, we present the nine who received an "A" grade in 2017: those from Australia, Honduras, Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, Paraguay, Russia, Taiwan and the United States. 

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Finance raised 17 billion riyals ($4.5 billion) in its first domestic sukuk issuance in late July.

The Chinese central bank’s heavy-handed intervention in the currency markets earlier this year has triggered a decline in trading of the renminbi and a reversal in the rise of the Rmb in international payments.

European exporters are beginning to worry about the impact of a strong euro on their competitiveness in global markets.

The UAE has lined up nearly half a dozen billion dollar IPOs, mainly from state-owned companies, before the record breaking Saudi Aramco listing in 2018 drains liquidity from the market

A new crown prince is in a stronger position to implement the Saudi’s ambitious Vision 2030 program.

In a Q&A, Deutsche Bank's Zafar Aziz says innovation in the depositary receipts industry can free up the flow of capital across borders.

The CEO of the Saudi stock exchange talks to Global Finance about reforms that are opening the market to foreign investors ahead of Saudi Aramco's listing in 2018.

How Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Qatar are adjusting to new oil-market realities.

With high per-capita incomes and strong mobile use, the GCC is poised for a surge in online shopping. Still, air-conditioned malls retain their allure.

The longer Qatar’s standoff from its Arab neighbors drags on, the worse the damage will be.