Luca Ventura

NEWSMAKERS: NORWAY   By Luca Ventura   A former bank teller, Norway’s finance minister Sigbjørn Johnsen is not too concerned about upsetting some of his erstwhile bank employers.     Johnsen takes on Norway’s banks again Photo Credit : REUTERS/SCANPIX “It ...

NEWSMAKERS: ICELAND   By Luca Ventura   As his trial commenced in March in Reykjavik, Geir Haarde, the former prime minister of Iceland, was the first world leader to face criminal charges over the 2008 financial crisis. Haarde, 60, could serve up ...

NEWSMAKERS: GLOBAL   By Luca Ventura   When Robert Zoellick announced in February that he would leave the World Bank in June, at the expiration of his five-year term as president, initial speculation over his possible successor revolved around the usual ...

NEWSMAKERS: JAPAN   By Luca Ventura   When Michael Woodford was promoted to president and then CEO of camera and medical equipment maker Olympus Corporation earlier this year, analysts and investors had high hopes for the future of the 92-year-old ...

MILESTONES: GREECE   By Luca Ventura   The recently-announced merger of Greek banks Alpha Bank and Eurobank EFG could breathe fresh life into the much-troubled Greek banking sector.   Tides turning in Greece with bank merger In fact, it would difficult ...

NEWSMAKERS: GLOBAL   By Luca Ventura   While the shocking arrest in May of IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn in connection with an alleged sexual assault dominated the news all over the world, it only complicated a plot that was ...

NEWSMAKERS : ITALY   By Luca Ventura   When the dairy giant Parmalat, a household name in more than 30 countries, collapsed in 2003 with a $20 billion hole in its accounts, Italian finance minister Giulio Tremonti fittingly dubbed the ...

COMPANY TO WATCH: COMPANIA DE MINAS BUENAVENTURA/PERU Compañía de Minas Buenaventura, Peru’s largest publicly traded precious metals mining company, is basking in record high prices for much of its output. Buenaventura operates seven mines in Peru and holds controlling interests ...