Tiziana Barghini

Zelle is simplifying peer-to-peer digital payments in hopes of winning over mainstream mobile-banking customers.

Q&A: Adriana Alvarado, DBRS's Portugal expert, discusses the nation's vulnerabilities, long-term growth prospects and needed reforms.

Portugal looks much healthier as it emerges from its deepest economic crisis in four decades.

Moon Jae-in, South Korea's new president Civil- and human-rights lawyer and former student activist Moon Jae-in won a presidential election on May 9, becoming the 12th person to serve as president of South Korea.

South Korea elects a new president in May, and after spending months ousting the sitting president, leftists may win the chance to lead the country.

With asset prices low while fundamentals are improving, Latin American economies are poised for a rebound.

A positive macroeconomic outlook and a sharp decline asset prices are once again making Brazilian investments attractive for large international private equity firms, which are cautiously returning after three years of economic crisis.

Auditors may have suffered a reputational crisis in the wake of recent corporate financial scandals; but using artificial intelligence and data analytics, the profession hopes to reinvent itself.

Paraguay has emerged from the shadows of its larger neighbors Brazil and Argentina to become the “little China” of South America. Its against-the-odds economic success story is sustained by an investment-friendly climate and strong fiscal discipline.

David Malpass was one of Donald Trump’s key economic advisors before the election. He is tipped to be appointed soon as US Treasury undersecretary for international affairs.

Stricter capital controls by Chinese authorities are prompting concerns that the liberalization of the Chinese capital market is being halted at a time when the US dollar’s strength and a steady outflow of funds from the country are causing the renminbi to slide.

The Bank to Bank Forum is a traditional fixture of the European chapter of the Bankers Association for Finance and Trade (BAFT). Nearly a century old, the association advocates free-market solutions for trade services. 

Justin Trudeau's government wants to boost infrastructure spending, but without using tax dollars, so it's establishing a bank to attract private money. 

The cost of producing solar power has fallen sharply in the past five years—so much that in some cases it can be half the price, or even less, of conventional power. Experts predict solar's cost will continue to plummet. 

Central bank governors face the tough task of stimulating growth with monetary policy, which seems to have reached a natural limit. Only fiscal policy can set the stage for long-term expansion.  

Collection troubles and resource dependency hamper African governmental efforts to raise revenue. 

While on a road show for US clients, Bryan Leith, chief operating officer of KPMG’s global Africa practice, sat down with Global Finance to discuss the continent’s economic prospects. 

Study says income and wealth inequality, which have widened a lot in the past 30 years in the US and elsewhere, make recessions more severe because poor people, who have little or no savings and often flawed credit, sharply reduce consumption when facing a sudden drop in income.

South Africa's growth is impeded by long-term constraints; still, the government deserves credit for tackling reforms. 

Foreign-currency bonds offer needed resources but come with heavy risks. 

Post-Brexit, real estate deals were supposed to decline--especially in London. Yet the market may prove more resilient than expected. 

HUMAN RESOURCES | Performance appraisals drive everyone nuts, but many US companies are doing them more often. 

Peru | Even though Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was elected Peru’s new president by a whisker, his victory was greeted with enthusiasm at home and abroad.

With interest rates in the gutter, large corporations are looking to put their excess funds to good use.

Banks and fintech firms are finding synergy in partnerships that join the former’s market know-how with the latter’s technological wizardry.

As sovereign issuers tried to lock in record-low interest rates ahead of any increases by the US Federal Reserve, a record amount of new sovereign bonds was sold in the first part of 2016.

The United Kingdom | Individuals and corporate teams alike are struggling through the implications of Brexit, looking for opportunities, and still hoping the whole thing will go away. 

Forget about the hoards of cash held by some US nonfinancial corporations. For most of them, their biggest worry may soon be their debt.

Panama
The country has been a stellar performer in Latin America, but now a worldwide scandal about its massive offshore financial industry is putting Panama’s economic growth at risk.

Trends | Shadow Banking
Renaud Laplanche, Lending Club’s founder, chief executive and public face, resigned abruptly in mid-May. His resignation casts a pall over not only the peer-to-peer lender that claims to be the world’s largest online marketplace connecting borrowers and investors, but also the shadow banking industry as a whole.

Nordea Chief Financial Officer Heikki Ilkka, appointed in December after many years with Ernst &Young, talked with Global Finance editors about how the bank is handling negative interest rates and regulatory challenges, and how it deploys technology to satisfy its customers.

Ralph Hamers, CEO and chairman of ING Group, talks with Global Finance about how ING’s lending practices and use of fintech are bolstering the bank—and sustaining the environment. 

Alberto Bisin, professor of econo-mics at New York University and fellow at the Econometric Society, studies social, financial and behavioral economics, regulation and income distribution. He spoke with Global Finance on Brexit and other global risks.

Milestones | Argentina
As Argentina prepares to launch a new bond issue in April, marking its return to international capital markets, investors are once again turning their attention to Buenos Aires, which has known 15 years of isolation.

Retail sales in the Middle East are susceptible to lower oil prices and falling consumer demand, but international retail chains still view the region’s long-term investment prospects positively.    

Capital Markets | Cross-Border Payments
Forty-five international banks have teamed up with the financial messaging provider Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) to launch an initiative aimed at making cross-border payments faster and more transparent.

Capital Markets | Debt Restructuring
Americans used to like Puerto Rico, a United States territory in the Caribbean, not only for its white, sandy beaches but also because of its high-yield, tax-free bonds.

In the past century, gains in productivity and living standards were made as a result of advances in technology. But where can we expect gains to come from in this century—and are they likely to be gradual or dramatic? The answer depends on whether you believe the optimists or the pessimists.

Trends | Taxation
As part of a crackdown on generous tax incentives across the European Union, in January the European Commission (EC) demanded Belgium claw back €700 million ($762 million) in tax breaks from at least 35 European firms.

Management | Risk Management
Cyberattacks, safety concerns, climate change, regulatory demands, declining oil prices, less demand from China, a crumbling and volatile stock market: There is no lack of risks in doing business, and at the start of 2016, they are ever- present for corporations small and large.

The foundations for economic recovery have been laid by Matteo Renzi’s government, which is tackling fundamental issues at the heart of Italy’s problems. But he has yet to work his magic on public spending.

Trends | Peace Deals
Low oil prices are widening Colombia’s current-account deficit, dampening the confidence of foreign investors and dragging down the economy.

Traditional banks are pulling back from lending to small and midsize businesses. Just as happened in the US, funds are filling the void.

Tom Manning, affiliate partner at Waterstone Management, has been advising global companies on China, and vice-versa, for years. The onetime CEO of Ernst & Young Consulting Asia, Capgemini Asia, Cerberus Asia and Indachin, and former senior partner at Bain, sat down with Global Finance to discuss the nation’s quiet innovation revolution.

The world’s richest countries are getting tougher on corporate tax avoidance. But experts predict that, new guidelines notwithstanding, companies will still find ways around the system.

Hit by a sharp decline in the price of copper, Chile is putting the brakes on public spending with a 2016 budget that aims at keeping costs under control.

José Antonio Ocampo Gaviria, professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, says the slowing of international trade since the financial crisis is a major threat to the world economy.

According to the OECD, foreign exchange rate reserves are the stocks of foreign currency denominated assets plus gold, held by a central bank. More simply, they are the assets of the central bank held in currencies outside the home country currency.

Capital Markets | Remedial Measures
The European Commission cites four concrete steps for kick-starting the Capital Market Union

Global Finance interviews senior executives from some of the banks featured in this year’s World’s Safest Banks rankings.