Global news and insight for corporate financial professionals
Public Private Partnerships are sweeping the globe, but in the country where they have been most used PPPs remain deeply controversial. In late September last year, US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan flew to London for an unusual task. He ...
The innovative exchange is seeking a patent for a “black box” that will power the next new product line: actively managed funds that trade like stocks The stock ticker at the American Stock Exchange in New York these days displays ...
A Citigroup veteran is remaking an industry stalwart. The setting: an elegant conference room in the early-20th century neo-Baroque headquarters of the Willis Group. Across a snowy square from the gleaming white stone offices—formerly the center of the Port of ...
One of the biggest challenges facing corporate America is not about to go away, but there are signs that it might be capped. Finally, there’s light at the end of the tunnel for companies struggling with the ballooning costs of ...
Consolidation continues to raise its head, but few can predict how the exchange landscape will look at the end of this year. Three years ago it looked as if Europe’s stock exchanges would consolidate in the blink of an eye. ...
Corporate clients clamor for online services that go beyond account information and transactions and actually change business processes to make them more efficient. Okay, so you’ve built it, but have they come? That question sums up where banks stand when ...
The backroom world of cash management has suddenly been thrust into the limelight. By Graham Field Cash is king.The swath of false accounting scandals in the United States last year reinforced the strength of that dictum. As equity analysts panicked ...
It’s not uncommon for corporate financial officers to cut billion-dollar checks these days as they shore up the sagging balances of their company pension funds. Three years of plummeting equity returns and some of the lowest interest rates in four ...
The financial services industry enhances its role as trusted intermediary by taking the risk out of international transactions As the locomotive of the global economy, the United States faces considerable uncertainty about potential conflict in Iraq and the threat that ...
UNITED STATES Some Wall Street executives retire to play golf and spend more time with their families. Barton Biggs, 70, Morgan Stanley’s chief global strategist, is “retiring” later this year after 30 years with the investment bank to lead a ...
The financial services industry enhances its role as trusted intermediary by taking the risk out of international transactions As the locomotive of the global economy, the United States faces considerable uncertainty about potential conflict in Iraq and the threat that ...
EUROPE To hedge or not to hedge has always been a vexing question for corporate treasurers, but recently it’s got more difficult still. The imminent arrival of accounting standard IAS 309 in Europe, together with the recently introduced FA 133 ...
ITALY It’s a sharp shot across the bows, and it’s unlikely to be the last we hear of it this year. In January ratings agency Standard & Poor’s lowered its outlook on the AA sovereign ratings of Italy to negative, ...
EUROPE Europe’s airline companies have fallen off the radar screens of analysts at US investment bank Lehman Brothers. The bank’s London-based research department will no longer follow the aviation sector, in a move that a spokesperson said would “better align ...
BOSNIA The European Union Police Mission that moved into Bosnia and Herzegovina this January was joined by other new visitors to the war-battered former Yugoslav state: analysts prepared to measure the creditworthiness of what is, on paper, the poorest country ...
THE AMERICAS Trading of American depositary receipts rose 6.8% in volume terms in 2002 to 28 billion shares, according to New Yorkbased Citibank Depositary Receipt Services. Overall trading volume continued to rise, particularly for Asian issuers, indicating investors’ ongoing interest ...
THE AMERICAS The US dollar fell 9.2% on a trade-weighted basis in 2002, and analysts predict further losses for the greenback this year, particularly against the euro. Fears of a plunge in the dollar are overdone,however, despite the potential for ...
EUROPE For the first time in 11 years, the value of European corporate takeovers in 2002 was greater than the value of US takeovers. Crédit Agricole’s $16.8 billion agreement to acquire Crédit Lyonnais pushed Europe over the top in December, ...
JAPAN If you’re a corporate IT security manager on the frontlines of keeping your company safe from hacker attacks, you’ve certainly heard of Trend Micro. The Tokyo-based company has made a name for itself in protecting companies’ networks, email servers ...
THE AMERICAS US corporate bond issuance in 2002 fell 28% to $465 billion, according to analysts at Dealogic in New York. The largest investmentgrade issue was General Electric Capital’s $6.9 billion, two-part offering on March 13 2002, which comprised $2 ...
UNITED STATES Some Wall Street executives retire to play golf and spend more time with their families. Barton Biggs, 70, Morgan Stanley’s chief global strategist, is “retiring” later this year after 30 years with the investment bank to lead a ...
