Global news and insight for corporate financial professionals
PROPRIETARY TRADING By Michael Shari Corporate clients of investment banks around the world could see a dramatic impact from the Volcker Rule, Basel III and other new rules against bank proprietary trading. Like his counterparts at many large and small ...
COUNTRY REPORT By Gordon Platt The coming year could be crucial for Saudi Arabia, as the Middle Eastern powerhouse deals with a changing global landscape in terms of both its primary economic driver—oil—and its key international partnerships. Three years after ...
SPECIAL REPORT By Anita Hawser To be or not to be? Compliant, that is. Apparently, the answer is it doesn’t matter—at least not yet. Just a few weeks before the February 1 SEPA deadline came to pass, the ...
A CONVERSATION STARTER By Paula L. Green Trade credit insurance is making it easier for companies to interact with their suppliers around the world, and usage is soaring as global corporations recognize the risk-mitigating benefits. For L’Oreal ...
MARKET FOCUS By Jonathan Gregson Equity derivatives are no longer the preserve of hedge funds. Institutional investors and corporates are increasingly using them to offset risk and manage share buybacks. Equity derivatives markets emerged from their post-financial-crisis ...
FRONTIER MARKETS REPORT
Zambia’s strong and stable economic expansion is enticing firms looking to build their African presence. Among frontier markets in sub-Saharan Africa, the country stands out for its stable economy and its long record of strong growth. These factors have helped attract investors to this copper-rich, landlocked nation of 14 million people..
EMERGING MARKETS ROUNDUP By Gordon Platt The Dubai Financial Market was one of the best-performing equity markets in the world in 2013, with the general index nearly doubling. Confidence in the emirate was boosted by news that it won the ...
EMERGING MARKETS ROUNDUP By Kim Iskyan In December, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, one of Russia’s most high-profile political prisoners and the former CEO of Yukos Oil—at one point Russia’s largest oil company—was abruptly released. He had served about 10 ...
EMERGING MARKETS 2.0 By Udayan Gupta At Global Finance ’s Salon in New York in January, Georges Ugeux, CEO of New York–based investment bank Galileo Global Advisors, discussed the economic landscape faced by India and China in 2014 ...
SPECIAL REPORT By Andrew Cunningham Al Rajhi tops the rankings of Safest Islamic Banks in the GCC. The use of Islamic finance arouses strong emotions. For its supporters, it offers an ethical way of conducting financial transactions that is far ...
Jump To See Winners ANNUAL SURVEY: TRADE FINANCE BECOMES AN ASSET CLASS Global Finance presents its annual awards for the Best Trade Finance Institutions globally, regionally, and by country. The outlook for the trade finance business in 2014 is rosy, ...
MILESTONES By Thomas Clouse Bangladesh held national elections in early January despite escalating political violence and a boycott by opposition parties. The ruling party, the Awami League, easily kept control of parliament, with its candidates winning 232 of ...
MILESTONES By Luca Ventura When in early January the US secretary of state John Kerry traveled to the Middle East, newspaper headlines mostly focused on his attempt to push yet another peace deal between Israel and Palestine. His efforts, however, ...
MILESTONES By Forrest Jones Few things polarize policymakers like free-trade agreements, especially the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) linking the United States, Canada and Mexico. Critics of the agreement feared it meant jobs and industries would relocate to underdeveloped ...
MILESTONES By Valentina Pasquali Ever since Raúl Castro took over from his brother Fidel in 2008, he has been opening up Cuba’s struggling centralized economy. Though the ongoing liberalization process is gradual and aimed at preserving the political status quo, ...
MILESTONES By Valentina Pasquali The referendum that could make Scotland an independent nation is fast approaching, and authorities in London are preparing for the eventuality that it might pass. The UK Treasury announced in January that “in all circumstances” it ...
MILESTONES By Tiziana Barghini A grand plan to transform a vast area round the Suez Canal—one of the world’s longest and oldest waterways, linking the Mediterranean and Red Seas—into a trading and industrial center could finally see the light of ...
MILESTONES By Michael Shari A fissure is opening in the bulwarks of Western sanctions that have isolated Iran from the global banking system since the early 1980s. In an interim deal signed in November in Geneva, Iran agreed to curb ...
CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS By Gordon Platt The volume of emerging-markets corporate debt offerings declined 6.2% in 2013 from a year earlier, even as global high-yield debt issuance set new records, according to Thomson Reuters. Issuers in just three ...
CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS By Gordon Platt A total of $797 billion of equity capital was issued globally in 2013, up 27% from a year earlier, while underwriting fees rose 34%, according to Thomson Reuters. The volume of initial ...
CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS By Gordon Platt The value of global mergers and acquisitions has failed to pick up, despite low interest rates and an improving global economy. Worldwide M&A totaled $2.4 trillion in 2013, a decline of 6% ...
CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS By Gordon Platt Central bank policies in the major economies will likely be the main guide for currency exchange rates this year, analysts say. Janet Yellen’s confirmation as the new head of the Federal Reserve ...
NEWSMAKERS By Gilly Wright One of the world’s oldest insurance markets, Lloyd’s of London, has appointed the first female CEO in its 325-year history. But as the London market confronts one of the most challenging periods in its development, new ...
NEWSMAKERS By Gordon Platt Ibrahim Dabdoub, group CEO of National Bank of Kuwait, is stepping down after 30 years as CEO and 53 years with the bank. “I am leaving NBK in the safest hands,” Dabdoub stated. The bank has ...
NEWSMAKERS By K.A. Badarinath Fourth-generation Nehru-Gandhi family scion, Rahul Gandhi, looked set to enter the political fray as ruling Indian National Congress nominee for prime minister ahead of parliamentary elections this May. Several top Congress party leaders stated that it ...
NEWSMAKERS By Erik Heinrich Zimbabwe’s Strive Masiyiwa is a man who knows a thing or two about setting lofty goals and achieving them. The wireless communications tycoon is already his country’s richest man and only billionaire, but his latest business ...
“The Internet has now transformed from a useful platform to an essential and multidimensional infrastructure that needs to be kept open and decentralized in order to enable communication, collaboration, innovation, inclusive participation and economic growth... The Internet economy has now ...
