January 2004

New banking regulations could have as profound an effect on global businesses as any of the recently drafted codes of corporate conduct. Companies will ignore them at their own peril. One morning a few months ago pandemonium broke out in ...

Global Finance brought together some of the key players in Brazil Day 2003 in a roundtable to discuss the state of the Brazilian market and the prospects for investors. Global Finance publisher, Joseph Giarraputo, moderated the discussion. ■ Global Finance: ...

ASIA JAPAN EASING CHINA DOWN ROAD TO ASIAN CURRENCY BLOC As Japan and China increase their economic ties, currency issues are becoming more important. Japan is relying increasingly on China as a key export market to help boost the slowly ...

THE AMERICAS US corporate bond issuance is getting a lift from increasing business investment, as well as improving credit quality, according to the New Yorkbased Bond Market Association. Corporate bond issuance rose 12.9% in the first three-quarters of 2003 versus ...

THE AMERICAS The US dollar gets no respect in the foreign exchange market these days, as traders hang around and wait for the crisis stage to unfold. As the dollar plunged to a record low against the euro in December, ...

THE AMERICAS St. Paul Companies and Travelers Property Casualty definitively agreed to merge in a $16.1 billion stock-swap transaction that will create the secondbiggest commercial insurer in the US after American International Group. The combined company, which will be known ...

THE AMERICAS In the past two years, foreign issuers of securities have agreed to pay a total of about $700 million to settle shareholder class actions in the United States, usually related to accounting issues, according to a study by ...

SWITZERLAND, GERMANY, UNITED STATES LOSING THE WAR ON TERRORIST FINANCING Bank secrecy is on the rise in Europe, while the US is falling behind in efforts to curb money laundering, making it possible for terrorist groups to get the financial ...