June 2015

As trade denominated in yuan continues to rise at a phenomenal rate, its significance to global markets is quickly increasing. But even as the IMF considers adding renminbi to the basket of SDR reserve currencies and China’s global political clout rises commensurately, the country has yet to fully liberalize its markets—or its currency.

The Innovators 2015: Transaction Services—Global Finance's third-annual listing of the most innovative firms in treasury and transaction services.

Winners List

Annual Awards honoring the Best Islamic Financial Institutions in the world.

Q&A with Moataz Natafji, general manager, BLOM Development Bank, the Islamic subsidiary of BLOM Bank, Beirut, Lebanon

Q&A with Mike Maguid Abdelaaty, president, American Finance House Lariba, Whittier, California

Best Islamic Financial Institutions | Introduction
Islamic finance is breaking out, as long-awaited regulatory reform takes hold in key nations, boosting transparency and driving new business.

The Innovators 2015
Treasurers say they still lack visibility into global operations. But a new breed of banking solution is improving the view.

The Innovators 2015 - Transactions Services, is Global Finance's annual listing of key innovations in treasury and transaction services. The financial institutions included in the list are honored for launching products or services that are transforming the corporate transaction services landscape. Global Finance uses the OECD's Oslo Manual Of Innovation to evaluate honorees.

The Innovators 2015 - Transactions Services, is Global Finance's annual listing of the most innovative banks and fintech companies in treasury and transaction services.

The Innovators 2015 - Transactions Services, is Global Finance's annual listing of the most innovative banks and fintech companies in treasury and transaction services. The firms in this category are honored for launching products or services that are transforming the transaction services landscape for consumers and financial institutions. Global Finance uses the OECD's Oslo Manual Of Innovation to evaluate honorees.

The Innovators 2015
With IT giants like Apple and Google pushing into the mobile payments business, financial services companies are going on the offensive. How? By acting like venture capitalists.

Global Salon | Global Finance sat down with Ommeed Sathe, vice president and head of impact investing at Newark, New Jersey-based insurer Prudential Financial, to discuss how corporate social responsibility and profitable investing can go hand in hand.

Country Report | Egypt
Egypt may be on the verge of a major turnaround, as the most populous country in the Arab world looks set for sustained growth, lower unemployment and a manufacturing renaissance under president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Country Report | Spain
Spain’s economic resurgence has exceeded even the most optimistic expectations. But how sustainable is it, given structural inefficiencies, stubbornly high unemployment and the threat of external shocks?

Country Report | Spain
The era of absolute majorities in Spanish politics is over.

Saudi Arabia | When the Saudi Arabian stock market, or the Tadawul as it is known, opens to direct investment by qualified foreign institutions for the first time on June 15, it will begin a transformation of the biggest bourse in the Middle East.

Morocco | In recent years, Morocco has successfully attracted a growing flow of foreign capital, becoming the top foreign direct investment recipient in the Maghreb region (Northwest Africa), and one of the largest in the African continent.

United States | Verizon, one of the largest wireless providers in the United States, announced on May 12 that it will acquire AOL, a leading Internet pioneer and Web content provider, for $4.4 billion.

Vietnam | In May, Vietnam’s central bank once again devalued the country’s currency, the dong—the second such adjustment since January.

India | Indian prime minister Narendra Modi celebrated his one-year anniversary in office in May, but the jury is still out on whether he’ll justify the hope that has been invested his new government.

United Kingdom | Many questions are still being asked about David Cameron’s dramatic win on May 7. How did opinion polls, which predicted a tight race between  Conservatives and Labour and even a Labour win, get it so wrong?

Chile | For years Chile has been recognized as one of the best-performing emerging markets in the world. But a combination of external and internal factors have changed that.

China | Chinese ecommerce company Alibaba’s new CEO, Daniel Zhang, is a star, credited with the success of Tmall.com and the November 11 Singles Day—an online  buying bonanza that has overtaken Black Friday as the most lucrative online shopping day of the year.

Capital Markets | M&A Antitrust
Antitrust authorities around the world are stepping up their merger-monitoring activities amid a boom in cross-border M&A. They’re increasingly requiring merging companies to divest assets to win approval for their deals. In some cases, complex requirements are causing corporates to abandon proposed combinations.

Capital Markets | M&A Pharmaceuticals
In what could become Israel’s biggest cross-border M&A deal ever, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries made an unsolicited $40 billion offer to acquire Mylan, a Pennsylvania-based drugmaker registered in the Netherlands with operational headquarters in the UK.

Capital Markets | Derivatives
Life may have just become a bit easier for finance executives at companies with captive finance units—which is to say, almost all automakers and scores of equipment manufacturers.

Capital Markets | Project Finance
Brazil’s multinational metals and mining group Vale has signed a $2.1 billion agreement with the Export-Import Bank of Korea.

Capital Markets | Debt
Issuance of green bonds, which raise funds to support environmentally beneficial activities, more than tripled last year, to $36 billion, according to the World Bank.

Trends | FX Commodities Q&A
Petr Grishin, head of macro research and chief economist for Eastern Europe at VTB Capital, discussed the ruble, oil prices and Russian trade with Global Finance.

Commodities | Desperate for cash to purchase imports, oil-rich Venezuela pawned part of its gold reserves as collateral for a $1 billion loan from Citibank.

Big Data | Chief financial officers have been modeling profit and loss statements for years, but in an era of big data they face a different and increasingly complex task.

SEC & Executive Compensation | Five years after the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform act, several of its controversial corporate governance provisions on executive compensation continue to wend their way through the system.