March 2013

ADAPT TO SURVIVE   By Michael Shari   A unique banking system long revered as a safe haven for the world’s tax dodgers now faces gut-wrenching transformation in order to endure.   For centuries Swiss banks have thrived on absolute ...

BEST IN SHOW   By Anita Hawser and Rebecca Brace   Global Finance presents the winners of its Treasury & Cash Management Providers Awards 2013. This year, we have expanded our evaluation process to include a survey of our corporate ...

GLOBAL WINNERS   By Anita Hawser and Rebecca Brace   BEST TREASURY & CASH MANAGEMENT PROVIDERS 2013: GLOBAL WINNERS Best Overall Bank for Cash Management Citi Best White Label System Provider BNY Mellon   BEST OVERALL BANK FOR CASH MANAGEMENT ...

REGIONAL WINNERS   By Anita Hawser and Rebecca Brace   BEST TREASURY & CASH MANAGEMENT PROVIDERS 2013: REGIONAL WINNERS Best Overall Bank for Cash Management   North America Bank of America Merrill Lynch Latin America Citi Western Europe Deutsche Bank ...

SYSTEMS AND SERVICES PROVIDERS   By Anita Hawser and Rebecca Brace   BEST TREASURY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND SERVICES PROVIDERS Accounts Payable Services BNY Mellon SourceNet Accounts Receivable Services SunGard AvantGard Receivables Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment Services Basware Payroll Services ...

CHEVRON BOOSTS ITS INVEST-MENT IN AFRICAN BLACK GOLD   By Antonio Guerrero Global oil group Chevron approved a $5.6 billion development project in Angola.   The Mafumeira Sul offshore oil field will be its second-largest African investment, after the Agbami ...

BANKS PITCH IN TO HELP BOOST ECONOMIC GROWTH   By Antonio Guerrero   Brazilian private-sector banks pledge to increase lending this year, according to Finance minister Guido Mantega.   Following a meeting with bankers in February, the minister said banks ...

WAGE GAP CLOSES AS GOVERNMENT EMBARKS ON SOCIAL REFORMS   By Thomas Clouse China announced plans last month to reduce its wealth distribution gap through a series of measures—such as raising minimum wages, loosening lending and deposit rates and increasing ...

RESERVE BANK OF INDIA PUSHES FOR GROWTH WITH RATE CUT   By Aaron Chaze The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut interest rates for the first time in nine months on January 30, reducing the repo rate by 25 basis ...

DUBAI SEEKS ROLE AS CAPITAL OF ISLAMIC ECONOMY   By Gordon Platt Dubai plans to become the capital of the Islamic economy by setting global standards.   In addition to promoting Islamic finance and insurance, the emirate wants to arbitrate ...

GAZPROM DOUBLES PROFITS AS IT PREPARES FOR “EFFICIENCY” AUDIT   By Kim Iskyan   Gas giant Gazprom reported that net profit doubled in the third quarter of 2012, thanks to forex gains.   The results came just days after the ...

CONFLUENCE OF RISK By Vanessa Drucker In this month’s Salon, Global Finance sat down with Karen Elliott House, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones & Co vet and author of On Saudi Arabia: Its People, Past, Religion, ...

UP AND RUNNING   By Dan Keeler   Having regained its footing in the wake of the financial crisis, Angola is now looking to erect a fairer, more balanced economy.   As it continues to rebuild its economy and society ...

DRAGGING A GEOPOLITICAL ANCHOR   By Justin Keay   There were few bright spots for Lebanon over the past year. However, the banking and real estate sectors showed encouraging signs, and a recovery has begun.   Despite their traditional stoicism, ...

MILESTONE：INDIA By Kim Iskyan On the first day of 2013, the Indian government formally launched a program to distribute subsidy benefits and social welfare payments directly to the bank accounts of recipients.   Photo Credits: PAWEL PIETRASZEWSKI/ Shutterstock.com Once the ...

MILESTONE：RUSSIA By Udayan Gupta The Russians are taking a page out of the Dutch East India Company’s playbook of 1602.   In mid-February Russia recapitalized the Moscow Stock Exchange by selling $1 billion of shares in an IPO of the ...

MILESTONE: SPAIN   By Forrest Jones   Spain wants to make life a little easier for its business sector.   Recently, Madrid drafted legislation to make it simpler for companies to conduct business in different autonomous regions within the country ...

MILESTONE: ITALY   By Luca Ventura The oldest bank in the world, Tuscany’s Monte dei Paschi di Siena, came close to ending its 540-year history late in January, when it revealed losses of up to €750 million ($1 billion) caused ...

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: CORPORATE DEBT   By Gordon Platt   Distressed debt and bankruptcy restructurings completed in 2012 more than doubled from 2011 to $423 billion, according to Thomson Reuters. Excluding Greece’s record $263 billion debt-exchange transaction, however, produces a very ...

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: GLOBAL EQUITY/DRS   By Gordon Platt   Companies based in emerging markets will continue to rely on depositary receipts as an important means of financing their growth in 2013, taking advantage of continued global investor interest in the ...

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: FOREIGN EXCHANGE By Gordon Platt The euro was the star of the major currencies in January, as it soared to a 14-month high against the dollar and a 33-month high against the Japanese yen. Its strength reflects ...

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS： MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS   By Gordon Platt   Pipeline deals, shale-energy plays and natural resources transactions—often involving Asian buyers—provided an energetic start to mergers and acquisitions in 2013.   The overall January deal totals for the Americas ...

NEWSMAKER： CANADA By Gilly Wright Not one to do anything by halves, BlackBerry’s CEO, Thorsten Heins, has overseen the launch of a new operating system called BlackBerry 10 and its first non-keyboard smartphone, the Z10.   Heins hopes to shape ...

NEWSMAKER： ISRAEL By David Lipkin   Stanley Fischer is set to retire as governor of the Bank of Israel at the end of June.   Fischer, guardian of Israel’s economy, bows out gracefully He will be remembered as one of ...

NEWSMAKER： TURKEY   By Valentina Pasquali   Conveying the feelings of a large swath of the Turkish population, which is increasingly tired of the stalled accession negotiations with the European Union, prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently threatened to abandon ...

NEWSMAKER： US By Valentina Pasquali Though still bearing the scars of the recent financial crisis, the US economy is recovering, and markets are returning to levels unseen in years.   White is reputed to be a tough enforcer Photo Credits: ...

Emerging Markets Capital Flows At Risk   "There is more risk of greater cyclicality in capital flows to emerging economies in the next 18–24 months than seemed likely a few months ago … Policymakers in emerging economies may have a ...