This market has taken a battering but lenders are going back to basics Times are tough in the project finance market as lenders pull in their horns, equity investors scuttle home with their tails between their legs, and project after ...
A volatile economy shows a bit of pace as exports grow and politics remains calm. International banks are gradually reopening Brazilian trade-finance facilities that were largely shuttered last year, following the Argentine financial crisis and during a nerve-racking run-up to ...
LATIN AMERICA Santander Central Hispano, one of the top 15 banks in the world in terms of market capitalization and Spain’s leading financial group, has become a major player in banking in Latin America over the past decade. The Madrid-based ...
ASIA Born in Hong Kong in 1865, HSBC continues to dominate the banking industry in Asia.Over the past year, it has made particular headway in mainland China, opening up more opportunities in this huge market. In 2002, the bank became ...
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA Prudent risk management has kept National Bank of Kuwait’s books relatively clear of non-performing loans, but to call NBK conservative would be to ignore the bank’s dynamism in the face of a sluggish operating environment. At ...
Time was when emerging economies had to worry about things as mundane as a run on the bank. But now political uncertainty has replaced purely monetary concerns in judging the direction of emerging markets. The Turkish lira may still be ...
BEST BANKS—CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE Bankers at Bank Austria Creditanstalt (BACA) much prefer talking about their exploits in central and eastern Europe than events closer to home—and little wonder why. While the 2000 tie-up with HVB of Munich has turned ...
GLOBAL Emerging markets often prove whiteknuckle rides, but Citigroup has (once more) earned top spot as best bank, through prudent risk control combined with a commitment to expand proven formulas into new markets. The bank’s senior management walked the boundaries ...
At a recent roundtable in New York hosted by The Bank of New York industry leaders discussed the progress of Continuous Linked Settlement. Global Finance’s Joseph Giarraputo moderated. William Koleba William Koleba, vice president, manager of the CLS project office ...
CONTINUOUS LINKED SETTLEMENT A new settlement system aims to cut out settlement risk. Way back in June 1974, a small German bank named Herstatt went bust, owing other banks money that was in transit. Since that day, Herstatt risk—the risk ...
This market has taken a battering but lenders are going back to basics Times are tough in the project finance market as lenders pull in their horns, equity investors scuttle home with their tails between their legs, and project after ...
GLOBAL Emerging markets often prove whiteknuckle rides, but Citigroup has (once more) earned top spot as best bank, through prudent risk control combined with a commitment to expand proven formulas into new markets. The bank’s senior management walked the boundaries ...
Time was when emerging economies had to worry about things as mundane as a run on the bank. But now political uncertainty has replaced purely monetary concerns in judging the direction of emerging markets. The Turkish lira may still be ...
GERMANY It’s just not fair.That’s the complaint of Porsche AG over Deutsche Börse’s refusal to list its stock on the exchange’s hightransparency sector, the Prime Standard.The Stuttgart-based sports car manufacturer is suing the exchange in an attempt to gain Prime ...
UNITED STATES/IRAQ In China, the families of executed criminals are often invoiced for the fatal bullet.Asking Iraqis to pay debts which Saddam Hussein and the Ba’ath regime accrued in stifling democracy and waging costly wars against Iran and Kuwait is ...
IRAQ As the war in Iraq reached its apparent endgame in early April, the US Agency for International Development (USAid) began signing off contracts for companies to reconstruct and develop the country. Construction giant Bechtel won the first contract, a ...
JAPAN The number of Japanese hedge funds has risen sharply in the last few years—by around 50% since 2000—but many have taken a hit from lackluster and illiquid stock markets. In the latest sign of trouble, the Penta Japan Fund ...
SOUTH KOREA Until recently, South Korea’s recovery from the Asian crisis of five years ago was an easy success story to sell. But double-digit growth has stalled over concerns about the peninsula’s nuclear standoff, the war in Iraq and question ...
EUROPE UK-based 3DM Worldwide, which develops patents for the plastics industry and manages businesses in the Kyrgyz Republic, issued American depositary receipts in the over-the-counter market. The company’s US subsidiary, Detroit, Michiganbased 3DM Technologies, had proposed seeking a listing on ...
THE AMERICAS While war news out of Iraq was the main determinant of currency movements in April, the US dollar could resume falling once the focus of market participants inevitably returns to economic fundamentals, analysts say. “The dollar is in ...
THE AMERICAS Mutual funds that invest in high-yield bonds returned 5.4% on average in the first quarter of 2003, continuing a winning streak that began late last year, according to New Yorkbased Standard & Poor’s. “Junk bonds have been helped ...
EUROPE Gas Natural, Spain’s biggest gas distributor, made a hostile bid for the country’s largest electric utility, Iberdrola, but the future of the proposed $30 billion deal remains highly uncertain. Hostile bids are frowned upon in Spain, and have seldom ...
GERMANY It’s just not fair.That’s the complaint of Porsche AG over Deutsche Börse’s refusal to list its stock on the exchange’s hightransparency sector, the Prime Standard.The Stuttgart-based sports car manufacturer is suing the exchange in an attempt to gain Prime ...
UNITED KINGDOM John Studzinski, with Stephen Green (HSBC CEO-designate) and Stuart Gulliver In a battle between two of the world’s most globe-spanning institutions, it’s HSBC that has come out on top of the Catholic Church. The bank revealed mid- April ...
St. Helena “better Access Is Absolutely Fundamental To This Island’s Future.” —david Hollamby, Governor Of St. Helena When the RMS St. Helena casts off from Portland Harbor in the south of England in mid-June, David Hollamby hopes the ship will ...
ITALY Renato Preti Contrary to the old adage, you can buy style. That’s just what 47-year old Renato Preti does as co-founder and managing partner of the €215 million private equity fund Opera. The fund was jointly launched with Italian ...