Global news and insight for corporate financial professionals
As fears grow that China’s economy may be dangerously overheated, analysts are increasingly drawing parallels with Japan’s experience over the past three decades. China has been hogging the headlines in recent months—and justifiably so. Around the world, analysts, investors and ...
India recently overtook China as Asia’s fastest-growing economy. It’s showing no signs of slowing down. India has long been a land of stark contrasts, and its recent economic growth has only added to them. Although constrained by poverty and third-world ...
New instruments, government enthusiasm and a growing market are driving Islamic finance toward the mainstream. When Malaysia first laid the groundwork for what has become a thriving Islamic finance sector, much of its focus was on the need to provide ...
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA Rising oil revenues and the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime have boosted Kuwait’s economy and created opportunities for National Bank of Kuwait,one of the largest and most profitable Persian Gulf banks. In January 2004 NBK became ...
The European IPO market is building up an impressive head of steam, but investors aren’t prepared to buy just anything. The first quarter of this year was always expected to be a good one for European IPOs, but few dared ...
LATIN AMERICA Spain’s largest bank has invested some $17 billion in recent years to build a virtual Latin American banking empire that spans the region, leading some to contend BSCH is spearheading Spain’s “re-conquest” of the Americas. Of the banking ...
ASIA The HSBC Group continues to forge ahead in Asia’s emerging markets. Primarily through its Hong Kong based subsidiary, Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, it has built a presence in a number of key countries. Its principle focus is ...
EUROPE Austria’s Raiffeisen Zentralbank Group (RZB) has been far more systematic in expanding its operations throughout Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) than most of its rivals. Rather than cherry picking the biggest banks in the larger markets, RZB built up ...
Emerging markets are poised to post their strongest growth in 20 years. Global Finance has picked the banks in 73 emerging market countries and four regions that have best been able to help their clients benefit from the upturn. All ...
As it prepares to celebrate its 40th anniversary, the African Development Bank finds itself at the heart of a debate over the future of international aid and development funding. Members of the African Development Bank will gather at a resort ...
Internet-based telecom technology has come of age and is now providing businesses with quantifiable benefits. It’s tax season and the accountants and partners at J.H. Cohn, the 13th biggest accounting and consulting firm in the United States, are jetting across ...
ASIA The HSBC Group continues to forge ahead in Asia’s emerging markets. Primarily through its Hong Kong based subsidiary, Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, it has built a presence in a number of key countries. Its principle focus is ...
EMERGING MARKETS Enrique V. Iglesias The stars appear to have aligned in favor of the emerging markets. Strong growth, easing inflation, sustainable fiscal performance and improving creditworthiness are conspiring, according to WestLB, to give emerging markets their best economic prospects ...
INDIA The rupee hit a 57-month high against the dollar, rising to Rs43.3 on April 2. During March the rupee gained 4.2% against the dollar, driven primarily by sustained positive export data and huge portfolio inflows. During the first quarter ...
CHINA China’s central bank has pledged to restrain runaway investment and prevent asset bubbles from creating more bad loans.The People's Bank of China said it would fight inflation and dampen loan growth by increasing the ratio of deposits financial institutions ...
BRAZIL Lula: Out in the cold? Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s unexpectedly pragmatic and market-friendly attitude helped endear him to financial market players in the year following his election. It seems that the honeymoon may now be over, ...
RUSSIA Yukos's Khodorkovsky Markets responded positively to the re-election of Russian President Vladimir Putin and to indications that he will pick up the pace on the structural reform program that was a key focus of his first term in office. ...
Emerging markets are poised to post their strongest growth in 20 years. Global Finance has picked the banks in 73 emerging market countries and four regions that have best been able to help their clients benefit from the upturn. All ...
GLOBAL The American Bankers Association and the European Banking Federation have joined with their counterparts in Canada and Australia to form the International Banking Federation, or IBFed. Although the leaders of the associations have met informally for a number of ...
INDIA It may be robust but the Indian banking system is anything but fast. Even checks paid within Mumbai (Bombay), the financial capital, take two days to clear. In other locations clearing can take up to 15 days. But all ...
EMERGING MARKETS Enrique V. Iglesias The stars appear to have aligned in favor of the emerging markets. Strong growth, easing inflation, sustainable fiscal performance and improving creditworthiness are conspiring, according to WestLB, to give emerging markets their best economic prospects ...
SOUTH KOREA Lee Hun-Jae The South Korean won suffered its biggest decline since November on news that the progovernment Uri Party gained control of the National Assembly in last month’s general election. Foreign exchange traders blamed the drop in the ...
THE AMERICAS Atlanta-based BellSouth agreed to sell its 10 Latin American cellular operations to Telefonica Móviles, the wireless affiliate of Telefonica of Spain BellSouth will receive after-tax proceeds of approximately $4.2 billion and will reduce its consolidated debt by $1.5 ...
ASIA Semiconductor Manufacturing International, or SMIC, China’s biggest memory-chip maker, launched a sponsored American depositary receipt program in conjunction with its $1.8 billion global initial public offering.The ADRs are traded on the New York Stock Exchange. A host of Asian ...
THE AMERICAS When Calpine Generating, a subsidiary of California-based power producer Calpine, came to market in late February with a $2.3 billion offering of high-yield bonds and term loans, it met resistance from investors who already held large amounts of ...
THE AMERICAS The outlook for the US dollar brightened considerably following a surge in March non-farm payrolls, retail sales and the consumer price index. Analysts say the barrage of stronger-than-expected US economic data has brought closer the day when the ...
It is too early to say definitively, but it looks as though the US Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan, is regaining his form...
MEXICO Guillermo Prieto Treviño, president of the Mexican Stock Exchange, picked a good time to come to New York to promote investment in Mexico, with the bolsa hitting record highs. He says the rising market reflects a “stability premium” as ...
UNITED STATES/CHINA Tim Halter Chinese companies that trade on US stock markets offer some comfort to investors seeking to catch a ride on the China boom without taking too much risk, says Tim Halter, founder and managing director of USX ...
UNITED STATES Alan Greenspan No matter how careful he is with his words, Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan is going to have a tough time shifting to a rising-interest-rate environment without messing things up. Segue is simply not in his ...
SRI LANKA Mahinda Rajapakse Sri Lanka’s newly appointed finance minister Sarath Amunugama and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse have already gone on record saying the month-old government of the United People’s Freedom Alliance does not see privatization as the way to ...
