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World’s Best Banks 2012: Africa

By Thomas Clouse, Jonathan Gregson, Antonio Guerrero & Gordon Platt AFRICA Not only is Africa rich in natural resources, but it also offers the promise of fast economic growth in a number of countries, and a population lacking basic banking services. ...

World’s Best Banks 2012: Asia

By Thomas Clouse, Jonathan Gregson, Antonio Guerrero & Gordon Platt ASIA Asia has provided one of the few bright spots in the global economy in recent years. The region rebounded quickly from the global financial crisis and has thus far avoided ...

World’s Best Banks 2012: Latin America

By Thomas Clouse, Jonathan Gregson, Antonio Guerrero & Gordon Platt LATIN AMERICA With its developing middle class, the region’s growing consumer sector helped banks to continue posting healthy returns last year. Banking sector assets and profits were up throughout the region, ...

World’s Best Banks 2012: Middle East

By Thomas Clouse, Jonathan Gregson, Antonio Guerrero & Gordon Platt MIDDLE EAST The oil-exporting countries of the Middle East are enjoying strong economic growth, whereas countries that experienced political uprisings during the Arab Spring of 2011 are struggling to get back ...

World’s Best Banks 2012: North America

By Thomas Clouse, Jonathan Gregson, Antonio Guerrero & Gordon Platt NORTH AMERICA North America’s banks are well along the road to recovery from the financial crisis, amid signs of improvement in the US and Canadian economies. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ...

Emerging Markets

DR News: Unsponsored Indonesian ADRs Target Mining Firms

EMERGING MARKETS INVESTOR: DR NEWS   By Gordon Platt   Five new, unsponsored American depositary receipt (ADR) programs for Indonesian companies were launched in March by BNY Mellon, targeting the strong corporate sector in the Asian economy.   Indonesia’s economy grew ...

EM News: EM Portfolio Flows Lose Steam

EMERGING MARKETS INVESTOR: NEWS   By Gordon Platt   Strong investor flows into emerging markets funds at the beginning of 2012 have since moderated but not reversed. Analysts say the slower pace of inflows is more sustainable and is not a cause ...

Emerging Markets Roundup: Africa

PLATINUM MINING PROJECT PROMISES BIG REWARDS   By Antonio Guerrero   South Africa’s state-owned Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) has entered into a $420 million public-private partnership to develop a mine that could become one of the world’s largest platinum producers over ...

Emerging Markets Roundup: Brazil

STIMULUS PACKAGE TARGETS BUSINESS LOANS   By Antonio Guerrero   In a bid to support economic growth, the Brazilian government in April rolled out new tax cuts worth as much as $5 billion and put through a stimulus package including BRL45 ...

Emerging Markets Roundup: China

REGULATORS BOOST FOREIGN PORTFOLIO INVESTMENT LIMITS   By Thomas Clouse   Chinese regulators will allow more foreign participation in domestic capital markets, increasing the quota for its qualified foreign institutional investor (QFII) program from $30 billion to $80 billion.   According ...

Global Salon

Salon: Alisher Ali, Mongolian Growth

ASIA’S EL DORADO   By Michael Shari   Global Finance sat down with Alisher Ali, founder of the largest investment bank and asset management firm in Mongolia, to get his take on the world’s fastest-growing economy.   Educated at Columbia ...

Country Report

Milestones

Gold Starts Paying Unique Dividends

MILESTONES: GLOBAL   By Valentina Pasquali   Over the past few years markets have experienced declining trust in fiat money, a slow departure from the US dollar as a reserve currency and growing interest in bullion, particularly as a hedge against ...

Shotgun Wedding For Spanish Banks

MILESTONES: SPAIN   By Vanessa Drucker   The merger agreement between CaixaBank and Banca Civica smacks of a shotgun wedding—for Civica, anyhow.   Spanish banks forced to tie the knot by capital requirements CaixaBank, Spain’s largest bank by retail branches, is ...

Corporate Finance

FX: Dollar Favored Over Euro, Yen

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: FOREIGN EXCHANGE By Gordon Platt The dollar rose sharply last month after the Federal Open Market Committee’s meeting in March signaled that further monetary easing is unlikely unless the US economy slows significantly or the inflation rate ...

M&A: Glencore Targets Viterra

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS   By Gordon Platt   Switzerland’s Glencore International, the world’s largest commodities trader, agreed to acquire Canada’s biggest grain trader, Viterra, for C$16 a share ($16.05)—which values the company at $6 billion—in a deal that ...

Newsmakers

Thorsten Heins Hits First Stumbling Block At RIM

NEWSMAKERS: CANADA   By Luca Ventura   On March 29, telecoms company Research In Motion posted its first loss in seven years.   Tough road ahead for RIM chief Thorsten Heins Photo Credit : REUTERS/EDUARDO MUNOZ It was not what shareholders had ...