
Ukraine's Software Firms Face Test Of War
Decentralization and remote work seems to be the answer.
Global news and insight for corporate financial professionals
Decentralization and remote work seems to be the answer.
Big Tech, banks, telecoms–and even Hollywood–are all scrambling to own a piece of the infrastructure of the future.
Islamic financial institutions recorded a strong 2021 while continuing digital investments.
Nations compete for capital, investment, knowledge, and innovation: who is number 1?
Andreas Lutz, CEO of Fides Treasury Services speaks with Global Finance’s Founder and Editorial Director Joseph Giarraputo about the challenges facing treasury and finance professionals, how open banking and APIs are changing the bank connectivity landscape and the most important area for corporates to focus on related to cross-border payments.
The fight has just begun, as newly enacted Fed rules start to cramp long-accepted operating styles of global banks. The banks are weighing what to do about it—as are global policymakers.
Although hit hard by the global financial crisis, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia recovered quickly. The three countries are building ever-closer EU ties to separate themselves economically from Eastern neighbors.
This year has already proven to be a wild one when it comes to emerging markets risks. Preparing for what is to come in volatile and disparate markets is ever more central to the treasury and risk management functions.
With good demographics and potential opportunities for FDI in a range of sectors, Iran is poised to make the most of further relaxing of economic sanctions.
Corporate banking has always lagged the retail sector when it comes to the adoption of digital technologies, but mobile-banking services are gathering pace—and some visionaries are even contemplating banking services based on wearable technologies.
Fast-paced developments in China and overseas are bolstering the renminbi’s international expansion.
Sri Lanka has an open business environment, but challenges—not least its recovery from the civil war that ended in 2009—remain.
REGIONAL REPORT
Sub-Saharan Africa’s economic lions are pulling the continent into an unprecedented era of wealth creation and prosperity. With year-on-year growth of between 7% and 9%, Ghana, Angola, Mozambique, Zambia and Ethiopia have played a pivotal role in helping Africa’s economy triple in size since 2000.
Financial markets may initially have reacted well to the reelection of the AKP and prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, but his success belies deep-seated political and economic problems.
An escalation of sanctions on Russia stemming from its actions in Ukraine could pressure Russia’s overall economic growth. Some companies, particularly those perceived to have close ties to president Vladimir Putin and his inner circle, may have difficulties tapping the international capital markets for funding.
NCB Capital, a major Saudi Arabian investment bank, named Sarah Al-Suhaimi, an accomplished asset manager, as its new CEO. She is the first woman to head an investment bank in the kingdom. The Saudi government owns part of National Commercial Bank, which controls NCB Capital.
Leila Heckman, head of international equities at Lebenthal Asset Management, joined us for our monthly Salon to discuss the increased acceptance of global diversification among portfolio managers and the reasons behind her approach to investing.
In our 21st annual survey, Global Finance identifies the best banks in 150 countries and eight regions. The winners are not always the biggest banks, but rather, the best—those with the qualities that corporations should look for when choosing a bank.
The banks of North America as a group are fundamentally strong. Of 30 US banks that participated in the Federal Reserve’s second round of stress tests, 25 passed with flying colors, according to results released in March.
The region battled continuing recession or, at best, slow growth, a tightening regulatory environment and country-specific banking taxes or fines for past misdemeanors.
While Latin American banks continued to expand their client base and footprints, the sector still faced important challenges.
Developing Asia will grow by 6.2% this year and 6.5% next, according to Asian Development Bank estimates, up slightly from 6.1% in 2013. Despite the uptick in overall growth, banks around the region continue to face challenging landscapes.
Banks in the Middle East are liquid and well capitalized, particularly in the oil-producing countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
The financial system in Africa varies from the highly developed banking institutions of South Africa and Nigeria to the barely organized banking sector of South Sudan, the world’s newest country.
Since the global financial crisis, US regional banks have taken market share in corporate banking away from the national money-center banks, which have dialed back on risk to rebuild their balance sheets.
Myanmar’s chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) is expected to boost the country’s diplomatic and economic prospects.
Recent economic reforms in Mexico and upgrades by rating agencies have strengthened Mexico’s position in global markets. The country’s economic performance is improving as well.
Only two weeks ahead of the April 9 parliamentary elections and under pressure from a billion-dollar lawsuit, the Indonesian government announced it would terminate some 67 bilateral investment treaties—which regulate investment in the country by foreigners—as they come up for renewal.
Despite a pause in February, when the number of share purchase authorizations declined by 32% over the same period a year ago, share buybacks are still very popular on Wall Street.
Corporate credit-rating upgrades in the first quarter of 2014 outnumbered downgrades in Europe, the Middle East and Africa for the first time since 2008, according to Moody’s Investors Service. The rating agency says positive credit trends in the EMEA region are likely to continue through 2014, despite potential negative events in Russia and Ukraine.
Inflation in the eurozone slipped to 0.5% at an annual rate in March, its lowest level since 2009. The persistence of low inflation prompted policymakers to discuss quantitative easing (QE) and a negative deposit rate, putting some downward pressure on the euro.
Led by the Asia-Pacific region, global proceeds from initial public offerings totaled more than $34 billion in the first quarter of 2014, an increase of 77% from the same period a year earlier, according to Renaissance Capital
Mergers and acquisitions involving Russian companies, including Morgan Stanley’s planned sale of its global oil-trading unit to Rosneft, are threatened by Western sanctions on Moscow over the Ukraine crisis.
“Bob Diamond exists to make money for Bob Diamond, whatever he says. This isn’t to help develop Africa, it’s to make money for Bob Diamond and his partners.”
Brazilian Finance minister Guido Mantega may be dealing with both internal and external headwinds, but he—and Brazil—are still standing.
When, on March 18, longtime Canadian Finance minister Jim Flaherty unexpectedly announced his resignation, few were perhaps more surprised than his soon-to-be successor, Joe Oliver, the 73-year-old minister of Natural Resources.
Slovakia has known rapid and unexpected changes in its political fortune in its 20 years as an independent country.