May 2016

If the Brits leave the Eurozone, it will have major repercussions for companies doing business in the UK. So why aren’t non-Brits paying more attention? Global Finance lays out the Brexit consequences for international corporations and for global commerce.

Bank of China, the fourth-largest bank in the world, has been an ener-getic leader in expanding overseas. In an interview with Global Finance, Chen Siqing, the bank’s president, spoke about internationalization efforts and the importance of overseas growth. 

Nordea Chief Financial Officer Heikki Ilkka, appointed in December after many years with Ernst &Young, talked with Global Finance editors about how the bank is handling negative interest rates and regulatory challenges, and how it deploys technology to satisfy its customers.

PNC Bank’s head of retail banking and chief customer officer, Karen Larrimer, details how to match customer needs with technology.

The banking industry’s leading lights have largely adjusted their business plans to a world of tighter regulations, higher capital requirements and less leverage. Now, they are taking on new competitors by embracing the very information technology that has disrupted their business.

Profiling the Best Bank honorees of 2016

Ralph Hamers, CEO and chairman of ING Group, talks with Global Finance about how ING’s lending practices and use of fintech are bolstering the bank—and sustaining the environment. 

Global Finance presents the winners of its 23rd annual awards for the World’s Best Banks. 

Alberto Bisin, professor of econo-mics at New York University and fellow at the Econometric Society, studies social, financial and behavioral economics, regulation and income distribution. He spoke with Global Finance on Brexit and other global risks.

Casting off a checkered past, the region’s diverse economies are resurgent, with a focus on investment and reforms—and sustaining their crucial small and midsize enterprises.

Strong growth and other upbeat data in 2015 bucked the West’s collective vision of a nation in crisis. But without structural reforms, the picture may darken.

Few places on Turkey’s coasts have managed development quite as well as the former ancient Greek port city of Halicarnassus, today Bodrum.

During complex times for Turkey, banks, at least, can rest assured that their system is running smoothly, is well capitalized and well regulated.

President Jokowi is a radical departure from Indonesia’s political and military elite, which perhaps explains why he is such a populist leader at home. But foreign investors find him difficult to read.

In April the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) commemorated a quarter-century of history, with president Suma Chakrabarti emphasizing how far the Bank had come since its first investment—to WBK Bank in Poland (now Bank Zachodni WBK).

While Latin American economies are expected to shrink by roughly 1% this year, Mexico is slated to grow 2.2%.

India’s “Make in India” campaign has begun to pay dividends in the defense sector—a field where sharing of technology, processes and patented know-how by global giants does not happen easily.

On May 9, voters in the Philippines will elect a new president amid growing concerns over whether the strong legacy of president Benigno Aquino III will continue.

UK: The April launch of Atom Bank is a new chapter for seasoned entrepreneur Anthony Thomson.

He’s a kickboxer and a football fanatic, an accomplished pianist and possibly the next president of France—and only 38.

US: At 42, he is a former banker, a former bailout czar and a former politician. He wants to persuade the public, from Wall Street to Main Street, that large banks pose a risk to the economic system. The risk is too high, he says, and must be eliminated—surely not a minor feat, not even for one of the presidents of the mighty Federal Reserve.

As the commercial world becomes more litigious, individuals and corporations are increasingly hamstrung from pursuing justified legal claims by a lack of liquidity or other means of financing.

Following a record-breaking year for worldwide mergers and acquisitions, dealmaking declined to a two-year low in the first quarter of 2016.

Corporate sustainability is no longer just a box-ticking exercise. Increasingly, CFOs are making the link between measuring the environmental, social and cultural impact of their activities and long-term business value.

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ is learning to speak Arabic.

Low oil prices are taking a heavy toll on Saudi Arabia’s economy, which is facing even greater austerity under deputy crown prince Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud’s plans to raise $100 billion a year from subsidy cuts and new levies.

The People’s Bank of China has introduced bigger movements in its daily fixings of the country’s currency against the dollar. If sustained, this subtle change could signal that the central bank is preparing to allow greater flexibility in foreign exchange trading.

It’s been a long time coming, but Argentina is finally back. In mid-April, after being frozen out of global capital markets for 15 years, the country sold $16.5 billion of debt in an offering that was more than four times oversubscribed—the biggest bond ever sold in an emerging market.

The so-called Panama Papers, more than 11 million leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm, are shining a spotlight on the scope and financial impact of the offshoring financial industry and global efforts to move assets to tax havens or less-regulated jurisdictions.

The US Treasury’s latest measure to keep US companies from reincorporating in lower-tax countries is its strongest effort yet to halt so-called “inversions,” and could have far-reaching consequences for multinationals.

Forget Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. Casablanca is carving a new identity as a financial hub, with the Casablanca Finance City (CFC) recently topping the Global Financial Centers Index in Africa.

Not long ago, Romania was synonymous with sluggish growth, underperformance and corruption. Analysts acknowledged its huge potential but said it wasn’t being realized.