November 2008

BITTER MEDICINE GLOBAL REGULATION     The case for global regulation of the banking and finance industry has become much stronger as a result of the recent crisis. The prospect of creating a workable system, though, is as remote as ...

A VERY BRITISH MELTDOWN A SYSTEM IN PERIL The swiftness of Britain’s transition from the cutting edge of innovation in banking and finance to representing the epitome of the global crisis has left many heads spinning. But in its dramatic ...

BANKING ON INNOVATION SYSTEMIC RISK Businesses are finding imaginative ways to circumvent the credit crunch. The solutions they adopt now could have profound implications for their future operations.   For months this year, pessimists had been predicting a global financial ...

BACK TO BASICS ISLAMIC FINANCING The core ethical principles of Islamic finance have protected the industry from the worst effects of the credit crunch.   A customer makes a transaction at Emirates Bank in Dubai. One segment of the financial ...

BEST DERIVATIVES PROVIDERS 2008     Global Finance’s fifth annual awards for the World’s Best Derivatives Providers come against a backdrop of unprecedented change in financial markets. The long bull market came to an end last year. In its place ...

NEWS           Invesco PowerShares last month listed a new exchange-traded fund (ETF) on NYSE Arca that focuses on infrastructure construction in emerging market countries. Demand for infrastructure tends to be inelastic because of long-term trends such ...

CHINA       China's exporters are feeling the effects of a global economic slowdown. China’s central bank released three surveys—of banks, consumers and companies—in late September reflecting falling confidence in the country’s economy. According to the survey of companies, ...

AFRICA       Kampala in Uganda, where African leaders discussed plans for growing investment.   East Africa may benefit from the recent turmoil on global financial markets, as investors seek less risky and higher yielding markets. Speakers at September’s ...

BRAZIL       Oil finds saw Brazil's national petroleum agency ANP reduce new exploration concessions.   While Brazilian officials had touted the country’s resilience to the global financial meltdown, they got a disturbing wake-up call in October as the ...

INDIA       Kingfisher Airlines joins forces with Jet Airways in an effort to cut costs as losses force unprecedented cooperation. Steep losses are forcing a flurry of consolidation in India’s airline industry. With combined losses this year alone ...

RUSSIA       The global flight from risky assets saw $1 trillion wiped off Moscow's stock market.   Russia continued to be buffeted by the global financial crisis, with the country’s stock index plummeting nearly 70% from all-time highs ...

MIDDLE EAST         Safa: Credit crunch could boost sukuk in the longer term. Asudden slowdown in the issuance of sukuk, or Islamic bonds, could be the result of the global credit crunch, a ruling by a committee ...

DR NEWS     Ecopetrol, Colombia’s state-controlled oil company, which sold a 10.1% stake to the public last year, has become only the second company based in Colombia to list American depositary receipts on the New York Stock Exchange. Bancolombia ...

COMPANY TO WATCH: GERDAU/BRAZIL     As the global steel industry consolidates, Brazil’s Gerdau is on the prowl. The company already is the largest producer of long steel in the Americas, where it has operations in a dozen countries. It ...

ARGENTINA       Seeing off the debt: Kirchner hopes investors will accept deal.   In a major policy reversal, the Argentine government is reaching out to holdouts from its $100 billion debt workout in which bondholders received a 70% ...

GLOBAL       Cash in hand: Corporations are looking within for liquidity.   The banking sector is under siege, with unprecedented nationalizations globally and a widespread assumption that the extraordinary profits of the past decade may never return. However, ...

CHINA     Keeping busy: China's policymakers are moving fast to maintain domestic economic activity as global growth ebbs. Following years of double-digit growth in its gross domestic product, China’s economic growth came in at a weaker-than-expected 9% in the ...

GLOBAL       Place of principles: Santiago, Chile's capital, where the funds agreed to a series of standards. The International Working Group (IWG) of 26 member countries of the International Monetary Fund last month released a statement of Generally ...

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS         Worldwide announced mergers and acquisitions in the first three quarters of 2008 declined by 25% from the same period a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters, reflecting the effects of the credit crunch ...

GLOBAL EQUITY/DRS           There were only five initial public offerings in the US market in the third quarter, with no IPO activity after early August. In Europe, withdrawn IPOs were at the highest level in the ...

CORPORATE DEBT             Credit markets remain stalled despite heroic efforts by global central banks, regulators and governments to restore confidence in the financial system. A lack of liquidity has made issuing new high-yield bonds almost ...

FOREIGN EXCHANGE       As the financial crisis shook Europe’s banks last month, the European Central Bank joined in a coordinated half-point rate cut with the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and other central banks, excluding the Bank ...

UNITED KINGDOM       Brown: Championing a coordinated global structure for the financial services industry. Prime minister Gordon Brown has been ridiculed in the British press for calling for a new Bretton Woods summit. He has been accused of ...

GLOBAL       Capon: Asia's funds are drying up fast.   The credit crunch has shattered a lot of illusions about the soundness of the global financial system, and another theory that has been challenged is that of “decoupling,” ...

UNITED STATES       Bernanke: Running out of weapons in the battle against economic turmoil.   Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke urged Congress last month to pass a second economic stimulus plan, saying that the US economy was likely ...

GLOBAL       Crunching the numbers: Businesses are preparing themselves for difficult times ahead.   Much of the coverage on the credit crunch has focused on the impact it is having on banks and capital markets, but in a ...

SAFE HARBOR CUSTODY & INVESTOR SERVICES Global custodians play a key role in helping their clients weather financial turmoil. Global Finance gathered a group of the industry’s leading players to discuss the implications of—and opportunities presented by—recent events.   White: ...

SUPPLYING SOLUTIONS SUPPLY CHAIN FINANCE At a recent roundtable in London, Global Finance brought together some of the pioneers in the rapidly growing supply chain finance business to discuss the growth of their industry and the impact of the credit ...