Magazine Cover

Cover Story

Cover Story : 2005 World’s Best Banks

Annual Survey The biggest banks in the world have performed like well-oiled money-creating machines this year, generating billions of dollars of profits on a quarterly basis. The risks to the global economy from rising oil prices and interest rates, however, ...

Cover Story : The World’s Biggest Banks 2005

Global Finance ranks the world’s 50 biggest banks, as measured by total assets. If there was any doubt that the world’s top banks have been thriving for the past year, the Global Finance listing of the world’s biggest banks should ...

Cover Story: Central Banker Report Cards 2005

After enjoying a couple of relatively peaceful years, the world’s central bankers suddenly found themselves with a lot more work on their hands. Over the past year they’ve faced some unexpected challenges. Few central bankers would have predicted, for example, ...

Cover Story: The World’s Safest Banks 2005

Global Finance selects the World’s Safest Banks, the 50 institutions with the highest ratings from the leading international credit ratings agencies. For the first time in many years, Germany has lost its stranglehold on the top echelon of the world’s ...

Features

Features : All Change in Latin America

With elections due to take place in a half-dozen Latin American nations over the next year, investors are anxiously following events in the region. They’re expecting some significant changes. Mexico’s Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Leads All Polls in The Race ...

Features : Country Report: South Korea

South Korea Leans on Domestic Economy South Korea is showing the potential for strengthening economic growth, but old burdens and new threats loom. That the South Korean economy is export driven is undisputed even now as it faces the challenge ...

Features : Lost Opportunity

Just as Indonesia’s economy has begun to show signs of stability and sustained growth, high oil prices are threatening to derail it again. At face value, the Indonesian economy has been hitting high notes for the past two years, underlain ...

Features : On A Roll

Surging oil prices are revitalizing a flagging economy, but investors should not forget the upsets of the recent past. Surging oil prices are revitalizing a flagging ecHas Russia turned the corner—for good, this time? A vibrant commodities price environment has ...

Features : Philippines’ Political Clouds Lift

Businesses in the Philippines look set to benefit from the newly stabilized political environment. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines had reason to exhale a sigh of relief on September 6. The Congress had thrown out attempts by the ...

Features : Turkey: The Investment Magnet

With most first-tier banking assets now sold off, foreign investors are looking to second-tier banks, privatization plans and the corporate market for further investment in Turkey. Investor interest in Turkey continues to grow rapidly in the run-up to EU accession ...

Award Winners

Award Winners : The World’s Best Banks 2005

The World’s Best Banks GLOBAL Corporate Bank Citigroup Consumer Bank HSBC Private Bank UBS Asset Management State Street Global Advisors Custody The Bank of New York Investment Bank Goldman Sachs Trade Finance BNP Paribas Foreign Exchange Deutsche Bank Sub-Custody HSBC ...

Award Winners : The World’s Biggest Banks 2005

The Word's Biggest Banks 2005 1 UBS Switzerland 2 Citigroup United States 3 Mizuho Financial Group Japan 4 HSBC United Kingdom 5 Crédit Agricole France 6 BNP Paribas France 7 ING Group Netherlands 8 JPMorgan Chase United States 9 Deutsche ...

Award Winners : The World’s Safest Banks 2005

The World’s Safest Banks 1 Groupe Caisse des Dépôts France 2 Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten Netherlands 3 Rabobank Group Netherlands 4 KfW Group Germany 5 Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank Germany 6 Lloyds TSB United Kingdom 7 Landeskreditbank Baden-Wuerttemberg-Förderbank Germany 8 UBS Switzerland 9 ...

Emerging Markets

Features : On A Roll

Surging oil prices are revitalizing a flagging economy, but investors should not forget the upsets of the recent past. Surging oil prices are revitalizing a flagging ecHas Russia turned the corner—for good, this time? A vibrant commodities price environment has ...

Features : Turkey: The Investment Magnet

With most first-tier banking assets now sold off, foreign investors are looking to second-tier banks, privatization plans and the corporate market for further investment in Turkey. Investor interest in Turkey continues to grow rapidly in the run-up to EU accession ...

Corporate Finance : Foreign Exchange

High Oil Prices Tar Asian Currencies The rising price of oil sent ripples through Asian currency markets in late summer, as Indonesia’s rupiah found itself at the epicenter of a tempest of speculation against the currencies of regional oil importers. ...

Corporate Finance : Global Equity/DRs

Google Plans to Raise $4 Billion in New Offering Internet search company Google plans to offer another 14.2 million shares to raise about $4 billion, but the California-based company says it has no immediate plans to make any major acquisitions. ...

Emerging Markets : Company to Watch: Teléfonos De México/Mexico

Hola, Colombia! Slim’s on the Line Already the largest telecommunications company in Latin America, Telmex, as Teléfonos de México is more commonly known, has made a bid for 50%-plus-one-share of Colombia Telecomunicaciones, Colombia’s state-run communications carrier, also known as Telecom. ...

Emerging Markets : 'Bra Wars' end in delicate compromise

China Friends: Tony Blair, with China’s president Hu Jintao After a long, tense negotiation period, the EU and China finally strapped together a compromise over textile imports. Britain’s prime minister Tony Blair claimed the credit for hammering out the final ...

Emerging Markets : Hong Kong Escapes From Deflation

News Khiem Do Hong Kong’s economy has emerged from a deflationary period, and property prices in the special administrative region are on the rise, says Khiem Do, head of Asia Pacific equities at Baring Asset Management, which has been part ...

Emerging Markets : Labor Union Fails to Stop Taiwan Privatization

DR News Three board members of Chunghwa Telecom alerted John Thain, CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, in August that a proposed secondary offering of the Taiwan-based company’s stock and the prospective listing of American depositary receipts on the ...

Emerging Markets : Oil Fuels growth

Russia Viktor Khristenko August, usually a sleepy month for corporate Russia, was anything but quiet this year. Recurrent fears of an economic slowdown were eased by continued strength in the price of oil, which, coupled with positive investor sentiment toward ...

Emerging Markets: End of the C-Bond Era

Brazil On a tear: Brazil’s stock indexes are surging Ranked as the world’s most-traded emerging market security for nearly a decade, Brazilian capitalization bonds (C-bonds) will soon be a thing of the past. The government will exercise a call option ...

Central Banker Report Cards

Cover Story: Central Banker Report Cards 2005

After enjoying a couple of relatively peaceful years, the world’s central bankers suddenly found themselves with a lot more work on their hands. Over the past year they’ve faced some unexpected challenges. Few central bankers would have predicted, for example, ...

Milestones

Milestones : Corporate Bond Credit Quality Threatens Derivatives

Global The bond market used to be a place that was safe for widows and orphans, but recent developments, including the fast growth of credit derivatives and hedge funds, are changing this formerly quiet corner of the capital markets. The ...

Corporate Finance

Corporate Finance : Corporate Debt

Growth in Credit Derivatives Begins Attracting the Attention Of Policymakers, Regulators The Federal Reserve Bank of New York invited 14 major participants in the credit-derivatives market, primarily investment banks, to a meeting on September 15 to discuss market practices in ...

Corporate Finance : Foreign Exchange

High Oil Prices Tar Asian Currencies The rising price of oil sent ripples through Asian currency markets in late summer, as Indonesia’s rupiah found itself at the epicenter of a tempest of speculation against the currencies of regional oil importers. ...

Corporate Finance : Global Equity/DRs

Google Plans to Raise $4 Billion in New Offering Internet search company Google plans to offer another 14.2 million shares to raise about $4 billion, but the California-based company says it has no immediate plans to make any major acquisitions. ...

Corporate Finance : Mergers & Acquisitions

Global Banks Place Their Bets in China International financial institutions and regional investors are shelling out billions of dollars for stakes in China’s largest banks. With a booming economy and an enticing $1.5 trillion in personal savings, China has become ...

Newsmakers

Newsmakers : Ellison Hungry for Deals Despite Choking on Share Sale

United States Oracle’s Larry Ellison September 12, 2005, was a red-letter day for Lawrence J. Ellison, who has been Oracle’s CEO since he co-founded the business-software company in 1977. Ellison was in the news twice that Monday morning. First, he ...

Newsmakers : Bankers and Brokers Urge Streamlining of Cross-Border Trading

United States/Europe Damgard: Promoting harmonization Fed up with costly and often contradictory regulations governing the cross-border trading of stocks and equity derivatives, securities and banking associations in the US and the EU have joined together to urge action to improve ...

Newsmakers : Make Trade, Not War!

Global India’s Manmohan Singh It makes a good bumper sticker, but does it really make sense? According to recent research, it does. Sort of. Iran, for example, offered to send the US 20 million barrels of crude oil in the ...