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Cover Story

Cover Story : 2006 World’s Best Banks

ANNUAL SURVEY/ WORLD’S BEST BANKS As the global economy continues to be challenged by rising interest rates and oil prices, banks are under increasing pressure to provide more sophisticated levels of service spanning multiple markets for less. The need to ...

Cover Story : Central Banker Report Cards 2006

ANNUAL SURVEY/ CENTRAL BANKER REPORT CARDS Stagflation is back. Rising prices of oil and other commodities, combined with slowing global economic growth, have created a dilemma for many of the world’s central bankers. Should they raise interest rates to contain ...

Cover Story : The World’s Safest Banks 2006

ANNUAL SURVEY/ WORLD’S SAFEST BANKS Global Finance selects the world’s safest banks, the 50 institutions with the highest ratings from the leading international credit ratings agencies. The dust has settled after the shake-out of 2004, when Germany’s part-state-owned Landesbanks were ...

Features

Features : Business Continuity: The Show Must Go On

BUSINESS CONTINUITY The recent spate of terrorist attacks and natural disasters has rammed home for businesses the importance of planning for the unthinkable. David Gilpin: “Working from home is the ultimate business continuity solution” Companies have long been aware of ...

Features : Sector Report/Trade Finance: Trading In Sophistication

SECTOR REPORT / TRADE FINANCE Companies craving increased flexibility and efficiency in their financial supply chains are finding technology can provide the key. As trading relationships become more complex and the Internet enables greater trade, companies are looking for better ...

Features: Turkey Weathers Storm And Comes Out Strong

COUNTRY REPORT/TURKEY With a solid reform program that remains on track and a strong privatization program in the works, Turkey is a choice destination for those investors looking to pick up assets. When investors fled for safety from emerging markets ...

Emerging Markets

Cover Story : Central Banker Report Cards 2006

ANNUAL SURVEY/ CENTRAL BANKER REPORT CARDS Stagflation is back. Rising prices of oil and other commodities, combined with slowing global economic growth, have created a dilemma for many of the world’s central bankers. Should they raise interest rates to contain ...

Features: Turkey Weathers Storm And Comes Out Strong

COUNTRY REPORT/TURKEY With a solid reform program that remains on track and a strong privatization program in the works, Turkey is a choice destination for those investors looking to pick up assets. When investors fled for safety from emerging markets ...

Special Section

Cover Story : 2006 World’s Best Banks

ANNUAL SURVEY/ WORLD’S BEST BANKS As the global economy continues to be challenged by rising interest rates and oil prices, banks are under increasing pressure to provide more sophisticated levels of service spanning multiple markets for less. The need to ...

Cover Story : Central Banker Report Cards 2006

ANNUAL SURVEY/ CENTRAL BANKER REPORT CARDS Stagflation is back. Rising prices of oil and other commodities, combined with slowing global economic growth, have created a dilemma for many of the world’s central bankers. Should they raise interest rates to contain ...

Cover Story : The World’s Safest Banks 2006

ANNUAL SURVEY/ WORLD’S SAFEST BANKS Global Finance selects the world’s safest banks, the 50 institutions with the highest ratings from the leading international credit ratings agencies. The dust has settled after the shake-out of 2004, when Germany’s part-state-owned Landesbanks were ...

Milestones

Milestones: Chavez Trades More Than Insults

VENEZUELA Hugo Chavez: Frosty reception to trade with US While hardly a day goes by that Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez doesn’t attack “Mr. Danger” (President George W. Bush) or “the Empire” (the United States), two-way trade between Venezuela and the ...

Milestones: Ethical Stocks Are Winning Over Fund Managers

EUROPE Wind farms: Investors seek alternatives Once upon a time, tobacco, oil and consumer-goods companies were staple stocks in most investment managers’ portfolios. That has not changed, but when one of the United Kingdom’s largest fund managers, with £107 billion ...

Corporate Finance

Corporate Finance : Fed’s Pause Signals Return Of Weak Dollar

FOREIGN EXCHANGE The dollar will resume its long-term declining trend this fall, mainly as a result of indications that the Federal Reserve has completed its monetary policy tightening after two years of raising rates, analysts say. Worries about the US ...

Corporate Finance : Goldman Sachs Leads Equity Underwriters

GLOBAL EQUITY/DRS Goldman Sachs was the leading managing underwriter for global equity and equity-related deals in the first half of 2006, with more than $40 billion in proceeds, an increase of 111% from the same period a year earlier, according ...

Corporate Finance: Merger Funding Lifts Borrowing Activity

CORPORATE DEBT Companies borrowed 17.3% more in the US bond market in the first half of 2006 than they did in the same period a year earlier, despite higher interest rates this year, according to the Bond Market Association. US ...

Newsmakers

Newsmakers: Quattrone’S Back In Business

UNITED STATES Frank Quattrone: Prosecution deferred Two years after a previous conviction was overturned on appeal, former star banker Frank Quattrone has struck a deal that could result in prosecutors dropping all charges against him. Under the terms of the ...

Additional Stories

EM Investor : Aircraft Maker Switching Pilots

COMPANY TO WATCH: EMBRAER/BRAZIL Embraer, the world’s leading manufacturer of commercial jets with up to 110 seats, is one of Brazil’s leading exporters, with an order backlog as of June 30 totaling $10.2 billion. The company, based in São José ...

EM Investor : Global Rate Cycle May Hit Currencies

NEWS For currency markets, the aftermath of prior global monetary tightening cycles has typically seen the dollar weaken in the first year after short-term interest rates have peaked in the major industrialized nations. However, emerging market currencies have usually softened ...

EM Roundup : Debt Repayment Highlights Economic Recovery

RUSSIA Finance minister, Alexei Kudrin In mid-August Russia completed the early repayment of its Soviet-era debt to the Paris Club, after submitting $22.5 billion in payments, marking an end of an era and underscoring the dramatic recovery in the Russian ...

EM Roundup : Ipo Fever Abates

CHINA Slow take-off for Air China China raised interest rates again in August in the latest effort to cool off the country’s sizzling economic growth. The move marks the second time the central bank has raised the one-year lending rate ...

EM Roundup : Surplus Peaks As Trade Boom Continues

BRAZIL Guido Mantega: Firm on growth forecast Brazil’s trade sector continues to boom despite concerns over an appreciating currency that could make Brazilian products less competitive. Much of the rise has been driven by strong demand for commodities, whose prices ...