October 2011

COVER STORY: AND THE WINNER IS…   By Gordon Platt   Global Finance unveils its annual list of the best banks globally, regionally and by country.   Many of the world’s leading banks have posted significant increases in earnings so far ...

CLOUDY HORIZONS   By Antonio Guerrero   While South Africa is attempting to get out from under its recession, countries in sub-Saharan Africa are dealing with the impact of volatile global oil markets and decreased investment from their neighbor to ...

ANNUAL SURVEY: WORLD’S BEST BANKS   A selection from Global Finance ’s best banks awards from the past year.   WORLD’S BEST FOREIGN EXCHANGE PROVIDERS 2011   WORLD’S BEST DERIVATIVES PROVIDERS 2011   WORLD’S BEST SUB-CUSTODIANS 2011   WORLD’S BEST ...

ANNUAL SURVEY: SAFE AND SOUND   By Andrew Cunningham   Global Finance presents it annual ranking of The World’s Safest Banks.   Despite the ongoing debt crisis, European banks continue to dominate the ranks of the World’s Safest Banks in ...

Global Winners Best Corporate Bank JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase provides many of the world’s most prominent corporations with the financial services they need to succeed in global markets. With $2 trillion in assets, the bank operates in 60 countries and ...

Regional Winners Best Bank in North America JPMorgan Chase Jamie Dimon, chairman, president and CEO www.jpmorganchase.com   JPMorgan Chase is a top-three bank in most of its business lines across North America. Its relative stability has helped it to increase ...

MIRACLE WORKERS REACH END OF THE ROAD   By Gordon Platt, Antonio Guerrero and Anita Hawser   Boosting employment and production are the elusive goals of today’s central bankers.   If it’s broke, fix it. Central bankers are taking on ...

ASIA Australia   Glenn Stevens Grade: A Glenn Stevens, governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, has a steady hand and clear policy views when it comes to making monetary decisions at the RBA. At its meeting in August, the ...

EUROPE Czech Republic   Miroslav Singer Grade: B Miroslav Singer had just been appointed governor when we published our last Central Banker Report Cards, but he hasn’t wasted any time in giving his assessment on how the euro crisis could ...

MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA Angola José de Lima Massano Grade: B The performance of Angola’s economy depends more on oil prices than on monetary policy. José de Lima Massano, former CEO of Banco Africano de Investimentos, was appointed central bank ...

The Americas Argentina Mercedes Marcó del Pont Grade: D When Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner appointed political ally Mercedes Marcó del Pont to head the central bank in February 2010, there was little hope the move would lead to ...

LOCAL POWERHOUSES IN WORLDWIDE BANKING MARKETS   Country Winners     World’s Best Banks 2011: Country Winners World’s Best Banks 2011: Global Winners World’s Best Banks 2011: Regional Winners Back To Main Article

SPECIAL REPORT: THE BIG LEAGUES   By Andrew Cunningham   Global Finance presents its ranking of the World’s Biggest Banks.   Assets sizes of the world’s biggest banks have stabilized, after three years of deleveraging and asset write-downs. The 50 ...

HERO GROUP EYES AFRICAN MOTORCYCLE MARKET   By Gordon Platt   Hero MotoCorp, India’s leading manufacturer of motorcycles and scooters, bought out its joint venture partner, Honda, earlier this year.   Honda wanted to focus more intently on the fast-growing ...

EMERGING MARKETS INVESTOR: DR NEWS   By Gordon Platt   China Steel, Taiwan’s biggest steelmaker, raised $751 million in a follow-on offering of global depositary receipts (GDRs).   The issue was the largest equity offering by a Taiwanese company in ...

EMERGING MARKETS INVESTOR: NEWS   By Gordon Platt   Emerging markets continue to outperform developed markets and were a relatively safe haven during the recent global equity market volatility.   Emerging market bond funds and currencies were stellar performers during ...

PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS TO FINANCE INFRASTRUCTURE UPGRADES   By Antonio Guerrero   Tanzania plans to invest $742 million by the end of 2012 to tackle its crippling energy deficit.   African energy projects to get PPP boost Under an emergency power rescue ...

INVESTMENT SPREE FOR FIFA WORLD CUP AND OLYMPICS   By Antonio Guerrero   Brazil is preparing for a major investment spree ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games.   Brazil prepares for FIFA World Cup 2014 Brazil’s ...

RISING RATES ARE ENCOURAGING LENDING   By Thomas Clouse   Strong demand for loans and higher interest rates boosted profits at several Chinese banks to record levels.   Record-high net profits at China Construction Bank Strong demand for loans and higher ...

FOREIGN INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR FLOWS START TO DECLINE   By Aaron Chaze   Inflation fears, monetary tightening and slowing corporate growth may reduce foreign institutional investor interest.   Reserve Bank of India cites strong outward investment by Indian firms Worries over inflation, ...

BAHRAIN: PROTESTS IMPACT THE ECONOMY   By Gordon Platt   Political unrest in Bahrain in February and March may have cost the economy as much as $2 billion.   New governor at Dubai International Financial Centre Essam Fakhro, chairman of the ...

PRIVATIZATION PLANS MAY GROW   By Kim Iskyan   Putin ally Valentina Matviyenko became the speaker of the Federation Council in Russia’s national parliament.   Oil producer Rosneft may be fully privatized Governor of St. Petersburg and longtime Putin ally Valentina ...

INNER GAZE   By Michael Shari   Global food and fuel inflation, undeveloped infrastructure and a correction in emerging markets are leading India to look inward.   It’s not easy to keep a straight face in response to a banker’s ...

RIDING THE WAVE   By Justin Keay   Turkey’s economy has performed quite well, but reform is needed at home to build sustainable growth.   Early August saw unprecedented turbulence on global financial markets, and Turkey’s was no exception. On ...

RESPONSIBILITY AND REFORM   By Gilly Wright   Responsible fiscal and monetary policies and a host of reforms aimed at liberalizing the economy have allowed Israel to become one of the world’s most attractive places for foreign investment. But change ...

THE TIES THAT BIND   By Gordon Platt   Taiwan is expanding its ties to mainland China, boosting its own economic prowess.   Taiwan’s economic ties to China are likely to continue to expand and deepen, no matter the outcome ...

MILESTONES: GLOBAL   By Paula L. Green   Financial industry regulators better have their feet on the ground—and a sound understanding of the links between the banking and insurance sectors—when they lay down new rules meant to bolster the troubled global financial ...

MILESTONES: VENEZUELA   By Antonio Guerrero   Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in August gave the world’s gold markets a double-fisted punch.   Gold may reduce oil dependence On the one hand, he nationalized his country’s gold mining sector. On the other, he announced ...

MILESTONES: ARCTIC   By Paula L. Green   The Danish government is embarking on a precarious high-wire act as it presents an Arctic seabed claim to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.   Danish Arctic claims clash with ...

MILESTONES: US/EUROPE   By Anita Hawser   As governments in the US and Europe embark on a program of austerity measures, they are more eager than ever before to claw back millions from undeclared offshore accounts.   Swiss banks reach deal with ...

MILESTONES: GREECE   By Luca Ventura   The recently-announced merger of Greek banks Alpha Bank and Eurobank EFG could breathe fresh life into the much-troubled Greek banking sector.   Tides turning in Greece with bank merger In fact, it would difficult ...

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: CORPORATE DEBT   By Gordon Platt   Credit spreads widened dramatically during the turmoil in the credit markets this summer as the global economic outlook worsened, Standard & Poor’s stripped the US of its triple-A credit rating, and ...

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: GLOBAL EQUITY/DRS   By Gordon Platt   The recent volatility in global equity markets and the heightened uncertainty around the global economic outlook forced a virtual shutdown of the market for initial public offerings in early August, just ...

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: FOREIGN EXCHANGE   By Gordon Platt   Safe-haven buying drove US bond yields to the lowest level since 1950, and the dollar rose as the tumultuous summer of 2011 drew to a close with no solution in ...

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS   By Gordon Platt   Transformations of technology companies are fueling multibillion-dollar mergers and acquisitions and divestitures, as the industry consolidates and develops new businesses to compete for corporate IT budgets.   Google’s $12.5 billion ...

NEWSMAKERS: UNITED STATES   By Gordon Platt   Billionaire investor Warren Buffett was soaking in the tub when he came up with the idea of investing $5 billion in Bank of America.   Buffett banks on domestic investments The Berkshire Hathaway ...

NEWSMAKERS: NIGERIA   By Antonio Guerrero   Nigeria’s new economic chief, former World Bank managing director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, says she will focus much of her efforts on diversifying her nation’s economy away from overdependence on oil and gas revenues.   ...

NEWSMAKERS: GLOBAL   By Michael Shari   Not since the reconstruction of Western Europe in the aftermath of World War II has an incoming managing director of the International Monetary Fund come under such tremendous pressure to prove that it ...

NEWSMAKERS: SINGAPORE   By Thomas Clouse   Former deputy prime minister Tony Tan was sworn in as Singapore’s new president on September 1 after narrowly defeating his closest competitor in a four-candidate race in late August.   Tan wins by narrow ...

NEWSMAKERS: JAPAN   By Thomas Clouse   Yoshihiko Noda became Japan’s sixth prime minister in the last five years after the lower house of parliament voted the 54-year-old finance minister into office on August 30.   Noda is Japan’s sixth PM ...