Global news and insight for corporate financial professionals
COVER STORY: MISSING PIECES By Michael Shari Corporations are adding up the costs—and looking at alternatives to increasingly expensive banking services. It would be hard to find a multinational corporation with a firmer grip on the intricacies ...
FOCUS: TRADING SHIFTS TO EXCHANGES By Gordon Platt New rules to reduce systemic derivatives market risk and increase transparency are still evolving. As regulators on both sides of the Atlantic struggle to come to grips with new derivatives trading rules, ...
WAITING ON EUROLAND By Jonathan Gregson The benefits of joining the eurozone are not as clear as they once were for countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The countries of Central Europe have long shaken off their ...
MALAYSIAN DOMINANCE PUT TO THE TEST By Anita Hawser Long the leading force in Asia-Pacific’s Islamic finance industry, Malaysia is facing growing regional competition. Anyone that does business or invests in Asia-Pacific will tell you that, as ...
ANNUAL SURVEY: GOING MAINSTREAM By Adam Rombel In the first of a two-part series, Global Finance identifies the best online corporate and consumer banks. Internet banking is no longer just an alternative channel. In the first of ...
CHINESE INVESTMENT BOOSTS SIERRA LEONE IRON ORE SECTOR By Antonio Guerrero China’s Shandong Iron & Steel Group (SISG) takes a 25% stake in Britain’s African Minerals. Sierra Leone’s iron ore output is becoming the country’s key export ...
TAX BREAK PLAN TO PROVIDE RELIEF FOR MANUFACTURERS By Antonio Guerrero The Brazilian government unveiled a $25 billion plan to provide relief to domestic producers. Tax breaks to help beleaguered Brazilian manufacturers Responding to concerns from local ...
OVERHEATING EASES, BUT DEMAND IMBALANCES REMAIN By Thomas Clouse Chinese overheating is finally slowing. Rising food costs hit consumer price index Chinese overheating is finally slowing after numerous interest rate increases and other policies were enacted to ...
CENTRAL BANK CHOOSES SLOWER GROWTH OVER HIGHER INFLATION By Aaron Chaze The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has become the most proactive central bank in Asia for monetary tightening. Indian stock exchanges are performing poorly in 2011 ...
IRAN SIGNS GAS PIPELINE PLAN WITH IRAQ AND SYRIA By Gordon Platt Iran is inching forward with its proposal for an “Islamic pipeline” to Europe. South Pars field to connect with Europe Iran, which has the second- ...
POOR DUE DILIGENCE SPARKS CONCERN FOR BANKING SECTOR By Kim Iskyan In early July the Russian Central Bank said it would spend $14 billion to bail out the Bank of Moscow—until recently Russia’s fifth-largest bank. Bank of ...
UPGRADES INCREASE COMPETITIVENESS FOR MAGNITOGORSK By Gordon Platt Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK), one of Russia’s top steel producers, is upgrading its production facilities to improve its competitiveness in the global steel market and replace imports in ...
MOTHBALLED INDIAN GDRS COMING TO MARKET By Gordon Platt More than $1 billion of planned global depositary receipt (GDR) issues from companies in India were delayed in March, when market conditions deteriorated following the outbreak of hostilities in ...
CHINA’S INFLATION NEAR PEAK, INVESTORS EYE EARNINGS GROWTH By Gordon Platt China’s monetary policy-tightening is advanced relative to other economies, and domestic inflation, which is centered in food prices, may be near a peak, analysts say. “As ...
MOBILIZING EXCESS CASH At most cash and treasury management conferences these days, treasurers are concerned with one of two things: ensuring they play a more strategic role within companies above and beyond managing a piggy bank of money; and ...
BEATING BUREAUCRACY AND TAXES By Anita Hawser With Brazil now firmly on the map as global economic power, treasuries want to include it in their global cash solutions. But many regulatory, legal and taxation issues still obstruct that ...
ON THE RIGHT PATH By Denise Bedell Enterprise risk management is now a central theme for treasurers at large corporates. Both regulatory changes and business benefits are driving the increased focus. The financial trauma of the past ...
THE WINDING ROAD By Denise Bedell Onshoring renminbi funds issued in the offshore markets is becoming easier, but it is still a complex process. Getting regulators involved early can help. China is ever more important in the ...
DIRECTORY A listing of TCM service and solution providers Banking Service Providers Bank of America Merrill Lynch CONTACT: Paul Simpson, Head of Global Transaction Services EMAIL: gcbkmarketing@bankofamerica.com www.corp.bankofamerica.com/business/bi/global ING Area of focus: International Cash Management Email: Commercial@ing.lu ...
WHO’S WHO By Paula Green Who’s Who In Treasury And Cash Management Scott Barton RBS Chief Executive Officer Global Transaction Services Scott Barton began working with RBS 16 years ago after his tenure with Andersen Consulting. ...
THREATENING THE ECONOMIC RENAISSANCE By Kim Iskyan Political uncertainty and continued dependence on oil exports are casting a pall over growth prospects in Russia. On the surface, Russia looks to be on the rebound. The macroeconomic situation ...
UPHILL BATTLE By Antonio Guerrero Spanish banks are struggling to regain momentum in the face of a sluggish economy and the need for further restructuring. Three years after Spain’s decade-long real estate bubble burst, the country’s banks ...
MILESTONES: ASIA By Thomas Clouse The Association of Southeast Asian Nations took another step toward political cohesion in late July, agreeing jointly with China to nonbinding guidelines for settling competing territorial claims in the South China Sea. South China Sea—still ...
MILESTONES: SRI LANKA By Kim Iskyan It’s been a good run for Sri Lanka of late. In mid-July, all three major ratings agencies upped their views on the country, pointing to the ongoing recovery and broad economic stabilization. ...
MILESTONES: UNITED STATES By Anita Hawser There is nothing quite like the threat of a debt default and a whopping budget deficit to focus policymakers’ minds on cutting costs. E–invoicing to reduce Treasury costs In an effort to ...
CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: CORPORATE DEBT By Gordon Platt Weak economic signals gave a boost to bond prices in the second quarter, but rising economic risk in the US makes it unlikely that the fast pace of debt issuance ...
CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: GLOBAL EQUITY/DRS By Gordon Platt Capital raisings using depositary receipts (DRs) nearly tripled in the first half of 2011, compared to the same period a year earlier, while DR trading volume and the number of ...
CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: FOREIGN EXCHANGE By Gordon Platt The EU summit in July not only reached agreement on a second bailout program for Greece, but just as significantly, it gave the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) the ability to respond ...
CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS: MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS By Gordon Platt The energy and power sector was the most active for worldwide mergers and acquisitions in the first half of 2011 as the value of global deals of all types ...
NEWSMAKERS: UNITED STATES By Gordon Platt David Beers, managing director and head of sovereign credit ratings for Standard & Poor’s in London, is the mustachioed face behind the rating agency’s downgrade of US treasury bonds to AA+ from ...
NEWSMAKERS: KAZAKHSTAN By Kim Iskyan Talk of who might replace Kazakhstan’s president Nursultan Nazarbayev—who has ruled the oil-rich Central Asian country since 1989—has long been taboo in the country’s political circles. With Nazarbayev’s blessing Succession uncertainty has ...
NEWSMAKERS: GLOBAL By Gordon Platt Christine Lagarde will be under the microscope at the International Monetary Fund’s annual meeting in Washington on September 23–25. Lagarde: Wants relevant, credible and effective IMF The silver-haired woman the French like ...
NEWSMAKERS: UNITED KINGDOM By Anita Hawser Xavier Rolet, the London Stock Exchange’s CEO, must have breathed a sigh of relief when the European Commission announced in early August that it would investigate the proposed merger between Deutsche Börse ...
NEWSMAKERS: THAILAND By Kim Iskyan In early May, Yingluck Shinawatra was a prominent business executive in Thailand. Shinawatra: Following in her brother’s footsteps Two months later, she became the country’s first female prime minister. Her astonishingly rapid ...
NEWSMAKERS: VIETNAM By Thomas Clouse Nguyen Tan Dung, the Vietnamese prime minister who guided the country through its entry into the World Trade Organization in 2007 and successfully navigated the financial crisis of 2008, is set for a ...