September 2016

By aping technology firms, banks that simplify solutions and focus upon the customer experience will be the ones that survive.

Regional Report: Central & Eastern Europe
Despite a host of challenges, Europe’s formerly communist countries are poised for strong, steady growth.

Spain | Solid fundamentals and steady structural reform could be undercut by political chaos and global market turbulence.

Frontier Markets Report: Cuba
Obstacles and contradictions mar Cuba’s environment for foreign direct investment, but its market offers a wealth of opportunity.

Tayfun Küçük, chief technology officer at Odeabank, tells Global Finance the bank will focus on mobile as a key channel for customer acquisition.

A new award from Global Finance recognizes banks with outstanding service and practice, but not necessarily the biggest balance sheets.

Serhat Yıldırım, senior vice president of digital banking at Akbank, talks about mobile banking advances in Turkey.

Garvan Callan, director of customer, digital and innovation at Bank of Ireland, talks with Global Finance about the bank’s digital offerings.

The first-round winners of the 17th Global Finance Best Digital Bank Awards reveal the strategic importance that both corporate/institutional and consumer banks place on digital banking.

Jeff Marshall, head of the digital factory at Scotiabank, talks about the dramatic change in how customers interact with banks.

Clement Naples, partner at Latham and Watkins, a global law firm specializing in intellectual property, visited Global Finance to talk trends in patent litigation, valuations and the role of IP in investment decisions. 

Egypt | Its IMF loan could ease investor concerns and end its foreign exchange shortage.

Ireland | Ireland has been a eurozone growth powerhouse in recent years, and remains strong, despite Brexit. 

Singapore | The Monetary Authority of Singapore is establishing a new team to bolster monitoring of financial institutions and enforcement of rules against money laundering.  

Europe | Foreign direct investment (FDI) into Europe hit a record high in 2015 with 5,083 new cross-border projects, an increase of 14% from 2014, creating approximately 218,000 new jobs

Turkey | It’s way too early to determine the long-term cost to Turkish democracy and society of July’s failed coup, and it is equally tricky to assess its immediate impact on Turkish investment and business.

India | The Indian parliament’s adoption of a constitutional amendment bill has paved the way for the biggest tax reform in the $2 trillion economy’s history, as Narendra Modi’s  government prepares to usher in a dramatic change in the tax regime: a single goods and services tax (GST) that subsumes all central, state and local levies.

Mexico | Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim is advocating a massive shift to a three-day workweek, particularly for older employees. 

Japan | Elected Tokyo’s first female governor, Yuriko Koike has made history in Japan. She ran as an independent in defiance of her party—the ruling Liberal Democratic Party—which supported the lesser-known Hiroya Masuda. Koike, 64 years old and a veteran politician, hopes to bring the city’s financial center back to its former glory.

Indonesia | Can the much-admired former Finance Minister of Indonesia, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, bring back the magic in her second tour in the post? 

US | Wal-Mart’s decision to buy Jet.com, a fast-growing e-commerce company, for $3.3 billion is being viewed as a shrewd move for both companies—one that strengthens their ability to compete with Amazon. 

LOCATION TRENDS | Technology allows all sorts of work to be done anywhere. Many companies are taking advantage of this power to "nearshore" European operations from pricey major capitals to lower-cost locales.  

BREXIT FALLOUT  | Britain’s vote to leave the European Union sent shock waves through global capital markets, but the increased volatility lifted trading revenue at big global banks and created a significant number of winners alongside the losers.

SECURITY | Cybersecurity forecasts predict more and stronger attacks on corporate and bank technology systems. One treatment: Inoculate by intentionally attacking your own system to find weaknesses before hackers do. 

INDIA | Introduced just a year ago, “green” masala bonds—offshore rupee-denominated bonds to fund private-sector investment addressing climate change—are hot.

HUMAN RESOURCES | Performance appraisals drive everyone nuts, but many US companies are doing them more often. 

CREDIT LINE | On a visit to Argentina in August, Citi CEO Michael Corbat met with the country’s pro-market president, Mauricio Macri, and announced a $3.5 billion line of credit for the bank’s 1,300 corporate and institutional clients in the country.

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS | Verizon's purchase of Yahoo assets will help it build the strength it needs to compete with other telecomm/tech giants. 

Hedging Strategies | Billion-dollar fuel-hedging losses offer a counterintuitive lesson for corporates.