Global Banking

WORLD’S BEST DEVELOPED MARKETS BANKS 2008 BEST DEVELOPED MARKETS BANKS Global Finance unveils its annual list of the best banks in developed markets around the world.     The past year has been one of the most tumultuous in recent ...

SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS Sovereign wealth funds snap up bargains in one of the biggest financial industry land grabs in history.   Bader Al Sa'ad, head of Kuwait's SWF, helped arrange a huge cash infusion for Citi. To say Citi and ...

ANNUAL SURVEY/ TREASURY & CASH MANAGEMENT Global Finance selects the best treasury and cash management banks, globally and by region, and the best providers of treasury management systems and services by category. The past year has seen the challenges facing ...

BRAZIL BANKING & FINANCE Local banks’ stranglehold on the Brazilian market is coming under threat from acquisition-hungry international banks and investors.   Brazilian central bank governor Henrique Meirelles's steady hand has helped instill growing confidence in prospects for the country's ...

SECTOR REPORT / GLOBAL CUSTODY As their clients seek ever-greater returns on their investments, global custodians are finding themselves having to expand into some unfamiliar territory.     Consolidation has been a recurring theme in custody for more than a ...

ANNUAL SURVEY/ BEST TRADE FINANCE BANKS Trade finance banks are providing ever-more diverse and innovative services as world trade continues to expand.         On January 1, 2008, the multilateral trading system reached its 60th anniversary. Any celebrating ...

  China International and domestic banks are spreading the net ever wider in their efforts to bring financial services to China’s increasingly wealthy population.     China has outdone itself. The country’s economy grew by 11.5% in the first three ...

ANNUAL SURVEY/ BEST FX BANKS         The 54 central banks and monetary authorities that took a measure of the foreign exchange market last year under the auspices of the Bank for International Settlements discovered an unprecedented rise ...

CENTRAL BANKERS PERSPECTIVES     Central bankers deserve much of the credit for the financial world’s ability to ride out tumultuous market conditions. Global Finance asked the central bankers who were awarded “A” grades in our recent central banker report ...

A NEW DAWN     “O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world That has such people in’t!” —William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Act V, Scene I.       From the ...

SINGLE GLOBAL CURRENCY       The success of the euro has fueled interest in a plan for global monetary union that could end currency crises and boost world trade.       For decades there has been a groundswell ...

WORLD'S BEST INTERNET BANKS     In the second of a two-part series, Global Finance identifies the best corporate/institutional and consumer Internet banks globally and in six regions.       The best banks on the Internet have long treated ...

ANNIVERSARY TIMELINE     OCTOBER 19, 1987: STOCK MARKET CRASH The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) falls 508 points, or 22.6%, in the steepest decline since 1929. Portfolio insurance and computerized trading takes some of the blame for what ranks ...

ANNUAL SURVEY / BEST DERIVATIVES PROVIDERS     The fourth annual Global Finance awards for the World’s Best Derivatives Providers comes at a time when derivatives are in the mainstream news as never before. The US subprime mortgage crisis has ...

ISLAMIC INVESTMENT BANKING Investor demand, banks’ creativity and deep pools of liquidity in the Middle East are driving strong growth in the development of Islamic investment banking products.     Hassoune:“Investors and entrepreneurs must  hare the risks and rewards of ...

FOCUS / TERRORISM FUNDING     Legislation aimed at cracking down on funding for terrorists is having some damaging side effects for banks and businesses. Kochan: It may be a fallacy that banks can anticipate terrorist financing. Following the attacks ...

ANNUAL SURVEY / WORLD’S BEST BANKS At a time when the world economic outlook is more uncertain than it has been in years, the banking industry finds itself at the vortex of a financial market storm that originated in subprime ...

  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. Images of customers queuing to withdraw their savings from Britain’s Northern Rock ...

ANNUAL SURVEY / CENTRAL BANKER REPORT CARDS Individually, many of the world’s leading central bankers seemed to be in disarray after the subprime debacle began to unfold in mid-2007. As a group, though, they acted with remarkably unity. The central ...

REGIONAL REPORT / NORDIC BANKING As Nordic banks look further outside their home markets for growth, the rewards—and also the risks—are increasing. Over the past few years, banks in the Nordic region have benefited from highly favorable economic conditions across ...