Governance, Regulation & Compliance

Egypt's President El-Sisi may have made his job a lot tougher by branding the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group.

We sat down with Fergus McCormick, head of sovereign ratings at DBRS, to discuss the rating agency’s outlook for global markets, sovereign ratings and how the firm differs from its competitors.
 

MILESTONES: EUROPE
The ECB grows up as it takes on bank supervisory powers.
 

COVER STORY: CRYPTOCURRENCIES
Still in their infancy, cryptocurrencies could change the way that companies manage payments for the goods and services that are the essence of global trade. As the bitcoin surge picks up momentum, corporate financial executives are wondering what it means for their business and how they can manage the risk of adopting—or not adopting—digital currencies.

Upcoming stress tests for Europe’s 124 largest banks will have more credibility than they had previously, but some analysts argue that banks may need far more capital than regulators demand to withstand a crisis. And any hoped-for international standardization in terms of stress testing is out the window as there is little comparability between the upcoming European and recently completed US bank tests.

RISK MANAGEMENT: ENVIRONMENTAL INSURANCE
The threat of corporate environmental liability incidents is increasing as new regulations—and new risks—take hold.

FRONTIER MARKETS REPORT: KUWAIT
Kuwaiti legislature has cut red tape and is offering more inducements for FDI. But is the rest of the regime on board?

NBCUniversal is the latest in a long line of companies looking to take advantage of business process outsourcing for some of its finance functions.

Election Coverage: “Good days are here,” tweeted prime minister-designate Narendra Modi after he led the right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party to a landslide victory last Friday in India’s bitterly fought parliamentary elections.

Do you remember the 2007-2008 financial crisis? Its daunting impact on the world economy is finally fading away and the US Federal Reserve Board is slowly moving to a less expansionary monetary policy, but the debate on its causes and, more important, on what is needed to prevent similar episodes from happening again is still very much alive.

Indeed, there are those who think that the IP wars will continue to have no clear resolution or winners.  The only real beneficiaries: lawyers.  But commentators such as Bruce Berman argue that unless and until we can quickly sort out the real issues in the IP imbroglio, almost everyone –even the patent trolls – will lose out. 

The fight has just begun, as newly enacted Fed rules start to cramp long-accepted operating styles of global banks. The banks are weighing what to do about it—as are global policymakers.

When, on March 18, longtime Canadian Finance minister Jim Flaherty unexpectedly announced his resignation, few were perhaps more surprised than his soon-to-be successor, Joe Oliver, the 73-year-old minister of Natural Resources.

Brazilian Finance minister Guido Mantega may be dealing with both internal and external headwinds, but he—and Brazil—are still standing.

Weird weather presents major problems for supply chains, and 77% of companies believe climate change has the potential to significantly affect their revenue.

NEWSMAKERS By Valentina Pasquali Headed by 39-year-old prime minister Matteo Renzi, Italy’s new government is the youngest in the country’s history. But at the helm of the ministry of Finance is an official with a lot of stripes—the former chief ...

Multinational corporations lobbied hard for preferential agreements under proposed Asian and European trade pacts. But the result may be more than they bargained for.

MILESTONES   By Luca Ventura   The oldest multinational in the world is about to get a substantial makeover. The news came on February 24th, when its CEO, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, also known as pope Francis, issued a Motu Proprio, ...

THE BIG, THE BAD AND THE SAFEST By Hilary Johnson At Global Finance ’s monthly Salon, Richard Bove, bank analyst at Rafferty Capital and author of the book, Guardians of Prosperity: Why America Needs Big Banks , spoke about overregulation ...

Corporate tax evasion is like the weather: Everyone complains about it, but what is being done and what does it mean for corporations?