Governance, Regulation & Compliance

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?

UniCredit Holding, Milan The write-offs taken in early March by UniCredit may fall well short of what Italy’s largest bank needs to do to satisfy the European Central Bank before it takes over supervision of UniCredit and other EU members’ ...

Given the spate of recent fines by UK and US regulators against banks for failure to comply with anti-money laundering regulations, it’s worth exploring the question of why the banks keep coming up short. The most recent headline was the ...

NEWSMAKERS By Forrest Jones Alberto Arenas returns to government as Finance minister with some big plans for a country looking to enact education, labor and other reforms. A budget director during Chilean president Michelle Bachelet’s first term in office from ...

MILESTONES By Ronald Fink Fiat-Chrysler’s move from Italy to London, and the plans of other multinationals to relocate to the United Kingdom, cements the UK’s newfound international tax status. The car manufacturer’s recent decision to shift its tax domicile from ...

PROPRIETARY TRADING By Michael Shari Corporate clients of investment banks around the world could see a dramatic impact from the Volcker Rule, Basel III and other new rules against bank proprietary trading. Like his counterparts at many large and small ...

MILESTONES By Forrest Jones Few things polarize policymakers like free-trade agreements, especially the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) linking the United States, Canada and Mexico. Critics of the agreement feared it meant jobs and industries would relocate to underdeveloped ...

Tax officials perplexed by Google (Photo: CoolCaesar) If 2013 was the year public opinion turned solidly against the tax avoidance strategies of large technology companies, 2014 promises to be the year lawmakers actually address the schemes. In late December, Italy ...

Bernanke: The Visible Hand For Ben Bernanke, a rocky eight-year tenure as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board is ending on a good note. The U.S. economy, teetering on the brink in the wake of the financial crisis that erupted ...

Ryanair: Attitude Adjustment When EasyJet in November reported a pre-tax profit of £478 million (US$785 million) for fiscal 2013—a 51% jump from the previous year—it caused a considerable flap with the shareholders of rival budget airline Ryanair. The stockholders’ vexation ...

Batista: An SOS at OSX (Photo: Juliana Coutinho) When they fall, they fall hard. The past few months have brought only bad news to embattled former billionaire Eike Batista—known simply to most Brazilians as Eike—and his once-formidable EBX Group conglomerate. ...

The prospect of US Fed “tapering” is still taking its toll on Indonesia and India, as both nations face mounting deficits and international pressure for structural reform. 

North Korea has taken modest steps in recent weeks to liberalize its economy by introducing new special economic zones (SEZs), loosening currency exchange restrictions and strengthening foreign trade relationships.

Doing Business: Who Improved The Most In 2012/13 “In 2012/13, 29 economies implemented three or more reforms improving their business regulatory systems as measured by Doing Business. Ten stand out as having narrowed the distance to frontier the most. Together, ...

When Apple announced back in October that it had hired Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts to lead its retail operations, the initial shock among analysts and investors wore off quickly. Though it was a surprise move, it made perfect sense.

As African countries increasingly appear on investors’ radars, the world’s newest country, South Sudan, is forging ahead with its drive to attract foreign investment.

The Reserve Bank of India wants foreign banks operating in India to convert into wholly-owned subsidiaries and enjoy “near-national” treatment.