Global news and insight for corporate financial professionals
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES By Udayan Gupta The world’s central banks are on a desperate mission to stave off deflation. But even if their short-term fixes work, the long-term outcomes may have unplanned results. Central banks are in an ...
NEWSMAKERS: ITALY By Gilly Wright “Italy is dying from austerity alone. Growth policies cannot wait,” announced Italy’s new premier, Enrico Letta, in his first keynote speech. Can Letta pass reforms with weak coalition partners? Saying that priorities would ...
WAITING FOR THE RENAISSANCE By Gordon Platt Egypt’s elections promised much in terms of building a modern and democratic state. But the realities of governing for the Muslim Brotherhood are proving more difficult than initially thought—and some economic ...
MILESTONES: LUXEMBOURG By Forrest Jones Another tax haven is set to unveil its operations, this time in Western Europe. Luxembourg recently agreed to share confidential banking details belonging to multinational companies with its neighbors. The move, which will help ...
NEWSMAKERS: SPAIN By Luca Ventura Appointed as chief executive of Santander in 2002, Alfredo Sáenz took less than a decade to turn the Spanish domestic lender into a multinational giant with operations in 40 countries. New CEO Marín kept a ...
NEWSMAKERS: CANADA By Joel Kranc Few people were completely surprised when Mark Carney, the head of the Bank of Canada, broke the news earlier this year that he was leaving his post to head up the Bank of England. ...
NEWSMAKERS: ICELAND By Valentina Pasquali Back to the future is the theme in Iceland after voters rejected the austerity policies of the left-of-center government in power for the past four years and reinstalled the same center-right coalition that presided over ...
We live in a world of quantitative easing and short-term interest rates close to zero; a world where central banks have recently taken on a new role, becoming the most active institutional investors in the world...
ODD MAN OUT By Dan Keeler One of the few frontier markets to adopt the euro, Estonia has proved to be a beacon of hope in a region of uncertainty. Estonia is on a healthy trajectory. Economic ...
MILESTONES: MALAYSIA By Thomas Clouse Malaysia’s National Front coalition will extend its 56-year reign by another five years after maintaining its parliamentary majority in a tightly contested and controversial election. The National Front, a group of political parties led ...
NEWSMAKERS: VENEZUELA By Paula L. Green Everyone from consumers weary of battling rising inflation to importers wrestling with a devalued currency and foreign and domestic investors whose companies were nationalized will have a stake in the actions Nelson José Merentes ...
MILESTONES: ITALY By Valentina Pasquali The general elections held in Italy in February yielded a hung parliament, marked the phenomenal rise of the little-understood protest movement of former comedian Beppe Grillo, and unexpectedly revived the flagging political career of former ...
MILESTONES: EUROPE By Anita Hawser Billed as a major blow to the UK’s status as a global financial services hub, the European Parliament and council sent a clear message in February about bank bonuses, reaching an agreement that bankers’ bonuses ...
MILESTONES: US By Forrest Jones Should the US Securities and Exchange Commission want to slap civil penalties on anyone involved in any improprieties, it had better get cracking sooner rather than later. SEC told to speed up claims against ...
NEWSMAKER： US By Valentina Pasquali Though still bearing the scars of the recent financial crisis, the US economy is recovering, and markets are returning to levels unseen in years. White is reputed to be a tough enforcer Photo Credits: ...
WAGE GAP CLOSES AS GOVERNMENT EMBARKS ON SOCIAL REFORMS By Thomas Clouse China announced plans last month to reduce its wealth distribution gap through a series of measures—such as raising minimum wages, loosening lending and deposit rates and increasing ...
MILESTONE: SPAIN By Forrest Jones Spain wants to make life a little easier for its business sector. Recently, Madrid drafted legislation to make it simpler for companies to conduct business in different autonomous regions within the country ...
MILESTONES: UK By Anita Hawser After four years under a shadow, the UK’s Financial Services Authority is once again being held up as a model financial regulator — both for its principles-based approach to reporting and for its ability to ...
NEWSMAKERS: POLAND By Justin Keay Poland’s central bank governor, Marek Belka, marked the start of the New Year with an interview to a leading business newspaper in which he claimed Poland had experienced “the perfect slowdown” rather than the slump ...
NEWSMAKERS：US By Valentina Pasquali With high-stakes negotiations with Congress under way, US president Barack Obama is bringing in a new treasury secretary. Lew: An experienced political negotiator Jacob Lew, 57, was the White House’s chief of ...