Western Europe

Trends | FX Commodities Q&A
Petr Grishin, head of macro research and chief economist for Eastern Europe at VTB Capital, discussed the ruble, oil prices and Russian trade with Global Finance.

United Kingdom | Many questions are still being asked about David Cameron’s dramatic win on May 7. How did opinion polls, which predicted a tight race between  Conservatives and Labour and even a Labour win, get it so wrong?

Country Report | Spain
The era of absolute majorities in Spanish politics is over.

Country Report | Spain
Spain’s economic resurgence has exceeded even the most optimistic expectations. But how sustainable is it, given structural inefficiencies, stubbornly high unemployment and the threat of external shocks?

Milestones | United Kingdom
As Britons prepare for elections on May 7, the only certainty appears to be uncertainty, which looks set to continue until polling day—and maybe for some time after.

Milestones | France
The French government temporarily increased its stake in French carmaker Renault to nearly 20% ahead of the company’s annual general meeting in April.

Capital Markets | Equity Capital Raising
Eureeca, the first global equity crowdfunding company, with offices in London and Dubai, received regulatory approval from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority to operate in Britain.

Banking | Europe
In its first round of QE, the ECB said that the bonds of only seven European financial institutions were eligible—until further revision, which won’t happen until at least April 15.

Newsmakers | United Kingdom
The appointment of Bill Winters to replace Peter Sands as CEO of Standard Chartered has been universally welcomed, as the troubled bank saw profits fall by 30% last year compared with 2013 levels.

Milestones | Cyprus
The enormous economic challenges faced by Greece have overshadowed a different kind of drama elsewhere in the Mediterranean.

Newsmakers | Switzerland
Swiss giant Credit Suisse stepped out of the industry’s traditional talent pool in March when it hired Tidjane Thiam as chief executive.

with Jan Rasmussen, Nordea Markets

Banking | United Kingdom
In its 2014 annual report published in February, RBS announced that CIB, which includes global transaction services, will reduce its geographical footprint from 38 to 13 countries.

Banking | Portugal/Angola
A tug of war is developing over Portugal’s fourth-largest lender, Banco BPI, between its two largest shareholders.

Milestones | Greece
On March 3, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development approved a request from Athens to invest directly in Greece.

Royal Bank Of Scotland plans to vastly scale back its Transaction Services business. It is a further sign of the challenging times faced by global transaction banks.

Trends | Global Banking
On the surface at least, Spain’s Banco Santander and Cloud storage providers do not appear to have much in common.

Capital Markets | Equity Capital Raising
Burgundy vineyard Domaine Chanzy expects to be the first company to conduct an initial public offering using crowdfunding, which enables companies to raise money from members of the public, typically via the Internet.
 

McDonalds appointment of British-born Steve Easterbrook as its new CEO has both surprised and delighted analysts—concerned by the burger behemoth’s first annual decline in 30 years.

Milestones | European Union
Regulators had Web giants like Google and Apple in their sites when they framed a new value-added tax (VAT) regulation for businesses selling digital products into the European Union