Peter Lee

Recent stories by Peter Lee

• Asset management: Barclays disposes of a regulatory headache

  Selling BGI removes restrictions on Barclays Capital; The firm can now deal with US mutual and pension funds

  Euromoney July 2009

• Cooperative banking: Heemskerk blames the shareholder cult

  The retiring chairman of Rabobank urges a new model of bank ownership; The view from a survivor is that the worst may be to come

  Euromoney July 2009

• Bank capital: US banks capitalize on stress test results

  Banks moved quickly to sell equity last month; After reducing their underweight position, investors will get choosier

  Euromoney June 2009

• Barclays Capital builds European equities

  Big names have been recruited in ECM; They must help pay the bill for a secondary market presence

  Euromoney June 2009

• Belgium: Write-down puts KBC into loss

  Euromoney June 2009

• Barclays: The bank that lived

  Barclays was the bank that many expected to fail. Recapitalized, with its earnings power enhanced, safe from the clutches of the UK taxpayer, it may emerge as one of the big winners from the crisis. The bank’s leaders expect to build dominant positions in both retail and investment banking. What could still throw Varley, Diamond & Co off course?

  Euromoney June 2009

• Barclays keeps apologizing for saving the bank

  In the summer of 2008, following failed offerings from HBOS and RBS, the UK Treasury commissioned a Rights Issue Review Group consisting of bankers, investors and regulators, to examine the equity-capital-raising process in the UK and recommend ways to make it more efficient and orderly. John Varley, chief executive of Barclays, agreed to be one of its members. The irony would become apparent soon.

  Euromoney June 2009

• Barclays: Strong leaders must choose the right path

  Barclays found the discipline to walk away from the ABN Amro deal, the determination to grab Lehman and the smarts to take the tough decisions quickly with its new US business. The same hunger for growth courses through its retail and commercial bank. But bad assets are the cost to pay. Investors might wonder who is keeping things under control at Barclays. Peter Lee reports.

  Euromoney June 2009

• The Barclays era dawns

  Frits Seegers has a mission to turn Barclays into a global retail and commercial banking powerhouse.

  Euromoney June 2009

• Asset management: Fink puts BlackRock centre stage

  Larry Fink wants BlackRock to be one of the key names in finance for the future. Consolidation of investment managers – possibly including BGI – may achieve that goal. But his firm’s influence on the present is already great, as adviser of choice to banks and governments alike on problem assets totalling $7 trillion. Peter Lee reports.

  Euromoney June 2009

• Larry Fink: The pioneer who fought his way to the top

  Euromoney June 2009

• Barclays Capital builds European equities

  Big names have been recruited in ECM; They must help pay the bill for a secondary market presence

  Published June 2009 euromoney.com

• Insurance: AIU comes out fighting

  AIU, the rebranded general and commercial insurance division of AIG, tops every global category in Euromoney’s insurance poll. Holding on to customers and staff in the wake of AIG’s collapse into the arms of the US taxpayer has been a tough challenge. AIU chief executive Nicholas Walsh explains to Peter Lee the latest plans to create a separate identity for the division and an eventual IPO.

  Euromoney April 2009

• Winners and losers in the scramble for investment banking revenue

  There are significant changes at the top and lower down the first quarter 2009 investment banking revenue rankings.

  Published April 2009 euromoney.com

• Lazard sticks with its own advice

  With the business models of many of the largest financial firms destroyed by rapid deleveraging, it suddenly looks smart to be a purveyor of independent advice. The biggest, Lazard, finds corporations, governments and other banks desperate for help in repairing their balance sheets. Peter Lee reports.

  Euromoney April 2009

• Banks raise earnings expectations

  Last month executives of the world’s largest banks, alarmed at collapsing share prices, told everyone what a profitable start to 2009 they had enjoyed. By the end of the month, shares were rallying. Let’s hope that actual first-quarter 2009 earnings announcements don’t pour cold water on their hopes. Peter Lee reports.

  Euromoney April 2009

• Banks raise earnings expectations

  Last month executives of the world’s largest banks, alarmed at collapsing share prices, told everyone what a profitable start to 2009 they had enjoyed. By the end of the month, shares were rallying. Let’s hope that actual first-quarter 2009 earnings announcements don’t pour cold water on their hopes. Peter Lee reports.

  Published March 2009 euromoney.com

• Lazard sticks with its own advice

  With the business models of many of the largest financial firms destroyed by rapid deleveraging, it suddenly looks smart to be a purveyor of independent advice. The biggest, Lazard, finds corporations, governments and other banks desperate for help in repairing their balance sheets. Peter Lee reports.

  Published March 2009 euromoney.com

• Why Geithner's sleight of hand may just work

  His plans for a public-private investment programme, long in gestation, finally emerged with much hype obscuring a rather elegant simplicity.

  Published March 2009 euromoney.com

• Equities: Swedish banks show rights issues can still work

  Today few banks in Europe could raise equity capital from private sources. Governments are now the leading providers and will continue to be so for some time. But Swedish banks are hoping to complete a little flurry of conventional rights issue recapitalizations this month, in a reminder of how equity capital markets used to work in the days before banks in Europe resorted to taxpayers to cover their losses.

  Euromoney March 2009