October 2008
| Euromoney October 2008 Hank Paulson’s desperate attempts to keep the world financial system afloat show that, despite his many qualities, he is the wrong man for the job. Clive Horwood and Peter Lee report.
- The Sovietization of US finance… …and how to avoid it
The US government warned that failure to pass the Paulson plan into law would lead to disaster. In the worst-case outcome, that could mean wholesale nationalization of the finance industry. With Frannie and AIG, and a banking system that fails without dramatic Fed intervention, the Bush administration has already made a start. Peter Lee looks at alternative strategies that might prove sharper than Tarp.
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Euromoney October 2008
Mian Mansha owns one of the best banks in Asia but his ambitions reach much further. His empire incorporates insurance, cement, textiles, infrastructure and power generation. In his first-ever interview with the foreign media, he tells Elliot Wilson of his plans to list his holding company on the London Stock Exchange within the next two years, and expand across Asia into the Middle East, emerging Europe and beyond.
Euromoney October 2008
Having brushed with Indonesian politics, Gita Wirjawan knows how dirty it can be. Business development has more to offer his country, he reckons, hence his Indonesia-centric private equity business Ancora, which is attracting investors from the wider Muslim world. Eric Ellis reports.
Euromoney October 2008
Just a few months into the chief executive role at Westpac, Gail Kelly has bought out her former employer, St George Bank. A convinced advocate of the power of branding, Kelly has pledged that St George will retain its identity. Chris Wright spoke to Kelly about the prospects for the combined entity.
Euromoney October 2008
For so long seen as a banking backwater, cash management’s time has come. Revenues are high-margin, stable and growing. Products such as liquidity management will only grow in importance. And, with the huge client bases involved for the biggest players, it’s a gateway into a lot of other business. Laurence Neville reports.
Euromoney October 2008
Surely it was high time Lloyds TSB made a life-changing acquisition? Surely it had the balance sheet to do so? And surely assets were available at a never-to-be-repeated price? Philip Moore put these questions to Lloyds’ finance director less than a month before its shotgun wedding with HBOS. It’s clear that making a transformational deal for the UK bank was only a matter of time.
Euromoney October 2008
The Spanish central bank prevented its financial institutions from investing heavily in the US sub-prime related securities. But Spain’s mid-tier banks are heavily exposed to a local property sector in crisis. Can they ride out the downturn? Peter Koh reports.
Euromoney October 2008
Greek banks’ share prices plummeted in 2008 – even before Lehman collapsed. Despite this, as well as higher inflation, slower economic growth and more taxes, they have ploughed on with ambitious regional expansion plans. Can Greek banks defy the global financial crisis? Dominic O’Neill reports from Athens.
Euromoney October 2008
At the beginning of 2007, Euromoney wrote that the retail lending boom in the Balkans was putting pressure on the region’s banking systems and that cooperation between banks and authorities was vital. But as the world’s economic downturn pushes into southeastern Europe, that warning might be going unheeded. Jethro Wookey reports.
Euromoney October 2008
Even Kazakh bank employees are joining investors in a flight to quality away from the sector. BTA Bank and Kazkommertzbank are overwhelmed by foreign debt too eagerly lent out at home and only Halyk is in good shape. Although there are still a few potential foreign buyers nosing around Kazakh financial assets, Raiffeisen for one has decided that its ambitions in the country will be best fulfilled through a greenfield operation. Elliot Wilson reports.
Euromoney October 2008
Longevity risk is a continuing, ever changing problem for pension schemes, determining the assets they have to deploy to cover their liabilities. Seven specialists look at how risk is identified and the different techniques and products available to cope with it.
Euromoney October 2008
The CDS market is trying to withstand the strain of three almost simultaneous counterparty defaults.
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
As the financial turmoil claims its latest victims, holders of covered bonds see the strength of their investments.
Euromoney October 2008
The financial crisis has finally taken its toll on the money markets.
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Exchanges try to steal a march on their rivals.
Euromoney October 2008
Funds seek alternative methods to sell options.
Euromoney October 2008
Insurers troubles spill over causing retail panic.
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Despite initial fears, the foreign exchange market appears to have handled Lehman Brothers’ collapse into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection remarkably well. According to Rob Close, chief executive of CLS Bank, which settles the bulk of the market’s transactions, few deals that had Lehman as a counterparty were rescinded.
Euromoney October 2008
The relaunch of FX futures by Ice finally provides the CME with some proper competition.
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Market share expected to be more evenly spread.
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Fund suggests some European financials are an opportunity.
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Broadly, hedge funds began to feel the full effects of market turmoil in the second half of 2008, although pockets of outperformance persist. Neil Wilson identifies the strategies likely to do best in a transformed market.
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Is the new Nomura a threat to the dominant investment banks in the Asia-Pacific region?
Euromoney October 2008
One of the curiosities of the financial meltdown has been the conspicuous absence of China’s leading commercial banks and brokerages in picking up bargains from the wreckage.
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
President of Panama’s Bolsa de Valores expects new exchange to be created next year.
Euromoney October 2008
International market access not yet certain.
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Is the new Nomura a threat to the dominant investment banks in the Asia-Pacific region?
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
The rapid and decisive intervention of European national authorities to prop up vulnerable banks might well limit the extent of European banks’ funding problems.
Euromoney October 2008
UniCredit is one of the world’s biggest financial groups but concerns over its capital base have made it vulnerable to panic-stricken investors.
Euromoney October 2008
Rightly or wrongly, credit derivatives will pay the price for failings across the entire credit market.
Euromoney October 2008
The US bank (and it will take a while to get used to calling it such) stays one step ahead of the pack through successful capital raisings.
Euromoney October 2008
Proposals to make a settlement with hold-outs to Argentina’s defaulted bonds could raise the country much-needed funds.
Euromoney October 2008
The outcry against and restrictions on short-selling of financials stocks were unjustified and ill-advised and will have a deleterious impact.
Euromoney October 2008
Investors who bought into the bank hybrid argument are unlikely to do so again in a hurry.
Euromoney October 2008
Indian bank suffers from loss of confidence as crisis spreads beyond the US and Europe.
Euromoney October 2008
Have the big Japanese banks been over-cautious about buying stakes in troubled western peers?
Euromoney October 2008
African borrowers and international lenders need to be judicious in their approach to funding on the back of new energy discoveries.
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
The US economy is far more resilient than some commentators think. The present crisis also creates an opportunity for the Treasury to help itself and many pension funds.
Euromoney October 2008
Short of a radical restructuring of the banking sector, the US government bailout will prompt a market rally. However the longer-term effects will be deleterious.
Euromoney October 2008
Bank failures used to be massive news. But with so many cropping up these days they have, like world records at the Beijing Olympics, lost something of their shock value. How then to judge which have made the biggest waves?
Euromoney October 2008
The failure of the US House of Representatives to pass the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 at its first reading on September 29 came despite the entreaties of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association to its members to call their congressmen before noon that day to explain to them why the legislation must pass.
Euromoney October 2008
On September 29 the Dow Jones Industrial Average experienced its most severe one-day decline in history. Of the S&P index’s 500 names, just one enjoyed a share price rise:
Euromoney October 2008
The flamboyant stage presence and forthright views of Kotaro Tamura are becoming something of an annual highlight at Euromoney’s Japan Capital Markets Congress, and this year the LDP senator in charge of the sovereign wealth fund committee surpassed himself during an onstage interview that at times reduced a packed auditorium to helpless, if somewhat nervous, laughter.
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008
Euromoney October 2008