December 2016

The outside world is still happy to see the market-based reforms in Argentina through rose-tinted glasses, but the country’s banks are battling a poor economy and tough regulatory challenges. Banco Galicia’s chairman, Sergio Grinenco, has a pragmatic view of the outlook for Argentina’s banks.

When the history of banking in communist Cuba is written, Dave Seleski, head of Florida-based Stonegate Bank, may well be hailed as a leader who triumphed against the odds.

Of all the cities lining up to poach London’s business post-Brexit, Vilnius might seem the most unlikely. Yet the Lithuanian capital has much to offer financial firms, from liveability and local talent to cutting-edge fintech regulation. Euromoney visits a small city with big ambitions.

Outbound M&A from China has been one of the big themes in global investment banking over the past few years, much of it driven by the need to reform China’s state-owned enterprises. But it is tricky work, subject to forces beyond an adviser’s control, and only some of it is lucrative. No wonder bankers, and many selling companies, are re-evaluating whether a Chinese buyer is unequivocally a good thing.

With deal volumes weak across most of Asia, South Korea’s latest round of chaebol reform – some by choice, some by necessity – is welcome news for M&A bankers. There is plenty to do, but none of it simple, and not always lucrative.

There is now just over a year until the new Mifid II regulations covering research procurement come into effect in January 2018. The market still has a mountain to climb if that deadline is to be met.