March 2020

On February 25, a rather sheepish announcement from the UK’s FCA revealed that, in response to a freedom of information request last November, it had inadvertently made underlying confidential information accessible on its website.

March 2020

In June, Singapore’s regulator will hand licences to three new wholesale digital banks in a bid to better serve under-banked SMEs. Euromoney talks to Arival Bank, a fintech firm aiming to snag a licence and use it to fuel its global ambitions.

Retail banking has been disrupted. Now comes wholesale’s moment, as banks shift into a higher gear to meet the increasingly onerous demands of digitally connected corporates. Only the best and most adaptable firms are likely to survive.

Expo 2020 showcases economic and business opportunities in Dubai. Bankers hope it will lead to a boom in areas such as SME lending and infrastructure investment, but worry that a short-term lift will not be enough to dispel broader concerns about the country’s economy.

Despite MSCI index inclusion and a landmark trade by Saudi Aramco, global funds are still $70 billion underweight Gulf equities, but the UAE and Saudi are making progress in deepening markets.

The government’s response to the lack of financial inclusion is to build thousands of new banks throughout the country, but it faces a big challenge in weaning potential customers away from the black economy.

Recent years have been challenging for market doomsayers, with big equity markets steadily rising and volatility dampened across asset classes. The spread of the coronavirus and understandable fear of its impact has given a boost to professional controversialists.

Four years after Scotiabank last took its investor day on the road, the bank put on a show in Santiago in January to highlight the advances it has made in its international banking strategy.

Brazil’s changing macroeconomic environment is shaking up the investment industry – and there has been no bigger winner than XP Inc. In his first post-IPO interview with the international media, CEO Guilherme Benchimol explains the firm’s competitive edge over banks.

Freshly empowered European bank chairmen are making perplexing lurches as they search for new chief executives. A random CEO generator might help.

The cryptocurrency has surged in 2020, as investors worry that coronavirus-exposed equity and bond markets are set to crash.

Turkey’s strong private-sector banks are its biggest asset – undermining their profitability for short-term political gain will prove counterproductive.

It has taken the climate crisis to bring our collective focus onto the role of financing and the role of banks.

CLSA’s annual conference was one of Hong Kong’s great investor events, but its mantle is passing to Jefferies, whose inaugural Asia Forum will be held at the Hyatt – CLSA’s old stamping ground.

The big acquisition makes strategic sense as a bet on convergence between high net-worth financial advisory and self-directed trading, but M&A deals can founder on culture.

Taking the top job at UBS is a great move for ING chief Ralph Hamers, but it’s less obvious for UBS.

Intesa Sanpaolo’s €4.9 billion raid on UBI Banca could inspire similar deals, but it’s an eminently Italian takeover, not least due to the role of Alberto Nagel’s Mediobanca.

A few big banks in Germany, Switzerland and France pay the majority of the charges their central banks now levy on their reserves – Euromoney looks at which ones are worst affected and asks how they can manage the pain and maintain a conservative approach to liquidity and risk.

First central banks ignored cryptocurrencies, then they mocked them, next they fought them and now they are building their own. Before long central bank digital currencies will be in use, with possibly startling consequences. What will it mean for privacy and personal freedoms? And could the backstop to banking become the banking system itself?

Distressed buyers could face a labour of Hercules in establishing projected recoveries for Greece’s new NPL securitization scheme.

After turning French banking upside down, Compte Nickel is taking its tech-savvy approach to financial inclusion abroad. Insiders say its barebones account service will spread further and keep its dynamism under BNP Paribas ownership. But can a bank for outsiders with a physical network also be the fintech champion of Europe’s banking establishment?

JPMorgan doesn’t do things by halves; it has just moved almost everyone at the top of its investment bank and created what amounts to an internal boutique.

If Credit Suisse's board felt able to fire a chief executive who was not personally involved in spying, how will Barclays respond if its own CEO falls foul of a personal regulatory probe?

Christine Lagarde’s strategic review should usher in new targets and new tools at the European Central Bank, as the risks to growth rise and negative rates become counter-productive.

Woori Bank’s investment in Parasite has paid off handsomely, as punters around the world flock to see the first foreign language winner of best picture.

The bank says it remains committed to excellence, but its biggest pitch seems to be that it doesn’t feel the need to be the leader in everything it does any more. That may give it the flexibility it needs as it develops into new areas, but will it be enough to satisfy shareholders?

Across the UK, Legal & General has invested over £22 billion in affordable housing, homes for the homeless, clean energy, life sciences, creative industries, and technology and infrastructure. Is this the institutional-scale impact model we have been waiting for?

As the howls of anguish at negative interest rates reach a crescendo, central bankers and prominent economists are still convinced that Europe’s financial sector would be even worse off were base rates above zero. Banks are increasingly vocal in their opposition to the policy. Are they right to believe the systemic risks are growing? And could a move away from negative rates hurt banks more than if the ECB kept them?