October 2013
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LATEST ARTICLES
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Reverse repo to influence non-bank interest rates; money-market funds and GSEs swap cash for collateral.
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Is Bank of America on an upward trajectory? Am I the only person to notice that Bank of America’s economists were a lone voice insisting that the Federal Reserve would not taper in September? Nice call BAML!
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As September draws to a close, I am starting to wonder if I am living in a parallel universe. Ben Bernanke seems to have gone barmy. And I wouldn’t blame him. Saving the financial world from itself has been a Herculean task.
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And talking of Lehman’s bankruptcy, I was intrigued to read an opinion editorial in the Financial Times written by Bob Diamond, the former chief executive of Barclays Bank. Bob of course pounced on the corpse of Lehman Brothers as it was drowning and made off with a succulent limb: the US broker-dealer operations.
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Singapore matters. The city-state continues to blaze a trail for the region by shifting its growth model in favour of productivity, securing its presence at the top level of international financial diplomacy. Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Singapore’s finance minister – and Euromoney’s Finance Minister of the Year 2013 – outlines his reform agenda and issues a sharp warning on reform inertia in the region, China’s growth model and destabilizing capital flows.
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The IMF’s loss has been Mexico’s gain. Euromoney’s Central Bank Governor of the Year, Agustín Carstens, continues to keep a steady hand on the economy’s tiller, his orthodoxy mixed with pragmatism that is helping to propel the country forward. He remains outspoken about the need for reform at the IMF.
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Demand for sophisticated cash management services in China is rising as the authorities press for greater business efficiency at home and Chinese corporates expand their foreign operations. Renminbi liberalization is another driver.
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Sibos in Dubai was abuzz with a new spirit of confidence and collaboration among banks, but beneath the surface the battle to secure existing clients by doing more with them and to attract new ones is intensifying.
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The more exacting capital requirements of Basle III are prompting cash management banks to fine-tune their offerings.
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Local banks like to see themselves as uniquely suited to offering cash management services to Brazilian companies. But the global banks are also getting up to speed on idiosyncratic client requirements and local regulation.
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HSBC held off the challenge of Citi to hold on to top spot for both corporates and financial institutions in our 2013 rankings. Find out what almost 24,000 voters thought of cash managers in more than 50 countries.
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Forget about the Belgian dentists and German doctors of old. Today, Luxembourg’s streets are filling with Chinese bankers. They see the Grand Duchy as a hub for their European operations – not least for trading and settlement of the renminbi. Are London, Frankfurt and Paris in danger of being left behind?
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S-1 filed in secret; Market capitalization could be $16 billion
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State Islamizes banking sector; Potential impact on global sukuk market
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Act now, bankers advise; Weaker names to struggle
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Long-only buyers reassert influence; $62.8 billion issuance year-to-date.
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Institutional lenders target long-dated loans; Borrowers diversify away from dependence on banks
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S&P points to heightened operational risk; Nasdaq cushioned by diversification
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"The first person to hire me in the 1980s hired me to buy bonds for him because he simply couldn’t take the pain of doing it himself any more. He had been investing in bonds for 10 years and had never seen anything go up"
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Regulatory sanctions are coming thick and fast at JPMorgan, with a record $11 billion fine for mortgage-market abuses in late September drawing the most attention. But reports accompanying JPMorgan’s $920 million penalty for failures surrounding its $6.2 billion London Whale loss also shed new light on the distrust and paranoia within the bank.
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"The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it." Could these inspiring words from former Wall Street crook now motivational speaker Jordan Belfort persuade director Martin Scorsese to hurry up editing the first cut of his film of Belfort’s drug-fuelled rise and fall as head of boiler-room brokerage Stratton Oakmont? ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ had been slated to open in November – perfect timing for its star, Leonardo DiCaprio, playing Belfort, to make his run for the Oscar that has so far unaccountably eluded him.
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Focus on income tax and capital gains; Measures promised to reduce number of unbanked
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"The day one of the big oil companies first invoices China for oil in renminbis and receives payment in Chinese government bonds as result is what will really open people’s eyes"
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Big increase in regional private equity activity; particularly attractive metrics in Brazil.
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London should be wary of the Duchy’s ambitions to become Europe’s RMB hub.
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Members of the fourth estate are often not at their brightest early in the morning. However, when Euromoney found ourselves sitting in the foyer of a West End hotel last month awaiting a breakfast meeting with a US-based senior financier, even we suspected that something might be amiss.
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Short-term rates must rise; Equities to reverse 20-year underperformance
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High hopes for sweeping reform; Li says country is at crucial juncture
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Bank grows trade finance volumes; Expansion continues in emerging markets
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Funding more costly, but less so than expected; Colombia, BNDES and Mexico lead the way
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Issuer ‘comes of age’; creates first euro benchmark.
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Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s European headquarters in Luxembourg City is a prime piece of real estate.
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State approves $525 million capital raise; Move to longer-term, majority stakes
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Dell’s bumper LBO shows the high yield pendulum has swung back to loans as investors seek floating-rate exposure.
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Partnerships can enable global reach; Clients helping to drive this development
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The path to success in investment banking these days is pretty much preordained: top university, first-class degree, ball-breaking spell as an intern, some sort of post-grad qualification and no time for any outside interests.
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On September 3, Beijing announced a 3% tax on coal imports with low calorific value. Some market analysts are concerned that the tax might have a negative impact on Indonesian exports of thermal coal as the levy could remove any price advantages. Between January and July this year, Indonesia accounted for 97% of China’s lignite imports.
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The Greek economy has been more than the sick man of Europe; it has been a standing joke. But the discipline imposed by membership of the EU has forced the necessary adjustment and the future is beginning to look brighter.
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The Fed’s U-turn on tapering and the likely shakiness of any coalition Merkel builds in Germany both add uncertainty to investor sentiment.
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Comb back through reports and analysis filed by sell-side analysts in the run-up to the Federal Open Market Committee meeting on September 18 and you’ll struggle to find any predicting that the Federal Reserve would continue apace with monthly purchases of agency MBS and Treasury securities.
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After EU entry in July and despite five years of recession and a worrying local court ruling on foreign-currency mortgages, Croatian banks are in surprisingly good shape. The state even hopes to sell one of its biggest lenders.
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Competition in Asia between the three leading continental European banks in the region is finely balanced. With many similarities in their business structures, how are they defining their respective positions in a changing market?
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Charles Stewart pioneered Morgan Stanley’s presence in Brazil in the 1990s; now he is looking out from Latin America, spreading Itaú BBA’s message in Europe and beyond.
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As China’s appetite for commodities appears to be fading, demand for Indonesian coal could also fall, putting the export economy under stress. Mining company Adaro explains why the future is still bright.
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There has been widespread condemnation of the manipulation of Libor settings by employees of interdealer broker Icap, and rightly so. But the time has surely come for defenders of former Icap employee Colin Goodman, aka Cash Broker A, aka Lord Libor, aka Lord Bailiff, to step forward.
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The emerging world is doomed to capital-flow instability unless the Fed takes into account financial volatility in high-growth regions in its monetary policy, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, finance minister of Singapore, tells Euromoney. He also calls on the IMF to provide greater guidance on capital controls and for Asian policymakers to introduce market reforms, as the summer sell-off rekindles the debate about how to stabilize emerging financial systems.
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The agreement between Standard Chartered and Lloyds Bank to allow the latter to directly issue letters of credit locally in some 20 Asian markets and benefit from local currency settlement – using the emerging-market-focused bank’s infrastructure – has been touted as a win-win arrangement for both lenders. But the deal is not without its downsides.
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The collapse of Lehman Brothers was the best thing to happen to Barclays. Euromoney investigates.