If Olam Agri’s planned dual-listing IPO goes ahead in June it will have a bit of everything: a Singapore-Saudi listing, geopolitics and sovereign funds jostling to defend their nations against strain in global food security.

JPMorgan has cleaned up in a deal that sees the regulators waive their own cap on 10% deposit ownership.

Pouncing on a firm with lots of corporate broking relationships at the low point for IPOs is a smart trade.

Proceeds raised in the first three months of this year were 99% lower than the amount raised at the start of 2021.

The Credit Suisse deal may have merely accelerated Hamers’ anticipated departure.

The failure of venture capital’s favourite bank is bad news for a sector reliant on new injections of cheap capital to sustain loss-making growth.

First Abu Dhabi Bank’s recent interest in a bid for Standard Chartered and an ill-fated investment in Credit Suisse by Saudi National Bank have put the spotlight on Middle East banks as potential acquirers of international firms.

It has been over a decade and a half since a Chinese financial institution bought or invested in a Western counterpart. Beijing sees the West’s banking system as incomprehensibly chaotic and messy, and its own – albeit flawed – as a bastion of stability.

Recent events call into question most of the core assumptions behind the rules designed to keep banks safe through a liquidity squeeze.

UBS’s integration of Credit Suisse will be a long and uncertain process, but keeping the latter’s Swiss universal bank may mean the deal eventually comes good.

Bankers have been at pains to stress how different the world is today from the dark days of 2008: higher capital; more liquidity; lower credit risk and all that. But while individual banks may be safer than they were, collectively they arguably now face a worse existential crisis. Societies face awkward questions about how they value the utility of the banking sector – and how they should pay for it.

HSBC runs towards the storm as others are fleeing it.

The EU green bond standard is understandably broad. But because of this, the limits between sustainable and transition finance remain unclear.

Don’t expect a flood of IPOs, but there are still placements across Asia Pacific.

A month ago, First Abu Dhabi Bank said it had looked at Standard Chartered but decided against a bid. Now, it is believed to have changed its mind. What has changed?

Some issuers are grabbing the opportunities offered by a new capital markets year. Others would do well to face reality sooner rather than later.

Will 2023 be Brazil’s year – or Mexico’s?

It seems difficult to convince investors that higher bank profits are sustainable.

Can the early volumes be sustained through the year?

Asset managers are spooked by mandatory disclosure regulations coming into force in January. This is good news for the anti-greenwashing campaign, not so much for biodiversity lovers.

On December 1, EU member states agreed on a general approach for the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. The final text shields banks from their full responsibility to prevent environmental harm, thanks in part to France’s post-Brexit ambitions.

The first nine months of 2022 have seen investment banking revenues plummet globally.

The World Cup is set to kick off in Doha on November 20 against the backdrop of recession, war, inflation and rising interest rates elsewhere.

Asia’s central banks have fought hard to protect the value of their currencies this year as the dollar has soared. But each of them has a limit to their appetite for that defence.

China, the US, Australia and Japan are all conducting a curious courtship with Pacific nations, hoping to build trade relationships, climate resilience and security agreements.

For one, it brings power to its digital operations, for the other a much-needed injection of funds. But it doesn’t change a grim operating environment.

Clearing up after the government’s mess will only provide a short break in the repricing of UK risk.

China has in the past felt compelled to accept the terms of IMF programmes in struggling nations without due consideration of its own views.

The pandemic and the war in Ukraine have brutally exposed the fragility of global supply chains.

As the world’s biggest investment banks prepare to report third-quarter earnings in October, the signals are bad across the board.