South African banks’ sustainable finance challenges reflect the nation’s difficult but vital transition away from coal.

Emerging markets have regained some of the buoyancy lost during the early months of the coronavirus crisis, but analyst opinions hint at the difficulty of identifying which EM currencies investors should favour.

The BRICS economies, which between them represent 40% of the world population and 32% of its GDP, are a powerful force for the private banking industry as their economic engines drive wealth creation. But they are all distinct markets with their own unique opportunities and challenges.

The bank will open a new office in New York to capture the US market in Africa.

As part of Euromoney's 50th anniversary coverage, we profile some of the biggest names that we interviewed for our May Africa focus.

As the central bank awards its first new banking licences in 20 years, the big four will find it harder to justify the fees that have underpinned their profitability. The newcomers promise technology will facilitate cheaper banking services and tackle inequality.

The new presidents of Angola, South Africa and Zimbabwe could do better, but banks and investors will have plenty of due diligence to do when deciding whether or not and how to commit more resources to these countries.

With the election of Cyril Ramaphosa, there is a new sense of optimism in the country. Bankers talk of Ramaphoria and hail the first signs of a long-overdue improvement in the economy.

South Africa’s new deputy finance minister took a tough stance on corruption under former president Jacob Zuma – now Mondli Gungubele talks to Euromoney about the embarrassing Zuma years and the Ramaphosa government’s plans to turn the economy around.

The volume of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) FX business done electronically is growing, with the large South African banks in the vanguard.

South Africa’s reputation for insalubrious dealings under Zuma makes it fertile ground for maverick short-sellers.

A former social worker from middle England has suddenly become the biggest influencer in South Africa’s stock market. He called Steinhoff’s collapse correctly. In making banking sector star performer Capitec his next target, has Viceroy Research’s Fraser Perring got it right again? Or, as the bank’s leadership insist, is he a one-hit wonder?

Barclays’ exit from the continent shows how banks based in developed countries are either unable or unwilling to support growth in emerging markets. But for institutions with a focus on Africa, the departure of such international rivals makes banking in the region look even more attractive.

Barclays’ ownership has hobbled some of its biggest businesses in Africa. Now Maria Ramos, chief executive of the Johannesburg-listed successor company that makes up the bulk of Barclays Africa, tells Euromoney Africa about the challenges she faces in extricating Absa and the rest of the network from the London-based group.

It is not just corporations and states that have built up record debt levels: the indebtedness of the booming sub-sovereign market – especially among state-owned enterprises – can be difficult to see until something goes wrong. Should investors be spooked?

Angola

Political instability, falling commodity prices, central-bank policy uncertainties and conflict were the principal negative risk factors for investors to contemplate at the turn of the year, as China’s troubles were brought into focus by another round of financial volatility.

Incensed by their failure to reform, Brics policymakers have established a flawed rival to the World Bank and IMF. Rhetoric aside, the west dismisses emerging-market dissent over the broken financial architecture at its peril.

Want to invest in repackaged loans for low-cost black housing? Or the City of Johannesburg? South African telecommunications? The lifting of sanctions on South Africa could unleash a pent-up demand for funds totalling $3 billion to $4 billion a year or more.