Western Europe

Any bank with a gross NPL ratio of 27.5% has a problem – Italy’s Banca Carige can’t avoid insolvency unless it comes up with a radical solution, fast.

To bring about fundamental change and to find long-lasting solutions, isn’t always pretty and it is certainly not always a win-win in the financial sense.

The successor to Mario Draghi as president of the European Central Bank (ECB) may provide more support than expected to corporate credit markets if borrowing conditions deteriorate.

As Mario Draghi begins his victory lap before stepping down as president of the ECB in October 2019 and his colleagues get down to the serious business of competing for the succession, they will no doubt give thanks that they do not face trial by Twitter in the same way as Federal Reserve chairman Jay Powell.

Resignations of directors after shareholders failed to approve a capital increase prompt an early intervention

UK corporate broking is the business that won’t die. There is no requirement for it outside the smallest listed firms, and corporates the world over manage without it. Yet UK companies almost always want the reassurance it provides. Is it finally under threat?

European capital markets bankers’ fortunes in 2019 will turn on how quickly the withdrawal of the central bank bid can be offset by the return of a real market.

By under-investing the vast funds raised at big expense to their end clients and then delivering shrinking returns, private equity sponsors are prompting customers to demand new approaches.

Investors continue to shy away from currency-hedged ETFs despite their positive short- and medium-term performance.

Judge throws out claim in English court; lender on track for first full-year profit since nationalization.

Frequent issuers on both sides of the Atlantic are exploring new ways to concentrate their high-quality liabilities into fewer more-liquid bonds to avoid paying a premium as markets sell off.

Financial Conduct Authority lady sings the blues as RBS's GRG reality revealed.

Chance of Société Générale merger remote, but bigger European banks to emerge in ‘medium term’.

The damage done to mid-cap equities coverage by unbundling research is ever harder to ignore. It will not be easy to lower this self-imposed barrier to improved capital-markets access for fast-growing businesses in Europe.

The utility’s sustainability performance will partly determine the cost of servicing its new bank credit line, with any savings going to charity.

European banks are investing in and using the tools of an AI startup applying deep learning to syndicated loans, asset management and, soon to come, primary bond markets.

Lay-offs part of 'disciplined' strategy targeting growth in UK and US.

Banks in the eurozone periphery have need, and some justification, for a new targeted LTRO.

UniCredit’s €3 billion deal is a harsh demonstration of market dynamics.

Italian banks and the government at risk of failure within 12 months; signs of a more reconciliatory attitude to the EU.

Technology companies are looking to create digital workers to help banks build leaner operations – but human workers have nothing to fear.

The role of quantitative traders in the FX market is becoming ever more significant, as the amount of business executed via algorithms continues to increase.

The amount of dry powder that private equity firms now have means they are sometimes putting even more than 50% equity into deals – it’s a huge cushion that is contributing to reckless lending behaviour in the debt markets. But are lenders taking too much comfort from a buffer that could rapidly disappear?

Long years of losses and scandals, and now new regulation, spell a break-up with European banks’ bedrock of support in their retail investors, who have often been their own clients. Read on for a guide to Dominic O’Neill’s story on their split and the deep implications for Europe’s financial sector.

Scandals and losses are ending the co-dependency between European banks and retail shareholders, highlighting the conflict of interest in relying on depositors for capital – and showing up a barrier to Europe’s new bail-in framework. A less parochial, more austere but more accountable era is just beginning.

A string of jumbo strategic corporate deals made 2018 one of the busiest years ever in M&A, but falling equity markets, slowing economies, rising debt costs and geopolitical uncertainties have now dimmed the outlook severely. M&A bankers hope that private equity buyers, with $1 trillion of equity to put to work, will pick up the baton and that activist investors will stop corporate executives from quietly jamming those takeover and disposal plans back into the freezer.

Jon ‘Mystic Mac’ Macaskill looks ahead at possible highlights for markets in 2019.

A new, unique end-to-end transaction reference is a big step forward in tracking cross-border payments, identifying hidden costs and improving payment speeds.

UniCredit's CEO puts his money where his mouth is.

Sweden’s Handelsbanken was the perfect antidote to investors burned by the pre-2008 bubble, but investors are no longer so enamoured of its consistent strategy.