Western Europe

Looking like a social media platform is doing CaixaBank's mobile-only bank no harm at all

Société Générale's online bank is the biggest in France - and one of the most aggressive.

BNPP is building a formidable online network across the region

One year on from a reboot, Openbank has doubled customers and is making a profit

Bank chief executives in Europe are increasingly obsessed with their new or rebooted digital arms. These businesses promise to fend off new competitors and capture a next generation of clients, while piloting front- and back-office innovations. They could even offer the best chance of expanding in the eurozone, making banking union a reality. But will these investments merely play into the hands of the new rivals and hasten the banks’ decline?

Euromoney talks to ECB Single Supervisory Mechanism board member Ignazio Angeloni about the challenges the SSM faces, and how eurozone integration, and in some cases bank mergers, could help improve European banks’ competitiveness.

Part one: Iceland’s banking crisis still fascinates and appals in equal measure. The first steps towards resolution were led by a group of unheralded officials and advisers for whom the events of late 2008 and 2009 were like sending out half a football team to play a competitive match. Ten years after it happened, this is their story.

Regulatory pressures are beginning to force firms to innovate as tech developments make it ever easier for companies to keep digital records of various transactions – and providers are taking advantage.

European vanilla convertible bonds just cannot shake the blue funk they are in, even as other regions power ahead. Non-dilutive and synthetic structures have kept bankers busy, but they don’t suit everyone

August, typically a slow month for capital markets, was a fruitful one for alternative reference rates (ARRs) to Libor.

With appreciation of the merits of dynamic discounting continuing to grow, attention has turned to the extent to which banks are committed to supporting this growth and how to maximize the value of the data generated.

Industry experts observe that while the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) represents an opportunity for corporate treasury to take advantage of real-time payment processing, it will take some time for the full benefits to be realised.

A crisis is forcing a spike in small bank mergers in Italy. It is a more tentative trend in Germany, although these banks’ common desire for independence might make such crises inevitable.

Tackling a pain point in European convertible bonds has allowed a group of former UBS bankers to build an interesting business

A fintech headed by veterans of algorithmic trading in equities aims to transform unregulated gold trading as a pure agency broker.

Venture funders establish a $500 million valuation for German fintech, betting that rapid growth in open banking is now inevitable and will transform the financial landscape.

Brexit-sparked competition from US banks a good thing, ECB supervisor says; Italian populism ‘a burdensome tax’ on banks.

Flow Traders is confident that the approach that has made it the leading player in the European exchange-traded products (ETP) market can be replicated in FX as it looks to cash in on increased interest in non-bank market makers.

Just seven months after the launch of the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2), efforts made by many mainstream banks are stopping short of bringing about the ground-breaking changes many had expected.

BNP Paribas had its excuses ready to explain a second quarter fall in CIB profits and FICC revenues, but strength in equities and continued progress on its strategic plan looked good

Italy flows up despite populists’ impact on bond yields; warns of peak debt across the West

French, let alone Italian, banks should not gloat. Germany’s banking problem is theirs too, and neither domestic mergers nor French-led acquisitions will solve it.

Sale offers relief from share price dip.

The UK Treasury’s inquiry into economic crime has identified fragmentation and inconsistency within the current anti-money laundering (AML) regime, while the high volume of suspicious activity reports is proving overwhelming for the regulators. But new technologies could be the light at the end of the tunnel.

Stock coverage to double, says partner; hiring spree turns to the US.

Berenberg wants to transform itself from a German firm to a European one with a UK mindset, before eventually taking on Wall Street. Partners Hans-Walter Peters and Hendrik Riehmer are convinced the old merchant banking model can be modernized, but can they avoid the pitfalls of rapid expansion?

As the signs become ever more apparent that CEO Thiam has revived Credit Suisse, Euromoney’s banker of the year shares the inside stories of a revolution.

It took an outsider to turn around Credit Suisse, to force executives and shareholders to accept that they had been following a false dream of a trading-dominated business that could somehow avoid blow-ups and produce acceptable returns.

There’s a rush to find an alternative to ‘ibors’, but with just three years to go before banks might stop submitting Libor altogether, regulators and market participants are still trying to figure out the right questions to ask.

US asset manager sets sights on Germany with new direct lending fund.