Day: March 7, 2018

In February, the Brazilian government sent the army into the violent and bankrupt city of Rio de Janeiro.  That decision put paid to the desperately needed and desperately unpopular pension reform because the country’s constitution does not allow for constitutional amendments when federal armed forces are being deployed. Conspiracy theorists immediately suggested that the army …

Brazil pensions: Lack-of-business, as usualRead More

Malaysia prime minister Najib Razak A new plan to link up trading between Singapore and Malaysia’s stock markets could be important. Attempts to forge links between Asean exchanges are nothing new, though rarely successful, but the success of links between Hong Kong and exchanges in mainland China has put the idea of cross-border cooperation and …

Devil in the detail in Singapore-Malaysia linkRead More

What should be the verdict on Jes Staley?  At one point the Barclays chief executive appeared to be lurching from one crisis to another, whether it was falling for an email prankster pretending to be his chairman or taking it upon himself to intervene in a whistleblowing case that saw him reprimanded by his board …

Barclays: Staley stays the courseRead More

South Africa’s new president Cyril Ramaphosa Viceroy Research is little more than a blog, a googlemail account and a handful of connections in the hedge fund world. But the activist short seller has managed to make some noise in another South African attack after its successfully vocal short on local retail group Steinhoff International Holdings.  …

Viceroy’s traction is Ramaphosa’s challengeRead More

It is easy for journalists to preach transparency. It is, after all, almost always in their interests. For bankers and policymakers, things are often not as clear cut. In a system where wrongdoing is widespread, a serious clean-up will have far-reaching consequences. Friends, colleagues and contacts could find themselves out of work – or worse.  …

Latvian banking: let there be lightRead More

Higher volatility in the first two months, driven by uncertainty about the pace of Federal Reserve interest rate rises this year and next, has been exactly the kind that banks like best: sufficient to provoke a revival in volume of trades among clients taking divergent views; not so severe as to leave them too scared …

FICC trading heads not celebrating yetRead More