Reality bites for Singapore banks but diversification dims the pain
DBS CEO Piyush Gupta says: ‘If people feel they can’t travel, they don’t spend’ The headline numbers were ugly in Singapore this morning. At 8.30am, UOB chief executive Wee Ee Cheong explained why his bank’s first-half profit was down 30% year-on-year....
Country risk: Ghana remains a safe bet ahead of its elections
Ghanaian fishermen: Riding the waves, much like their country As in other countries, Ghana is having to cope with the Covid-19 shock weighing on its macroeconomic indicators, softening GDP growth and widening the fiscal deficit. In April, the IMF predicted...
Commerzbank: How Zielke and Schmittmann’s positions became untenable
Commerzbank’s chairman Stefan Schmittmann and chief executive Martin Zielke The joint resignations of Commerzbank’s chief executive Martin Zielke and chairman Stefan Schmittmann may have come as a shock for many investors. However, the news will probably be well-received, as it...
Sovereign bonds: Give us an E, give us an S… but maybe hold the G
If their own research is to be believed, the world’s largest asset managers are fully seized of the importance of taking environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks into consideration when investing in sovereign Eurobonds. Yet time and again, when it...
Santander’s positivity is an outlier in Brazil
A Santander office gleaming in the São Paulo sunshine As the first of Brazil’s big banks to report first-quarter earnings, there was more focus than usual on Santander Brasil at the end of April as people searched for clues about...
Digital disbursements plug gaps left by Covid-19 relief effort
The global lockdown has forced millions of people to stay at home. Local shops, restaurants and bars are all under extreme financial stress as foot fall has collapsed and the realization dawns that it may not recover swiftly even as...
German court gives ECB three months to justify sovereign bond purchases
On Tuesday, the German constitutional court delivered a withering verdict on the governance around decisions of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Eurosystem of national central banks over the public sector purchase programme (PSPP). This programme was established in...
Shifting corporate responsibility to consumer resilience
Nobel-prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz made the point recently in reference to Covid-19 that the US has created an economy without resilience. It would be fair to say the US is not the only one, but it is the most...
IIF says policy fragmentation slowing sustainable finance
The Institute of International Finance (IIF), which has 450 members from banks to central banks, is calling for greater international alignment of sustainable finance policies and regulation to better support the transition to a sustainable economy. In a paper published...
Hong Kong: BEA and Elliott show solidarity but bicker over future
David Li, chairman of Bank of East Asia Elliott Management and Bank of East Asia (BEA) on Wednesday issued a joint press release, including comments from Elliott co-chief executive Jonathan Pollock and Bank of East Asia co-CEOs Adrian and Brian...