The return of the global wealth manager?
A look at wealth management earnings at the largest firms at the end of the first quarter proved that the hypothesis is true: wealth management is a good business to be in – always. UBS Global Wealth Management increased its...
FCA to lenders: Watch your step
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has got itself into one of its periodic lathers about the way in which banks secure business from corporate clients. This time it is bothered about the awarding of equity mandates since the pandemic crisis...
Latin America finance: Coronavirus could have a platinum lining
Covid-19 has caused human suffering across the region – needlessly exacerbated by wilful incompetence and chronic underfunding of public health systems – and imposed a huge economic and fiscal burden that will be accumulated over the coming years. However, it’s...
Spacs prove resilient in shaky markets
Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (Spacs), which use the IPO market to raise funds for acquisitions, have proven their ability to weather the current market turbulence. As of May 21, 26 such IPOs had come to market in the US this...
Investment banking: Have suitcase, won’t travel
Since the 2008 financial crisis made large physical networks an unjustifiable luxury, Western banks have increasingly relied on an army of peripatetic bankers to service clients in emerging markets. Take emerging Europe, for example. In the early 2000s, most larger...
Country risk: India’s Covid-19 hit may turn it to junk
India’s investor prospects deteriorated more than any other Asian country in the first quarter of 2020, according to Euromoney’s country risk survey. It shed 3.22 points from its risk score tally, extending a trend 10-year decline to 7.75 points, resulting...
Pandemic hastens Brazil’s financial shift
Some Brazilian bankers have asked if large drawdowns would inflict psychological damage on retail equity investors. This is important, as the growth of retail had offset this year’s capital outflows from international investors. Local banks now dominate new deal bookrunning...
Iwoca urges CBILS banks to collaborate and requests central bank funding
Christoph Rieche, co-founder and chief executive of iwoca On May 20, the British Business Bank announced the accreditation of six new lenders to channel funding to small businesses under the UK government’s much-criticized Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS). Bibby...
The future of supply chains after Covid-19
Online delivery slots remain elusive, but perhaps the fact that UK supermarket shelves are stacked with toilet rolls and tinned tomatoes once again is a sign that panic buying due to the coronavirus pandemic has begun to abate. But unprecedented...
Country risk: Brazil and Mexico will avoid going the way of Argentina
Argentina’s repayment difficulties are legendary. The country has defaulted eight times since its independence and it is threatening to do so again, as it extends, until May 22, negotiations over a $65 billion debt restructuring proposal after the initial deadline...