Noel Quinn reveals HSBC considered exit from US retail banking
The most surprising moment in HSBC’s announcement today of what interim chief executive Noel Quinn describes as “one of the deepest restructuring and simplification programmes in our history” came at the very start. It is usual for any bank’s annual results...
HSBC’s first green deposit account targets Singapore and UK corporates
Slowly, often imperceptibly, the financial sector’s green agenda grinds into gear. It is worthy and righteous, yet it can feel like pulling teeth. HSBC is the latest global bank to hit the news with its green deposit account, offered to...
Tidjane Thiam leaves Credit Suisse poised for growth
Outgoing CEO Tidjane Thiam at the annual news conference in Zurich on Thursday, to present Credit Suisse’s results for 2019 Credit Suisse on Thursday reported operational pre-tax income of SFr4.3 billion for 2019 after stripping out exceptional reported items. That is...
China’s state banks close branches as coronavirus spreads
The People’s Bank of China in Beijing A provincial arm of one of China’s big-four state banks has taken a decision to close at least 10% of its branches, as coronavirus tightens its grip on Asia’s largest economy, Euromoney has learned....
ECB: Helicopter money could lift the mood in Europe
Europe is stuck in a rut and it’s getting dangerous. Monetary policy is looser than it’s ever been and there’s little chance it will tighten any time soon. Is helicopter money the way out? If growth slows suddenly due to,...
Costa Rica’s debt plans will illuminate LatAm risk appetite
Costa Rica’s public debt officials may soon find themselves looking fondly back to a golden age of access to the international debt capital markets. It was time when the country’s deals were met with huge international appetite, it could issue...
Sustainable investing: Beyond the tipping point
Sustainable investing has now reached a tipping point. Morgan Stanley’s bi-annual Sustainable Signals survey, published in May, interviewed 110 asset owners from North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region and found that the majority recognize that considering environmental, social and...
FX execution management systems: room for improvement
FX execution management systems (EMSs) have generally stood up well during the coronavirus pandemic, not least because of their ability to deploy algorithms during periods of high volatility. But according to research by The Finance Hive, a networking organization, North...
Coronavirus: Dividend futures – the Nostradamus trade
Most European banks have indicated that they will suspend dividend payments after the Bank of England followed the European Central Bank in discouraging payouts to shareholders while the coronavirus crisis rages. The list of non-bank companies suspending their dividends is...
Markets: Coronavirus boosts contrarians
It didn’t take long for Nouriel Roubini, the economist known as Dr Doom, to warn that the stock market selloff in late February was a signal of much worse to come, as he ranked the coronavirus among the “white swans”...