Wirecard shows risks of fashionable fintech
Short-sellers are reaping more than financial rewards from a multi-billion euro accounting fraud at German payments processing firm Wirecard. Among other measures to defend the now-stricken firm, German financial regulator BaFin temporarily banned shorting its shares in 2019. Now the...
In XP vs Itaú, XP is an archetypal David
Ever since 2016, when the then Itaú CEO – and now chairman of the board – Roberto Setubal agreed to buy into then privately held XP Investimentos (now Nasdaq-listed XP Inc), there had been an unsustainably quiet approach to their...
UK finance still struggles with gender pay gap
Despite commitments by leaders of financial sector firms to improve gender balance, analysis of gender pay gap reports shows that little or no improvement has been made over the last three years in the UK. Research by gender diversity consultancy...
Having your cake and provisioning for it: how CECL and IFRS 9 are fighting the last war
Accounting standards that make banks provision upfront for all expected loan losses are encouraging exactly what regulators don’t want to happen at this stage of the coronavirus crisis.
LightningAid comes to the rescue of the UK’s independent music scene
AIM turns on the cashflow to help the industry’s self-employed during the Covid-19 crisis With the UK in coronavirus lockdown, concerts, gigs and tours across the country have been cancelled, but it is not just audiences who are losing out. ...
Brazil banks ready for latest stress test
The financial fallout from the coronavirus in emerging markets is hitting Brazil hard, but the solidity – and profitability – of its banking sector is helping alleviate the pain. A recent report from Goldman Sachs highlighted the extent of Brazil’s...
Banking as a matter of life and death
Those of us who lived through the global financial crisis of 2007/08 and its aftermath never imagined we would experience anything like it again. As the coronavirus outbreak threatens the very fabric of our economies and our societies, we should...
Investors buy into XP Investimentos’ growth story
The outlook for new equity issuance from Brazilian financial institutions in 2020 has been brightened by the strong performance of XP Investimentos’ IPO in December 2019. The Brazilian financial services group sold nearly $2 billion in shares on Nasdaq to...
This is how an IPO greenshoe works
It’s nearly the end of the year, so how about an alternative award? Award category: Least-Understood-And-Yet-Easy-To-Understand-Capital-Markets-Thing Winner: The Greenshoe As the recent Aramco IPO has shown yet again, the greenshoe (or over-allotment option, to give it its proper name) still...
One year on from the Royal Commission – reading the signs at the NAB AGM
Good morning and welcome to the National Australia Bank AGM. A modest crowd, with a median age probably in the late 60s – and sporting the full gamut of attire from bow ties and Melbourne Cup hats to stubby shorts...