CEE banks – at a high-water mark?
For many years after the financial crisis, Raiffeisen Bank International’s annual summer report on the banking landscape of central and eastern Europe made for fairly dismal reading. The gloom has gradually lifted, as restructuring and economic recovery have brought relief...
UK dirty money plan stirs ‘policy capture’ debate
Across Europe, it is becoming the consensus that the best way to tackle money laundering is closer cooperation between states, and between authorities and the banks. Supranational bodies such as Europol and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – the...
Hedging complacency adds to corporate FX risk, Citi finds
Emerging markets are a growth sweet spot for many corporates. But concerns around economic stagnation and trade relations have weighed heavily on emerging market currencies as the US and China continue to butt heads over tariffs. In this context it...
Why India’s Essar decision could kill the distressed debt market before it starts
Far-reaching: Essar Steel’s complex in Hazira, India An insolvency court decision in India this week could have far-reaching consequences for public-sector bank restructuring, the distressed debt market, and the overall appetite of international funds for Indian credit. The ruling concerns...
Testing times for aspiring transaction services providers
More than 100 fintechs have participated in the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) regulatory sandbox since its launch in June 2016, trialling their services for a limited time to a controlled number of customers under the direction of the UK’s financial...
Bonds: From high yield to below yield
It is hard to think of a more bizarre consequence of quantitative easing (QE) than negative yielding high-yield bonds. Indeed, it seems that the capital markets have entered their own Bizarro World, the comic book realm where everything is the...
Regulators line up to denounce Facebook for its cryptocurrency project
David Marcus before the Senate banking committee Big tech executives are getting a taste for life as regulated organizations. It remains to be seen how much they like it and whether they think it’s worth the candle for the extra...
Why bank CEOs will put off the IT challenge
The decision by Nordea chief executive Casper von Koskull to retire next year, at the age of 60, might give other senior bankers pause for thought. Nordea is the biggest of the Nordic institutions that until recently were the poster...
AT1 bonds: Call me maybe
Investors in additional tier-one (AT1) debt have certainly learned to be resilient. Not only are they subject to periodic meltdowns in their asset class, but they have had to grapple with the shifting sands of regulation more than most. This...
Alfa-Bank CEO shrugs off retail lending curbs
Russia’s Alfa-Bank can maintain strong growth in retail lending despite new curbs on the segment, according to chief executive Vladimir Verkhoshinskiy. In response to rising concerns about over-indebtedness among retail borrowers, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) in October implemented...