Country risk: Analysts refuse to panic over Colombia’s risks
Risk experts consider Colombia in a good position to cope with a flood of refugees from the crisis in Venezuela The sheer scale of government spending and consumer-led domestic demand arising from a surge in population growth have put many of...
Mexico: Banks free Pemex from bondage
The Mexican government tried to put a happy gloss on its announcement of an $8 billion loan from private-sector banks to its state oil producer Pemex on May 13. The market even bought it – briefly – with a rally...
LenderComm brings loan servicing on blockchain
Even after years of cost cutting, banks could still be much more efficient if they would only share more utility back-office infrastructure. It’s a simple idea: hard to do in practice. The chief executive of one leading European bank tells...
Reit mergers gather pace in Singapore
Singapore’s financial centre, Raffles Place There’s not a whole lot for investment banks to do in Singapore these days: very few new listings, tech companies who are quite content with private market funding, local debt markets that are strong, but...
Hong Kong ex-JPMorgan princeling case gets personal
The decision by Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) to bring charges against a former JPMorgan executive for bribery marks an interesting regulatory trend: criminal charges against individuals for banking crime. Catherine Leung Kar-cheung, who rose to be vice-chair...
Banks push transaction banking outside core markets
]It is a trend that has been the same for some time. Burnt by foreign investments and buried under heightened compliance and regulatory standards, American and European banks have scaled back global operations to focus on core markets – with...
FX: Corporate hedging goes forwards – and backwards
Given the ongoing uncertainty around Brexit and the resulting currency fluctuations, it would be reasonable to expect that corporate focus on hedging has heightened – or at least remained consistent – over the last year or so, with an attendant...
Pakistan IMF bailout comes as foreign banks eye opportunity
News of Pakistan’s $6 billion loan deal with the IMF this week can be read in two ways: a country gaining direction and stability under a new government, or one in a desperate condition that has no choice but to...
Bradesco buys outside Brazil to compete within
Bradesco’s first international acquisition was announced this week: the bank has agreed (subject to regulatory approvals) to buy BAC Florida Bank for $500 million. The acquisition is significant if not substantial; because while adding BAC’s US business won’t move the...
Finance: Transformation stories in Asia, CEE and Africa
In 1990, Japan made up 45% of global equity market capitalization and its three long-term credit banks had a market cap of $140 billion. The top 50 US banks at the time were worth just $110 billion combined. How things...