News and opinion on finance

Across the army, navy and air force, conservative estimates put the value of the military’s business empire at more than $25 billion; on any normal day, it’s difficult to conduct commercial activity ...

International banks’ appetite for debt financing Argentina’s upcoming programme of infrastructure projects via a new public-private partnership (PPP) structure is likely to be extremely limited.The first Argentine PPP projects will be awarded ...

By now it is received wisdom that David Solomon’s apparent victory at Goldman Sachs over rival co-president Harvey Schwartz is a reflection of where the emphasis of that firm is heading – ...

European bankers, fintech entrepreneurs, their lawyers and consultants were all struggling with the still-new concept of open banking at the Innovate Finance Global Summit in London in March.The notion that individuals might ...

Even by its own elevated standards, Noble Group had a busy week in late November. On November 20, several branches of the Singapore state announced they were investigating the troubled commodity trader ...

Banks have made large headcount cuts over the last five to 10 years, driven by the financial crash and regulatory changes, says Grant Goodband, client manager at Thoughtonomy.Grant Goodband,ThoughtonomyThoughtonomy is a technology ...

With the launch of its London office in September, Absa came up with a new slogan: “Proudly African. Truly Global. That’s Absa.” The insistence on the truth of its global nature here ...

In the early summer of 2007 I was by the pool at the Hotel Arts in Barcelona, recovering from an all-night session at the casino after a securitization conference, when none other ...

A 'devil' with two aeroplanes is held aloft during a protest against the new Mexico City airportThe fate of Mexico City’s New International Airport (NAIMC) is being seen by investors and bankers ...

The chief executive of Europe’s largest asset manager has launched a stringent defence of investment in its Italian business, despite increased worry about populist economic policy in Rome. Amundi’s shares plummeted 14% ...

Latin American economic extremes: Uruguay is flying high while Venezuela is facing a backlashEnjoying more favourable economic conditions on the back of recovering commodity prices, LatAm’s average risk score has improved on ...

Malaysia prime minister Najib RazakA new plan to link up trading between Singapore and Malaysia’s stock markets could be important. Attempts to forge links between Asean exchanges are nothing new, though rarely ...

What should be the verdict on Jes Staley? At one point the Barclays chief executive appeared to be lurching from one crisis to another, whether it was falling for an email prankster pretending ...

South Africa's new president Cyril RamaphosaViceroy Research is little more than a blog, a googlemail account and a handful of connections in the hedge fund world.But the activist short seller has managed ...

It is easy for journalists to preach transparency. It is, after all, almost always in their interests. For bankers and policymakers, things are often not as clear cut.In a system where wrongdoing ...

Higher volatility in the first two months, driven by uncertainty about the pace of Federal Reserve interest rate rises this year and next, has been exactly the kind that banks like best: ...

Former president Luiz Lula da Silva at a recent rallyThe most striking feature of one of January’s biggest news story was the feigned surprise. No, not the exposure of the horrible and ...

The charges unsealed by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) around the 1MDB scandal on Thursday drag Goldman Sachs right back into the mire it has spent the past few years deftly ...

The latest French government sale of shares in engine-maker Safran could not have come at a better time for BNP Paribas, which has got some serious work to do if it wants ...

When it comes to finding private-sector financing solutions for social and environmental challenges, do we need to reinvent the wheel? I’m beginning to wonder. For example, Gary Kleiman, who runs an emerging ...

Two of the three most recent holders of this title are now chief executives of big banks, while the third may be plotting a return to a high-profile position from the shadows ...

Moscow’s ambitions to become aninternational financial centre may have come unstuck in 2014, but the city is rapidly becoming a preeminent global hub for a different type of finance.A recent study cited ...