News & Features Archive

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Adding Value And Boosting Digital Agility: Svante Andreen, Nordea

Nordea Markets Investment Banking is an integrated part of wholesale banking in the Nordea Group. A move from different legacy systems to one single platform is part of Nordea’s simplification program. SvanteAndreen, Nordea co-head of markets investment banking, expects the move to foster agility, enabling Nordea to become a truly digital bank.

News

Adversity Brings Creativity

The Middle East is characterized by high youth unemployment and political and economic uncertainty, but new business and technology start-ups and young entrepreneurs are providing hope for future generations.

Award Winners

Africa Grows Its Middle Class: Don Hultman, Standard Bank New York

Discussing Africa's Middle Class with Don Hultman, head of client coverage and investment banking for Standard Bank New York

Emerging & Frontier Markets

Agribusiness To The Rescue for Brazil

Milestones | Brazil In this time of recession, Brazil’s economy is becoming more agribusiness-oriented. The sector generated 23% of Brazilian GDP last year, after 21.4% in 2014, and accounted for 46.3% of total exports.

Capital Raising & Corporate Finance

Angels Playing Devil’s Advocate

Jim Rossman is managing director of the corporate preparedness group at Lazard, the M&A advisory and asset management giant. A former M&A lawyer at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Rossman talked with Global Finance about how to fend off hostile takeovers—mainly in the US, but also in Europe and emerging markets.

Economics, Policy & Regulation

Argentina Making Peace With International Investors

Milestones | Argentina As Argentina prepares to launch a new bond issue in April, marking its return to international capital markets, investors are once again turning their attention to Buenos Aires, which has known 15 years of isolation.

Capital Raising & Corporate Finance

Bankers Say Negative Rates Could Harm Financial System

Capital Markets | Fixed Income The European Central Bank pushed its deposit rate deeper into negative territory in March, even as commercial bankers cautioned that such an unorthodox move could undermine their profitability and disrupt their role as financial intermediaries while doing little to boost lending or the economy.

News

Banking On Talent: Abdulrazak Ali Issa, Bank Muscat

Now that some sanctions have been lifted against Iran, Oman’s governmental policy of neutrality could come to the fore in the banking sector. Bank Muscat is gearing up to enter the Iranian market, placing it ahead of many of its banking counterparts in the Gulf. Bank Muscat’s CEO answers questions from Global Finance about the move, and the bank’s challenges in an epoch of austerity.

Capital Raising & Corporate Finance

Barclays To Sell Africa Business

Capital Markets | Regulation “Nothing will make us deviate or change our course. We are not exiting our operations in any of our African markets,” declared Maria Ramos, CEO of Barclays Africa.

News

Best-Performing Companies In The Middle East

There are big changes at the top of the rankings this year, and there is greater geographical diversity in the list. Companies in the region are dealing with a number of serious headwinds and broader economic and market changes, which are starting to take their toll.

Features

Blockchain Voyages Of Discovery

Special Report: Fintech As banks rush to find areas where the blockchain can save them time and money while creating opportunities, it’s hard to see exactly how this might shape future banking processes.

News

Branching Out: Adel El-Labban, Ahli United Bank

Despite tightening liquidity in the Gulf banking sector, Bahrain’s largest lender reported robust profits in 2015. After leading a slew of product launches, AUB’s group CEO and managing director believes the bank’s prudent risk management will underpin its expansion. He spoke to Global Finance at the bank’s headquarters in Bahrain.