Western Europe Archives

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Capital Raising & Corporate Finance

McDonalds CEO: Brit Becomes The New “Big Mac”

McDonalds appointment of British-born Steve Easterbrook as its new CEO has both surprised and delighted analysts—concerned by the burger behemoth’s first annual decline in 30 years.

Capital Raising & Corporate Finance

EU TAX REFORM: VAT REGULATION HITS SMES

Milestones | European Union Regulators had Web giants like Google and Apple in their sites when they framed a new value-added tax (VAT) regulation for businesses selling digital products into the European Union

Banking

SANTANDERS MASSIVE CAPITAL INCREASE: MORE EUROPEAN BANKS TO FOLLOW

Trends | Bank Capitalization As Spaniards returned from the Los Reyes Magos (Epiphany) holiday, Spain’s Santander, Europe’s biggest bank, sold the equivalent of nearly 10% of its capital in one day, raising €7.5 billion ($8.7 billion) in cash and bringing required ratios in line with those of the banking industry.

Capital Raising & Corporate Finance

SEPA: A SPRINGBOARD TO REAL-TIME PAYMENTS

Special Report | SEPA With SEPA migration projects mostly completed, it is time for treasurers to start thinking about the next steps in regulatory compliance and process automation.

Capital Raising & Corporate Finance

‘GOOGLE TAX’ ON MULTINATIONALS HEATS UP GLOBAL CORPORATE TAX DEBATE

UK Corporate Tax | Trends Britain likely will succeed in taxing multinational companies at a 25% rate on their UK operations beginning in April, without violating international tax treaties, analysts say, but tensions are rising between countries on suspicions that MNCs are engaging in global tax evasion.

Economics, Policy & Regulation

ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING FIGHTER CHAIRS KEY VATICAN UNIT

Vatican | Newsmakers René Brülhart, known as the “James Bond of the financial world” for his high-profile role in cases such as the return of assets from Saddam Hussein to post-war Iraq and the uncovering of the Siemens bribery scandal, has become chairman of the Vatican’s anti-money-laundering unit.

Banking

ING COMPLETES BAILOUT REPAYMENT

Netherlands | Milestone As a part of the restructuring agreement between ING, the Dutch government and the European Commission, ING agreed to several of what it called “bans,” according to an email sent by a company spokesman to Global Finance

Award Winners

KEEPING DATA SAFE: PAOLO DI GRAZIA, FINECOBANK

Website design is becoming more important than ever, particularly in areas such as ease of use, security features, integrated functions and aesthetics.

Capital Raising & Corporate Finance

SHAREHOLDER ACTIVISTS JOIN FORCES ACROSS THE ATLANTIC

Shareholder Activism | Management Shareholder activism—when investors in a company use their equity as a lever to pressure management—is booming and will grow dramatically on both sides of the Atlantic through mid-2016

Economics, Policy & Regulation

CYPRUS BEGINS LONG ROAD TO RECOVERY

COUNTRY REPORT | CYPRUS Amid continuing harsh austerity measures, things are—very slowly—starting to recover, alongside restructuring that will change the focus of the economy. GDP in 2014 should contract by 3.5% before flattening out next year, with 0.2% growth forecast.

Capital Raising & Corporate Finance

GLUT OF EUROS COULD KEEP SINGLE CURRENCY WEAK

Trends | Foreign Exchange The global imbalance created by Europe’s huge current-account surplus and excess savings has created a glut of euros that could condemn the single currency to broad-based weakening.

Banking

HILL TO PUSH SECURITIZATION AS FINANCIAL STABILITY HEAD

Newsmakers | United Kingdom After a bumpy ride, the UK’s candidate, lord Jonathan Hill, has been confirmed by the European Parliament as commissioner for financial stability, capital markets and financial services.