Western Europe Archives

Join the global community of corporate and public-sector finance industry leaders reading Global Finance monthly in print.

Click Here

Capital Raising & Corporate Finance

Newsmakers: Finance Minister Has His Work Cut Out For Him

NEWSMAKERS: VENEZUELA By Paula L. Green Everyone from consumers weary of battling rising inflation to importers wrestling with a devalued currency and foreign and domestic investors whose companies were nationalized will have a stake in the actions Nelson José Merentes ...

News

Newsmakers: Icelands New PM To Focus On Household Debt

NEWSMAKERS: ICELAND By Valentina Pasquali Back to the future is the theme in Iceland after voters rejected the austerity policies of the left-of-center government in power for the past four years and reinstalled the same center-right coalition that presided over ...

Banking

Back Page: Polls and Stats – Do Bank Assets As A Multiple Of GDP Correlate To Bank Risk?

Do Bank Assets As A Multiple Of GDP Correlate To Bank Risk? Banks assets as a multiple of GDP has been considered a possible indicator of systemic risk. The following chart compiled by the Institute of International Finance showing ...

Capital Raising & Corporate Finance

Milestones: Vodafone-India Dispute Casts Doubt On Tax Havens Future

MILESTONES: GLOBAL By Ronald Fink Cross-border dealmakers are anxiously awaiting the outcome of a long-running tax battle between UK telecom giant Vodafone and the Indian government. Photo Credits: VODAFONE: CLIVE CHILVERS / Shutterstock.com The dispute dates back to ...

Capital Raising & Corporate Finance

Corporate SEPA Migration

LATE THROUGH THE GATE By Rebecca Brace With less than a year to go before the SEPA migration end date of February 1, 2014, companies operating in Europe must get migration projects under way or face disruptions to ...

Banking

Milestones: Italy Coughs And The Rest Of Europe Sneezes

MILESTONES: ITALY By Valentina Pasquali The general elections held in Italy in February yielded a hung parliament, marked the phenomenal rise of the little-understood protest movement of former comedian Beppe Grillo, and unexpectedly revived the flagging political career of former ...

Capital Raising & Corporate Finance

Milestones: ORIX Paves The Way For More Asia-Europe Deals

MILESTONES: GLOBAL By Gilly Wright Japanese financial group ORIX’s acquisition of a 90.1% share of Dutch asset management company Robeco from Rabobank for $2.6 billion is both the largest Japanese outbound deal so far this year and a reflection of ...

Banking

Milestones: Shareholder Say On Pay Takes Form

MILESTONES: EUROPE By Anita Hawser Billed as a major blow to the UK’s status as a global financial services hub, the European Parliament and council sent a clear message in February about bank bonuses, reaching an agreement that bankers’ bonuses ...

Banking

Cover: Reinventing The Swiss Bank

ADAPT TO SURVIVE By Michael Shari A unique banking system long revered as a safe haven for the world’s tax dodgers now faces gut-wrenching transformation in order to endure. For centuries Swiss banks have thrived on absolute ...

Economics, Policy & Regulation

Milestone: Spain Cuts Red Tape In An Effort To Help Businesses

MILESTONE: SPAIN By Forrest Jones Spain wants to make life a little easier for its business sector. Recently, Madrid drafted legislation to make it simpler for companies to conduct business in different autonomous regions within the country ...

Banking

Milestone: The World’S Oldest Surviving Bank Faces A Bleak Future

MILESTONE: ITALY By Luca Ventura The oldest bank in the world, Tuscany’s Monte dei Paschi di Siena, came close to ending its 540-year history late in January, when it revealed losses of up to €750 million ($1 billion) caused ...

Emerging & Frontier Markets

Newsmaker: Turkey’s PM Gives EU Ultimatum Over Membership

NEWSMAKER TURKEY By Valentina Pasquali Conveying the feelings of a large swath of the Turkish population, which is increasingly tired of the stalled accession negotiations with the European Union, prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoan recently threatened to abandon ...