Western Europe Archives

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Country Report

Features : An Island In The Storm

COUNTRY REPORT / CYPRUS Cyprus is hoping that its recent adoption of the euro will help it better survive—and perhaps even thrive—during the coming global turbulence. Cyprus is hoping that its recent adoption of the euro will help ...

Banking

Newsmakers : Taking Shariah-Compliant Financing Into The Mainstream

UNITED KINGDOM While many Western banks may be struggling with liquidity and funding issues, Middle Eastern banks, awash with liquidity, are increasingly making their presence felt in Western financial markets. One such bank is Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB), whose ...

News

Newsmakers : US CEOs May Face Euro-Style Packages

UNITED STATES / EUROPE With corporate fat cats’ earnings increasingly in the spotlight, particularly in these credit-challenged times, it appears that CEO remuneration packages vary markedly depending on which side of the pond they are on. According to ...

News

Newsmakers : Businesses Face Pressure To Cut Electronics Waste

United Kingdom Davy: Scrapping computers is a huge resource drain Businesses are facing increasing pressure to consider the environmental impact of their IT purchasing habits as awareness grows of the vast amount of natural ...

Country Report

Features : Country Report: Iceland

EXPANDING HORIZONS ICELAND Iceland is going all out to expand its economy—and the global reach of its banks and corporations. With a wealthy consumer base that has the sixth-highest per capita GDP in the OECD, 0.8% unemployment, negligible ...

Capital Raising & Corporate Finance

Milestones : Businesses Confirm That Green Begets Green

UK / GLOBAL Growing awareness: Firms see risk management benefits in going green Multinational corporations are waking up to the fact that being “green” is not just for environmentalists. That was the message that came out of a ...

News

Newsmakers : Miliband Urges EU To Open Door To More New Members

UNITED KINGDOM Miliband: The European Union should ontinue to expand to the east The United Kingdom’s foreign secretary, David Miliband, says that the European Union should gradually expand further into Eastern Europe, including Russia, as well as into ...

News

Milestones : Challenges Grow In Run-Up To New Payment Rules

EUROPE Europe's payments landscape is set to change dramatically with market reforms. Banks and companies in other parts of the world are watching with interest as the deadline for radical transformation of the UK and Europe’s cross-border payments ...

News

Newsmakers : Offshoring Industry Faces New Opponent: Its Clients

UNITED KINGDOM/UNITED STATES Divett: Offshoring IT involves hidden costs. Offshoring information technology services is an emotive subject that incites mixed responses from most companies. Although Wall Street financial firms were among the early adopters of outsourcing, sending their ...

Banking

Features : Seeking Out Growth

REGIONAL REPORT / NORDIC BANKING As Nordic banks look further outside their home markets for growth, the rewards—and also the risks—are increasing. Over the past few years, banks in the Nordic region have benefited from highly favorable economic conditions across ...

News

Milestones : Sepa Rollout Faces More Hurdles

EUROPE Desmares: Corporates cool on SEPA. Businesses and public sector organizations operating in Europe have until 2010 to abandon existing national payment instruments and adopt new pan-European credit transfer and direct debits. At least that is the ...

News

Newsmakers : Trichet Urges Better Risk Control

EUROPE Trichet: Questions investors' reliance on credit ratings. The subprime mortgage crisis in the US has forced the president of the European Central Bank (ECB) to speak out about the new sources of risk being created by the ...