When we think of tax fraud in banking, we often don’t consider its far-reaching consequences, including its impact on the human rights of the residents of the states in which it occurs and beyond. By diverting public funds away from where they are needed most, sophisticated tax-avoidance schemes facilitated by banks make the quality of life of affected people that much worse. What must banks do to meet their obligations to the general public?
UK banks have achieved success in many areas, but when it comes to earning and retaining customer trust, they have fallen short. In an era of big bank failures, scandals and outright greed, public trust in the banking sector has been one of the main casualties. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way; banks can turn the tables and win back that crucial trust. But how?
The best banking institutions in retail, commercial, private and investment banking are highlighted along with two outstanding CEOs from their regions.
Many financial institutions are facing a perfect storm of pressure on revenues and increasing costs driven by regulatory mandates and the need for overdue investment in infrastructure.
Banks are a mixed bag when it comes to utilising technology’s full potential: some are taking full advantage while some are trying, and often struggling, to apply technology to their existing businesses.
The London Inter-bank Offered Rate, LIBOR, has for 50 years served as one of the most widely used benchmark interest-rate indexes. But its reputation has been tarnished by concerns that it has been manipulated by banks, and the United Kingdom’s FCA has pulled the plug on LIBOR submissions after 2021. Its successors—risk-free rates—are lining up to take over, but the transition is definitely not guaranteed to be smooth.
After the announcement in January from the Malta Financial Services Authority, stating the significant pending changes to Maltese pension regulations, both companies and advisers alike felt the net tighten around their daily practices.
Few commodities have experienced more pronounced volatility over the last few years than cobalt. This versatile, ferromagnetic metal has been increasingly sought after in recent times, thanks in no small part to its use in lithium-ion batteries
Given the prevailing financial infrastructure that exists today, international transfers continue to remain costly, time-consuming and risky—and even more so when there is a need to exchange currency. Such transactions normally undergo a series of stages that invariably include the involvement of intermediary parties and the foreign-exchange market
In mid-June, Cambria Africa announced that its Zimbabwe-based subsidiary—the payment-services provider Payserv—had suspended its service to its bank customers in Zimbabwe. According to Cambria, the suspension was due to a “collective refusal to pay historical and contracted pricing to Payserv Africa in US dollars