Banking

Neobanks have won millions of banking customers’ hearts but haven’t succeeded in breaking the big banks yet. While rating high on customer satisfaction, challengers are not as successful in capturing client trust. The three-step solution: Offer experiences too good to turn down, provide stability during volatility, and do the right thing.

After Russia was hammered by sanctions following its incursion into neighbouring Ukraine, most expected its banking sector to suffer debilitating losses. But with the conflict marking its first anniversary, Russia’s banks have enjoyed a resounding comeback. Much of the sector’s success can be attributed to the actions of the Bank of Russia.

US monetary policymakers are facing a quartet of troubling economic issues: high inflation, a looming recession, bank collapses and a hot labour market. The Fed scaled back the intensity of its inflation-busting rate hikes after recent bank failures, but that reprieve will likely be short. Will the economy hit the ground softly or roughly?

Just as environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors are becoming integrated into banks’ investment decisions, a backlash against “woke” practices is gaining steam in Republican-dominated regions of the US. As legislative actions in red states threaten to penalise ESG-based investing, will banks continue moving toward ESG goals?

Compared to North American and European Union economies, which are likely slipping into recession after months of tight monetary policy, Asia-Pacific markets and financial systems look more positive. While the challenges are as varied as the countries themselves, what promising signs of strength are analysts observing for the coming year?

European banks fared relatively well in 2022, when the long-running low-interest, low-inflation environment abruptly ended. Will their profitability endure through 2023 as the effects of lingering inflation, weak credit markets and lackluster economic growth hit home? S&P Global Ratings examines what banks can realistically expect in 2023.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s methodology to decide which institutions should be deemed Global Systemically Important Banks has been a cornerstone of financial regulation since 2011. Its objective is to lower the probability of G-SIBs becoming insolvent, causing wide disruption. Does the current methodology need improvement?

The advent of digital banking has benefited banks with cost savings, but at what cost to their customers, who are often deprived of the human-to-human services they enjoy at branches when using digital channels? How can banks inject the benefits of the branch into their digital offerings and the advantages of digital into their branches?

International Banker is in Belgium and joined by Mr. Johan Thijs, Chief Executive Officer of KBC Group, to discuss the banks ongoing innovative use of technology, its commitment to ESG and the global economic outlook.

Traditional banks share complicated relationships with the fintech firms that have emerged recently, boasting technological agility that gives them some commanding advantages. Increasingly, the two are cooperating more than competing, but are they doing so ethically? Or are they putting profits before the welfare of the most vulnerable?