Interest rates have been depressed for so long in Europe, it’s hard to remember when they actually soared into the teens. In fact, today, the natural interest rate is flirting with negative values. Due to a number of factors, such as an ageing population and sluggish trend growth, the natural interest rate is not likely to rise anytime soon. The remedy may not lie with central banks but with governments.
Mr. Simon Hughes, International Banker, and Mr. Anders Bouvin, President and Group CEO of Handelsbanken, discuss the bank’s recent positive financial results, its strategy and growth.
KBC Group, one of Belgium’s top bank-insurers, is guided by its purpose to “help all our stakeholders realise their dreams and protect them”. With core markets across Europe, KBC is imbued by a corporate culture that it has dubbed with the acronym PEARL. Mr. Thijs and Mr. Luts describe how the bank-insurance group is employing its latest digital strategies to actualize its long-standing vision.
Chinese president Xi Jinping calls it the “project of the century”.[1] Part of his roadmap to Chinese prosperity, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), presents opportunities not only for Corporate China but for financial institutions and corporates the world over.
When it comes to something as highly regulated as the banking industry, open source may not be the obvious technology to choose. However, with the rise of Open Banking — which likely came about as an answer to what is probably the most often cited regulatory requirement for financial institutions
Last year was one that saw Germany’s economic performance consistently exceed expectations. The start of 2017 saw the majority of economists predicting around 1.4 percent growth in gross domestic product (GDP) for the year.
If it seems as if the world has changed, it is because it has. Economic growth, for example, lags behind the levels reached before the 2007/2008 financial crisis even in developed countries. The need for governments to step in with proactive fiscal policies to kick start their economies has never been greater.
Europe’s vision of idyllic unity has lost its glow due to rampant immigration, regulation and debt, causing nationalist parties to ride the waves of public anger. None of these crises have benefited European banks, with some teetering on the brink. But solutions exist that if implemented will restore growth and financial stability.
Just as HSBC’s global head of foreign-exchange cash trading in London was about to fly out of New York’s Kennedy International Airport on the evening of Tuesday, July 19, he was arrested by US federal officials.
The November elections are soon approaching for Americans, and it now looks increasingly like a two-horse race for the US presidency. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have emerged as clear contenders in the last few weeks, leaving their rivals by the wayside.