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After 10 years of talking about it. Russia's Central Bank CBR) took the first concrete steps to reform the ailing banking sector last month. A new and controversial deposit insurance [...]

The Top 300 European banks had, not surprisingly, a disastrous 2001 with aggregate net profits declining by 22.4% to $118.7bn, reflecting the global economic downturn. While this decline was less [...]

The banking industry in Latin America reached a watershed in L. 2001. Foreign capital participation ebbed for the first time since market reforms and deregulation unleashed an explosion of acquisitions [...]

Taiwan's economy shows clear signs of recovery, but whether the rebound lasts depends on how fast the island's financial system escapes the threat of a liquidity trap and on how [...]

Bank executives may bemoan the recent rise in insurance premiums but banks stand to win business as innovative forms of credit and political risk mitigation are being sought in the [...]

AT THE WORLD ECONOMIC Forum in New York earlier this year, journalists were taken aback. Bankers such as Rolf Breuer, chief executive of Deutsche Bank, and David Komansky, chairman and [...]

MOST SAUDI ARABIAN banks not only carried through their stellar performances of 2000 into 2001 but also managed, despite the upheavals of September 11 and its aftermath, to show significantly [...]

The Turkish economy and banking sector remain very weak, but the IMF is throwing money at the country like confetti and the government and banks are working overtime to reform [...]

Japan's top banks have all posted substantial losses in fiscal year 1998. It marks the second year in succession that Japanese banks have been in the red. Analysts believe that this scenario could play out once more in 1999, as Japanese banks once again make provisions against nonperforming loans. Analysts, however, agree that the worst may be over and are now cautiously optimistic about the prospects of Japan's leading banks in 2000 and beyond., Analysts are pessimistic but banks say their non-performing loans will come good. The leading banks in Japan have announced substantial losses for fiscal 1998 - the second year in a [...]

Several government-owned banks in India have incurred losses in fiscal year 1995-96 despite the impressive performance of private banks in the country. Eight banks reported losses amounting to Rs25.92 million, Rs3.74 million higher that the total profits made by the other 19 government banks. The losses may be attributed to the decreasing government support due to the liberalization of the banking industry., The state-owned banks have fared badly under the four-year liberalisation and their red balance sheets contrasts with the success of the new private banks. The general complacency that the four-year-old [...]

Mexican Pres. Ernesto Zedillo launched the debt restructuring and recapitalization programs to suppress the 1994 banking crisis and prevent successive banking insolvencies. Debt relief has also been extended to home mortgage holders who were given discounts on monthly instalments starting at 30% and gradually descending for the next 10 years. Finally, debt equity swaps had made many banks major shareholders in various firms., A series of innovative debt-relief and recapitalisation programmes are aimed at containing the banking crisis and preventing a chain reaction of failures. The Mexican banking environment has improved sharply since [...]

The economic downturn in Italy is likely to raise the ratio of default to lending to about 8.5% in 1994 for Italian banks. Despite this, however, the sector's performance is expected to improve because the ratio of equity to lending, at 19.4%, is higher than the 15.9% of the 1983 recession. Meanwhile, large and medium Italian banks recorded a 28% increase of L3,876 billion in operating profits to L17,919 billion in 1994. Post-tax profits, however, amounted to only L2,848 billion due to a tax bill of L6,119 billion., Loan defaults have soared as Italy's economic situation reveals weaknesses. Italian banks are suffering. As business and the family sector absorb the blows of corporate crisis, bankruptcy, liquidation and unemployment, [...]

South Korean banks expecting a net interest gain from the deregulation of interest rates are instead confronted with reduced profits in 1993 and poor earnings prospects for 1994. The banks' weak performance can be attributed to several factors, including the banks' overdependence on interest income, thinning interest spread, low loan demand, poor asset/liability management and growth in nonperforming assets. The impact of the industry downturn was hardest on commercial banks, whose collective net earnings dropped 4.6% in 1992., Deregulation of interest rates has led to a fall in profits and prospects this year are poor. The deregulation of interest rates last November was welcomed by the South Korean [...]

The fiscal and monetary policies of Egypt for 1991 such as liberalization of the pound, T-bills introduction and interest rates deregulation have been impressive. The major concern for 1992, however, is privatization and free-marketeering. The country has stabilized the exchange-rate and has reversed its dollarized economy with T-bills now vital in banks' balance sheets but lending has gone down. Bank competition is increasing and a new banking legislation expects to eliminate small and weak banks through mergers. Observers believe that Egyptian banks are too small-scale and numerous to be reliable.

World banking is troubled by pressures on profit margins and shareholders' equity problems. Several banks failed to survive due to recession, bad debts and plummeting property values with the result the credit worldwide will eventually be limited. The top 1,000 banks posted a drop in average pre-tax return on shareholders' funds from 14.11% to 11.43%. There is also minimal assets growth and even the well capitalized Swiss and Japanese banks showed a reduction in average capital over assets ratio. Mergers are common but some still perform poorly and the big banks in industrialized countries need to control costs and look for other source of income.

Cho Soon, S. Korea's new central bank governor, is implementing a tight monetary policy to increase M2 (currency in circulation, demand, time and savings deposits in banks) by 18.5% in 1992. An economic growth of 7.3% as opposed to 8.4% for 1991 is forecasted by the central bank and economic reforms are deemed necessary. Cho fined large commercial banks for failing to meet reserve requirements by Apr 22, 1992 but he proved his detractors wrong when banks started meeting deadlines and has even paid back loans from the central bank. Cho is also modernizing their financial markets through deregulation of interest rates and liberalization of deposit rates.

How good are banks at lending? As everyone knows, it is easy to lend; giving money away requires no skill at all. The trick for a bank is to get [...]

When it comes to calculating risks, nobody does it better than insurance executives. It is, after all, their business. And when it comes to insurance executives, there is no better [...]

The rapid development of Qatar's economy is largely thanks to the resource development policy adopted by the government through the exploitation of Qatar's North Field, the largest non-associated gas field [...]

President Hosmi Mubarak's early June visit to Washington DC said as much about Egypt's domestic politics and economics as it did about the shambolic Middle East peace process Mr Mubarak [...]

The Basel II Capital Accord will demand that financial institutions' core processes deliver more data and in more detail. Those that tie finance and risk management systems tightly together can [...]

Recent announcements by the US-based International Swaps and Derivatives Association (Isda) on outstanding over-the-counter derivatives contracts dwelt on the explosive growth in credit derivatives volumes: 1000/a a year since 1996 [...]

LIKE THE AZALEA BLOOMS that bring with them the smell of spring after the long wintry weather in South Korea, the country's commercial banks show signs of a new life [...]

Croatia's progress in the two years since former president Franjo Tudjman died and the present pro-reform coalition government was elected has been impressive. Politics have become more open and democratic. [...]

The painful and much-challenged merger of DG Bank and DZ Bank into DZ Bank is finally over, but the 'visionary' get-together has revealed DC's disastrous loan policy, and has laid [...]

Slow loan growth has prevented Taiwan's banks from benefiting from the country's export-led economic revival in 1999. The burden of bad loans has also hobbled the country's banks, with most institutions allocating their additional funds to a stepped-up program for retiring non-performing loans. Fortunately, the banks should be able to improve earnings since they stand to benefit from the promised reduction in the gross business revenues tax., The economy is on the mend but it will take a while until the banks feel the benefits Taiwan's export-oriented economy is displaying its resilience by rapidly bouncing back from [...]

UK-based banks and financial services companies experienced relatively good performance for the first half of 1999, as domestic and overseas conditions manifested signs of improved recovery. Such a gain may be attributed to the increasing competition in the market, which has compelled companies to intensify their cost-cutting initiatives. The financial services market also received ample financial leverage from the decreasing levels of inflation and interest rates, both of which favored the recovery of formerly-ill banks., The low inflation, low interest rate environment is the ideal setting for more profitable growth. It was, by and large, quite a good half year for the UK banks. Results [...]

The formal adoption of the euro as the single currency unit of EU countries in 1999 presents serious implications for the banking industry. The arrival of the euro means the disappearance of conventional payment systems and will result in fierce competition for survival among clearing systems. Moreover, the use of euro could increase the possibility of misrouted payments during the early weeks of 1999. Banks are therefore advised to maintain a high degree of liquidity during this critical period., The euro has reached the nuts and bolts stage For those involved in the banking system, the arrival of the euro has meant a huge amount of hard work; nowhere [...]