Uncertainty and volatility make for uneasy bedfellows in any investment environment, but the bite is most keenly felt in initial public offerings. Kat Van Hoof reports.

As market volatility increased towards the end of 2018, investment banking revenues suffered across the board. Kat Van Hoof investigates.

Over the past two years, there has been only one ratings downgrade for one of Europe’s top 50 banks, according to S&P. The agency foresees stable balance sheets and good results from banks in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. But slowing growth in the big economies and low profitability means S&P foresees more negative ratings actions in 2019 than the year before. Kat Van Hoof reports.

Mercosur and the Pacific Alliance are trade hubs within Latin America, but it is the former that attracts the lion's share of financial services FDI. 

Data suggests that 2018 was a bumper year for the digitisation of banking services, driven in particular by a big step forward in mobile phone services. The acceleration was most pronounced in Australia and the US, with European institutions lagging behind, Kat Van Hoof reports.

Facing a sluggish economy, Japanese banks are looking overseas in their quest for growth, and their south-east Asian neighbours in particular have seen an influx of investment. 

In April 2018, the government of Thailand approved tax incentives for banking mergers in hopes of stimulating consolidation. Thailand’s banking sector is fragmented compared with similar-sized economies in the region, but is looking to catch up. Kat Van Hoof reports.

Hyperinflation, rampant poverty and a dramatically shrinking economy are plaguing Venezuela, once one of the most prosperous nations in Latin America. While official figures are scarce and often unreliable, the data that is out there paints a bleak picture for the future of the oil-rich nation’s banks, Kat Van Hoof finds.