The quest to create global standards for ‘social’ investing took a blow recently when the European Commission decided to kick the EU’s social taxonomy into the long grass. A fragmentation of standards is now likely to proliferate.

It was supposed to turbocharge the City of London’s fortunes, but in the end the government’s long-awaited financial services bill was a bit of a damp squib. It will, however, entrench tensions between the government and regulators with potentially dangerous consequences.

Certain entrenched interests in the US stock market face a bruising battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission — one that will be played out in the courts and the media.

The recent launch of the ISSB and a series of consultations offer a golden opportunity to drive common global ESG standards.

Swathes of global banking business could be under threat as geopolitical instability looks set to become the norm. 

The demise of the US dollar as the world’s top reserve currency has been endlessly debated, but some observers believe that the recent sanctions against Russia might be a real turning point.

Russia has effectively been ejected from the global economy by the West — a move that will stress its banks and could have frightening unintended consequences.  

January saw a rush of announcements about central bank digital currencies, as they enter their next phase of development.

Just three leading cloud providers pose a growing challenge in terms of the operational resilience of banks and this worries financial regulators. 

The European Commission’s approach to implementing Basel III into the EU’s banking framework attempts to be faithful, but is filled with divergences and delays.