Philippines’ leader steadies herself for a bumpy ride to reform
Political life is seldom dull in the Philippines. Two past presidents – Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada – have been brought down by popular demonstrations. Now President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is fighting to stay in office and carry out essential reforms. “I must do what has to be done and damn the torpedoes for a while,” she told The Banker’s senior editor, Karina Robinson. For an understanding of the various contradictory forces that make reform such a challenge in this troubled country, see this month’s Karina’s Kolumn and the article on the Philippines that follows.
As always, The Banker’s editors and correspondents have travelled far and wide to research stories for this issue. Editor-in-chief Stephen Timewell visited Reykjavik to report on the miracle growth of Kaupthing Bunadarbanki, run by 35-year-old Hreidar Mar Sigurdsson, who joined 11 years ago when there were only 25 staff. Today the bank is placed at 211 in The Banker’s Top 1000, a climb of 248 places on the year before. Kaupthing is one of the amazing eight banks that outperformed in the Top 1000 and are profiled in this month’s cover story. Other featured banks include Bancolombia, Bank Internasional Indonesia, First Gulf Bank and Austria’s Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank. We also have, for the first time, a list of the Top 50 Contenders expected to join next year’s Top 1000.
Other international reportage comes from Kerin Hope in Albania, Nick Freeman in Vietnam, Kala Rao in India and Jonathan Wheatley in Brazil – demonstrating The Banker’s commitment to countries of all sizes. We attempt to uncover and understand the facts that are not reported in the newspapers. We go behind the headlines, listen to what local bankers and analysts on the ground tell us and return, hopefully, with some real perspective.
Economics editor James Eedes (who hails from Johannesburg) has a particular interest in Africa and followed last month’s G8 discussions carefully and sceptically. His assessment (see page 82) is that Africa’s own agenda for action has much more chance of delivering results than the procrastinations of the G8 leaders.
In investment banking, we speculate about what new CEO John Mack will do with Morgan Stanley, we study how credit derivatives markets performed in the aftermath of the GM and Ford downgrades and we name Citigroup our Team of the Month for its work on a hybrid capital issue for the Swedish utility Vattenfall. Derivatives solutions for asset liability mismatches in pension funds is another topic tackled and, in the cash and security services section, we look at continuing difficulties in achieving a Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).
This month’s Tech Vision is an interview with Marcus Treacher, head of global transaction banking e-strategy at HSBC, and we also look at security measures to prevent leaks when banks are exchanging information. Chris Skinner, in his Shaping Tomorrow column, takes a swipe at those consultants who are making money out of regulation.
Finally, our research team contributes the Top 100 Latin American banks and our special supplement is on the Gulf Co-operation Council countries.
