The Banker Shorts March 24

Your quick guide to the week ending March 24, 2023, on thebanker.com.

Last week The Banker’s coverage was directed by the continuation of uncertainty and volatility in the banking industry. We received just as many questions as answers.

We examined the collapse of SVB from all angles and delved into the ramifications of the UBS/Credit Suisse acquisition. We also saw movement in the world of fintech in relation to the cloud, offerings by incumbent banks to their international customers and thoughts on how to tackle the increasingly sophisticated world of payment fraud.

Our global coverage bridged Europe, Asia and Latin America, as well as the most northerly and southerly points of Africa. And we kept our finger on the pulse of key people moves in the industry with another instalment of The Banker Board. 

Banking turmoil continues

One only has to look at the bank’s financial performance over the past 12 to 18 months to see that it has had its fair share of financial woes, with 2022 going down as the worst year on record since the 2008 global financial crisis in terms of the bank’s profitability. 

The fintech world

  • Shift to the cloud accelerates with Nationwide modernisation – Bill Lumley | Click here to read

Sulabh Agarwal, global payments lead at Accenture, says the building society’s move is an example of the way in which incumbent banks will find themselves more able to keep up with the challengers. “All these challenger organisations have been coming up with technology as a core differentiator and the rest of the banking industry is keen to catch up.”

Opinion sharers

  • Heritage, footprint and presence fuel HSBC’s promises to international customers – Liz Lumley | Click here to read
  • SVB’s failures serve as a wake-up call – Tim Skeet | Click here to read

“SVB saw itself as part of the tech revolution, with modern remote working practices, along with a ‘touchy-feely’ style that missed out the boring, basic bits of banking. Indeed, this tech revolution has been disrupted by old-fashioned fear and dull detail.”

“I think it’s healthy to be disrupted because it forces us out of our comfort zone. It is about exploring creative ways of making the industry better while safeguarding its stability and safety.”

  • SVB: US regulators have generated “a moral hazard” – Itay Goldstein and Yao Zeng | Click here to read

Globe at a glance

  • Is the UBS/Credit Suisse deal enough to protect Europe from US bank contagion? – Anita Hawser | Click here to read
  • SEBA Bank takes its crypto banking to Asia – Kimberley Long | Click here to read

“Had the Asian exchanges not grown to the sizes they had, I don’t think the rest of the world would have taken as much notice in crypto.”

  • Can Egypt’s privatisation drive succeed? – John Everington | Click here to read
  • Colombia, Chile and Peru bet on stock exchange merger – Barbara Pianese | Click here to read

Sound and vision

This week Liz Lumley and Anita Hawser talk ‘all the bank failures’, a shotgun wedding in Switzerland, ‘Dear CEO’ letters to UK e-money providers, banks making promises to international customers and 50 years of women at the London Stock Exchange.

South African finance minister, Enoch Godongwana, speaks to John Everington at the Financial Sector Conference in Saudi Arabia about the country’s economic priorities for 2023, implications of the SVB crisis on the banking sector, and debt relief plans for power utility Eskom.

Thailand’s finance minister speaks with Kimberley Long about the country’s economic plans, and collects the award for Finance Minister of the Year Asia-Pacific 2023.

People moves

With moves at Axis Bank, Crédit Agricole CIB, Natixis CIB and Citi.

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