In The Banker’s annual look ahead this month, the 77 bankers provide an overall bullish outlook for 2004 plus some very clear views. For example: “We are planning to make one acquisition each year, thus building the largest regional banking group in CEE,” says Sandor Csanyi, chairman of Hungary’s OTP Bank.
And in our annual review we name the top central bank governors and finance ministers over the past year. The global winners were Malaysia’s Zeti Akhtar Aziz and Spain’s Rodrigo Rato, respectively.
Elsewhere, the Argentine government’s delusions are making the enormous task of recovery even more difficult while in Brazil the central bank governor, Henrique de Campos Meirelles, assesses the Lula administration one year on.
In capital markets, Bob Diamond explains how Barclays Capital’s model can succeed in the US, while Merrill Lynch’s Financial Institutions Group wins our Team of the Month for a stream of ground-breaking deals.
Also, we examine how European firms are taking their derivatives innovation to the US. And in FX, we study the hot emerging currencies. And in a special supplement, we look at Caja Madrid and the huge growth in Spanish covered bonds.
In Asia, Japanese banks may have produced some favourable results but they are not out of the woods yet, and in India HSBC surprises by taking a local stake. In the Middle East and Africa, we examine the expansion opportunities for Jordanian banks in neighbouring countries, especially Syria and Iraq, and in Cameroon we profile the African ambitions of Afriland First Bank.
Meanwhile, in a first for The Banker, we use a new methodology to find the fastest growing banks across Europe.
In retail, we compare the customer strategies of Spain’s two giants, Santander Central Hispano and BBVA, assess how a small South African IT company is challenging the industry smart card providers for the world’s ‘unbanked’ market, and report on how the Islamic Bank of Britain is set for launch soon.
In technology, Microsoft’s financial services general manager Bill Hartnett discusses banks’ lack of understanding of their core business. We also examine the challenges of business continuity as well as the Moscow Social Card, which combines credit/debit and social payments applications.
