banking Archives - Page 2 of 8

Financial news January 2022

ALD, the leasing subsidiary of Société Générale, acquires LeasePlan for 4.9 billion euro
In Italy, the state fund that controls troubled bank Carige has picked BPER Banca to negotiate a sale of Carige
Meanwhile, a rumored acquisition of Russian Otkritie by Italian UniCredit was dropped
Belgian Degroof Petercam sold its Swiss private bank to Gonet & Cie
Latvian Citadele also sold its Swiss subsidiary, Kaleido Privatbank
BNP Paribas completed the transfer of DB’s global prime finance and electronic equities (for more on these banks, see my two minute profiles of BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank)
Ireland has the 8th largest international banking sector in the EU and the 17th largest in the world, according to a BPFI report
The ECB launched its 2022 climate stress test. Results will be published in July.
Euro area inflation rose to 5.1% in January 2022
A Brussels court rejected the case of ClientEarth against the National Bank of Belgium

As always, I start the first Finrestra podcast episode of a month with a selection of the financial news of the previous month. Listen to the episode of 7 February 2022 on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube.

Financial news November 2021

Dutch inflation was the highest since 1982
German inflation was the highest since 1992
Even the ECB’s staff union wants a pay rise to keep up with inflation
The French CAC40 index surpassed its 2000 high (just 21 years later…)
BBVA wants to buy the remaining half of Turkish bank Garanti BBVA
KBC buys the Bulgarian activities of Raiffeisen Bank International

I also covered the news in the first Finrestra episode of December:

Financial news October 2021

Dutch pension fund ABP stops investing in fossil fuel producers by 2023
French La Banque Postale will exit oil and gas by 2030
ECB discussed inflation, but expects no rate hikes in 2022
Swedish Handelsbanken will leave Denmark and Finland (fits into a pattern discussed on the Finrestra podcast)
Italy and UniCredit end negotiations over the sale of MPS
Blockchain/CBDC experiment for trading French government bonds (more on blockchain on the podcast)
ING phases out payment subsidiary Payvision
ABN AMRO passes on AML costs to coffeeshops

The EU Tax Observatory’s ‘Have European banks left tax havens?’ report is misleading. Here’s why

Read the analysis I wrote for Finrestra.

Green and ethical banks in Europe

European banks with an explicitly green or sustainable profile:

Ethical banks:

Alternative Bank Schweiz (CH)
APS Bank (MT)
Banca Etica (IT, ES)
Cultura Bank (NO)
Ekobanken (SE)
GLS Bank (DE)
Merkur (DK)
Triodos Bank (NL, BE, ES, UK, DE)

Banking on YouTube

I’m trying something new. I’ve started making videos about banking, monetary policy and sustainable finance.

I’m still trying to figure out the best format. But I already like the ability to use graphs and pictures. Compared to blogging, video is less nuanced. For example, you can’t link to all sources. But maybe that’s an advantage.

Here’s the first one, let me know what you think!

The financial risks of climate change: the case of France

A first assessment by the Banque de France.

Links spring 2021

Money laundering in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
The era of central bank convergence is over
How can the ECB unleash building renovations
Policy comes first, economic theory follows (JW Mason on Biden’s American Rescue Plan)
The Jersey Way
CLOs in Dublin
Primer on money-laundering (Bribe, Swindle or Steal podcast)
Corruption in the U.S. 7th fleet (Bribe, Swindle or Steal podcast)
Tommaso Valletti on how the EU anti-monopoly system works in practice (On the role of economic consultants arguing in favor of M&A: “They produce a glossy pamphlet with three nice pages: exactly what the judge needs, he can say ‘ah, here is a counter-argument, here is an anecdote to rebut this. So, nobody knows’.”; On the capabilities of the EU: “DG Comp has less than 1000 people for half a billion citizens.”)
Marbella, united nations of drug traffickers
Alessia del Vasto and Rachel Oliver on their campaigns to change central banking:

Green finance

Asset managers, bankers, central bankers¹… Everybody in finance is talking about climate change and sustainability.

But what do green investments mean in practice?

A report by Common Wealth found that some climate-themed funds invest in oil & gas companies such as ExxonMobil. More broadly, the largest holdings of climate funds were Big Tech and finance. Adrienne Buller, the author of the study, writes “what do these ostensibly climate-focused funds really contribute to combatting the climate crisis, reducing emissions or driving a rapid transition to low carbon economic activities? There is nothing in the specific labelling or remit of these funds that would require them to invest in the green economy, in financial instruments design to drive the transition of business models to lower carbon activities, or other similar investments.” (emphasis mine)

There are plenty of metrics by which providers assess climate risk. Given different methodologies and the complexity of estimating climate risk, there is some divergence in the metrics. However, Chiara Colesanti Senni and Julia Anna Bingler do find that “metrics tend to converge for companies that are most and least exposed to climate risk”.

Data and tools for monitoring climate change and financial assets:

Organizations promoting green finance:

2 Degrees Investing Initiative (2DII)
Climate Bonds Initiative
InfluenceMap
KR Foundation
Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS)
Pacte Finance-Climat
Reclaim Finance
UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEPFI)
Net-Zero Banking Alliance (related to UNEPFI)

Organizations advocating broader economic change, including green finance:

European primary dealers

Afme has a nice handbook on primary dealers in Europe. I’ll write about some financial geography insights I gained from this document in the future.