Posts Tagged ‘banking sector’
Wed Feb 3, 2010 15:01 UTC |
There are growing indications that the Iranian banking system is in crisis, weighed down by a proliferation of non-performing loans. Although there is no timely financial reporting to speak of in Iran, a number of recent news stories suggest to me that the country’s banks are in a great deal of trouble.
Central Bank of [Read more...]
Tags: banking sector, crisis, Economy, financial stability, Iran
Posted in: Financials, General, Middle East, Political Risk
Thu Jan 28, 2010 16:29 UTC |
There are two key aspects to President Obama’s banking reform:
1) It attempts to address the ‘too big to fail’ debate: Obama wants to place size limits on banks (although it is still unclear what these are). This should create a wave of divestments and carve-outs in the banking industry.
2) To break up [Read more...]
Tags: banking sector, M&A, moral hazard, private equity, reform, risk management, US
Posted in: Financials, General, US
Fri Dec 4, 2009 15:09 UTC |
With the international investment community shaken by suggestions of a potential Dubai World default, this week we turn our attention to the troubled Kazakh banking sector. Bruce Jeffery, Business Monitor’s Kazakhstan analyst, provides some insight into the industry and shares his views on the key themes, which will likely dominate next year.

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Tags: Alliance Bank, banking sector, BTA, Debt Restructuring, Default, Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbaev
Posted in: Emerging Europe, Financials, General, Podcast
Wed Nov 18, 2009 17:09 UTC |
Cautious appears to be the best way to describe sentiment among Mexico City’s executives and bureaucrats at present, or at least that was the feeling Risk Watchdog came away with after spending a week on the ground there. This is not surprising, given the severity of the blow to Mexico’s economy from the recent downturn. [Read more...]
Tags: banking sector, competitiveness, Economy, export dependency, Hugo Chavez, maquila, mexico, Politics, re-exports, sovereign downgrade, US economic weakness
Posted in: Commodities, Financials, Latin America, Political Risk
Thu Oct 8, 2009 17:13 UTC |
As the Latvian government proposes a bill to change mortgage regulation to ease the debt burden on households, Bruce Jeffery argues that the country may be one step closer to eventual devaluation of the currency peg.

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Tags: banking sector, budget, currency peg, devaluation, EU, Lat, Latvia, Mortgages, Sweden
Posted in: Currencies, Emerging Europe, Financials, General, Geopolitics, Podcast, Political Risk
Fri Aug 21, 2009 16:04 UTC |
Surprise, surprise, there is (yet again) trouble brewing in Nigeria. Nope, this time the spotlight is not on the Niger Delta rebels, but on something potentially far more deadly: the country’s banking sector. Sounds familiar? Indeed, as attentive Risk Watchdog readers might remember, way back in January I mentioned how opaque reporting standards and large [Read more...]
Tags: audit, banking sector, crisis, Equities, margin loans, Nigeria
Posted in: Africa, Equities, Financials, General
Thu Aug 20, 2009 16:57 UTC |
‘Islamic banks have withstood the recent turmoil in the global banking industry triggered by the subprime mortgage crisis because their rules do not allow dealings in products like derivatives, options or papers that caused the meltdown.’
At least that’s what I keep reading in the media. And it’s a fair point. If the credit crunch was [Read more...]
Tags: Asia, banking sector, Banks, Islamic Banking, Islamic Finance, Middle East, Shari'a, Shari'a Compliant Banking, sukuk
Posted in: Asia, Financials, General, Middle East