The revelation on the BBC and in the Guardian that British bank, HSBC, the second biggest in the world has allegedly helped UK residents sidestep taxes through a Swiss subsidiary should really come as…
Peer-to-peer lending, the online platforms which allow you and I to lend directly to people and businesses who want to borrow, has been hailed as disruptive technology. Cheered by savers who have been…
In 2009, US trucking company YRC Worldwide faced ruin as it struggled to restructure its debt. With tens of thousands of jobs at stake, the Teamsters union, led by James Hoffa, accused some YRC bondholders…
There is something in the culture of banking that lends itself toward making otherwise fairly good people do bad things. That’s the finding of a new study published in the journal, Nature. And it may simply…
The word “speculation” carries a connotation of negativity. And it’s probably fair to say that pretty much every financial crisis since the tulip mania of the 1630s can be attributed to some sort of mass…
It’s clear mortgage standards have gotten too tight when even a former Federal Reserve chairman who makes as much as US$250,000 per speech cannot refinance his home. Ben Bernanke complained about his inability…
Islamic finance is going global. South Africa has joined the UK and Hong Kong to become the third non-Muslim country to issue an Islamic bond or sukuk. And this follows American investment bank Goldman…
The latest survey on the basic understanding of financial terms like “loan”, “interest rate” and “budget” makes for shocking reading. The Money Advice Service surveyed 3,000 adults and found that 32% did…
The crash of 2008 revealed an ethical crisis in banking, one of our most powerful and critical industries. To encourage bankers to clean up their act, proposals including caps on bankers bonuses, better…
Some shares have new owners every second. Today much of the buying and selling is done by computers, but some still rely on human intuition – the gut feeling of the experienced trader. “Nobody can predict…
Here’s the thing about big corporate mergers: in the long run, they’re rarely successful. And yet they keep happening. In fact, the corporate world is witnessing a wave of merger and acquisition mania…
“In capitalist countries, the bank robs you.” Rightly or wrongly, this phrase – a reversal of an internet meme – sums up many Europeans’ reactions to the bank bailouts and austerity of the last few years…
The world’s biggest cement producers Lafarge and Holcim have announced plans to merge. In an industry with strong economies of scale that already pumps out more cement than the world needs, consolidation…
Tunisia has been hailed as a lone success story among the Arab Spring nations. A relatively peaceful transition with a recent agreement on a new constitution has enabled the country to avoid the bloodshed…
Who lives at Number Ten Downing Street? The answer is of course… George Osborne. While his official residence may be next door at Number Eleven, it is he and not David Cameron who lives in the flat above…
When the chairman of the ethical Co-operative Bank was recently caught on camera purchasing drugs, it became a major news story. But the links between drug-taking and Wall Street or the City of London…
Figuring out why financial crises emerge in seemingly stable economies is tough. Widespread collapses are notoriously difficult to predict - to do so requires a comprehensive view of a complex, interconnected…
Mark Taylor, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick
In the latest big scandal to hit the banking sector, regulators around the world are investigating whether foreign exchange markets have been rigged. At least seven major banks have been caught up in the…