Cash management and transaction banking in general are feeling the squeeze – required to work harder due to increasing pressure from both a tough economic climate and a range of new regulations. Deutsche Bank’s global head of trust and securities services and cash management for financial institutions, Satvinder Singh, explores the impact of the current economic and regulatory factors on areas of transaction banking.
Ongoing financial market turmoil and growing compliance efforts are having a profound impact on cash management needs and putting already strained banks under pressure. Deutsche Bank’s global head of sales, cash management financial institutions, John Ball, and global head of FI product – cash management for financial institutions, Marcus Sehr, discuss how local and global bank partnerships can help banks manage transactions in difficult times.
Technology is vital to success in cash management and across transaction banking. Deutsche Bank Global Transaction Banking’s global head of product management Rhomaios Ram; global head of cash product management and Europe, Middle East and Africa regional head of product management Christian Westerhaus; and head of client access David Watson discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by the rise of technology and the importance of striking the optimal balance between product usability and functionality.
Having overseen rapid economic growth in the past three years, Ghana’s finance minister insists his government will maintain fiscal discipline before December’s elections. However, he believes fuel subsidies should remain in place, at least for now.
Ghanaian banks are worried that rising interest rates and a depreciating currency could lead to a lot of volatility in the next few months. Nonetheless, they remain in good health and are likely to benefit in the coming years from the country’s rapid economic growth.
Ghana has been hurt by the weakness of its currency since late last year. Yet its economy, one of the fastest-growing in the world, is still in rude health, and investors are said to be increasingly bullish about the country, even if they are hindered by shallow capital markets.
Ghana has been a bastion of stability in a volatile west Africa for the past 20 years. It will have a chance to reassert its credentials in elections later this year and most analysts think it will succeed, despite political rhetoric becoming more heated in recent months.
Brazil produces 20% of the world’s ethanol, much of which goes towards fuelling the country’s cars. However, in recent years a combination of poor harvests, gasoline subsidies and the global financial crisis have seen investment in the industry grind to a halt. Will it be revived by the elimination of trade taxes on sugar cane ethanol in the US?
Many of Latin America's high-net-worth individuals are repatriating their funds and an increasing number of foreign investors are targeting the region, thanks to its rapidly expanding economy. With such demand for local product providers, domestic firms are finding themselves having to pit their specialist knowledge against the international reach of large foreign banks, making competition tough.
Angola’s vast oil reserves have helped it rebuild its shattered infrastructure and become one of the world’s fastest growing countries. But the country needs to develop the rest of its economy quickly to reduce its vulnerability to a fall in oil prices and tackle its high levels of poverty.
The discovery of vast oil reserves off the shore of Angola has significantly improved the country's economic outlook, with the government licensing the exploration and structuring the taxation of production in such a way that profits from the oil will filter down to benefit the entire population.
Angola’s banks are likely to grow faster than any others in Africa over the next decade, and they are also among the continent’s most profitable. But they will have to start innovating as increased competition and new regulations look set to make their presence felt.