The good bank emerging from the ashes of Portugal's Banco Espirito Santo is currently being sold, with China's Fosun and Anbang Insurance two of the leading bidders. But, asks Brian Caplen, will either of these companies winning the bid work to anyone's advantage?
Central bankers have been battling with interest rates since the crisis, making the management of capital even more difficult for bankers. The answer, according to a recent report by Citi economists, could be to abolish currency, and use alternative stores of value.
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has already raised more than a few eyebrows in its short life. However, rather than criticise, Western politicians should make note of its focus – oft-ignored infrastructure requirements – and ask why existing such institutions, namely the IMF and World Bank, are deemed insufficient to cope with Asia's needs.
Regulators have spent the past few years ensuring that a repeat of the last crisis will not happen. However, as JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has highlighted in a letter to shareholders, these actions could only be serving to worsen the effects of the next crisis. And Brian Caplen thinks he may have a point...
The UK may have returned to growth, but with its budget deficit still dangerously high, the economy largely failing in its drive to develop non-banking sectors. Given the lack of political ambition to solve either of these problems, it is only a matter of time before it falls back into a recession.
A closed economy for nearly 50 years, the opportunities that have opened up in Myanmar are endless, especially in telecommunications and banking. Brian Caplen looks at how players from these sectors are collaborating and innovating in order to tap into the country's huge potential, and examines the hurdles still facing foreign entrants to the market.