Old Money

Saudi Aramco’s jumbo IPO is taxiing towards take off, though the timing and any co-listing locations along with Riyadh have yet to be revealed. London and New York’s exchanges are eager to host a co-listing, with Toronto, Hong Kong and Singapore also in the frame for what promises to be the biggest ever IPO, valuing the company at $2tr.

Bad banks from Barings to Bradford & Bingley

Reflecting on the run on the Rock, a full decade on.

At 7:30pm on September 16, 1992, or Black Wednesday, at the end of a frenzied day in the markets the UK chancellor of the exchequer Norman Lamont announced that Britain was leaving the Exchange Rate Mechanism of the European Monetary System. It was a critical change in policy direction from the path of monetary convergence with the Europe and the first Brexit.

There’s plenty of arguing about Brexit, but in finance, euro clearing stands out as a particularly bitter regulatory fight. At issue is London’s place as the host of euro trading — and it’s going to go down to the wire.

Banks are in the grip of an era of regulatory fines. Boston Consulting Group (BCG) estimates that since the 2008 financial crisis banks globally have paid $321bn in fines, an average of $40bn a year. Most have been levied by US banking agencies, with the EU claiming that it has levied 800% more in bank penalties than its 28 member states have added together. The record fine to date is the $13bn paid by JP Morgan in 2013 in settlement of mortgage backed securities (MBS) violations.

Talk of a ‘21st Century Glass-Steagall’ is swirling around Washington and Wall Street. What this might mean in practice is hazy, but the phrase Glass-Steagall is plainly a powerful political talisman.

Short sellers and their schemes have a murky past. From the Dutch East India Company to Borussia Dortmund.

Once France broke international records for sovereign defaults, thanks to wars, money printing and dodgy liability management.

Kaleidoscopic corporate restructurings have long been a feature at Credit Suisse. There appear to have been three drivers – geographical balance, shuffling the deck in its investment banking activities and a noted propensity for being accident prone.

At 8:15pm on November 8, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi stunned the country by announcing in an unscheduled television broadcast that at midnight Rs500 ($7.50) and Rs1,000 ($15) banknotes would be “demonetised”.

It’s a back-to-the-future new year for Barclays as it forges ahead with its strategic repositioning — the latest moves in what feel like decades-long twists and turns into and out of Africa and investment banking.