On March 19, 2023, UBS agreed to buy troubled rival Swiss bank Credit Suisse in a merger which was engineered by Swiss authorities to safeguard the financial markets and to calm down the turmoil in the global banking sector. Assuming that a merger of the two largest Swiss banks will lead to a merger of their fund and ETF management branches raises the question about the impact such a merger would have on the fund management landscape. Therefore, is a topic of interest to see how the merger of the fund and ETF arms of the two banks will impact

Following the October monetary policy meeting, President Draghi announced the future of the ECB’s quantitative easing programme. The asset purchase programme will continue until September 2018 (nine months longer than previously announced), however the monthly purchase target will decrease from €60 billion to €30 billion – slightly less than Fathom’s expectations. Both the main refinancing rate and the deposit facility rate remained unchanged at 0.0% and -0.4% respectively. President Draghi stressed that the reduced rate of purchases should not be described as tapering and he left the door open for the ECB to extend, or even enlarge, the programme should

U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen has set out her stall for Donald Trump. In what may be her last set-piece speech at the annual Jackson Hole central bankers’ confab, she defended tighter regulation since the financial crisis 10 years ago and called for continued U.S. leadership in global forums. The president wants to unwind the reforms, which could be a factor as he considers who should next lead the central bank.The Fed chief reiterated her support for the post-crisis Dodd-Frank reforms, saying changes such as forcing banks to hold more capital have “substantially boosted resilience” without hurting economic growth.

The annual central bank confab in the Grand Tetons may be the calm before the storm. With the U.S. and global economies in good shape, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen can enjoy what may be her last show in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. But fiscal fights in Congress, Fed bond sales and doubts about her future loom. The European Central Bank nears its own taper even as low inflation continues to confound economists. This year’s conference, with the theme “Fostering a Dynamic Global Economy,” is expected to be a ho-hum affair. Yellen plans to talk on Friday about financial stability but

Last month we argued that, with inflation set to exceed the UK Monetary Policy Committee’s forecast, members’ resolve to keep policy on hold would soon be tested. We were right. Even with the consumer, the key driver of UK economic growth, under assault from above-target inflation and weak wage growth, three out of eight members voted for a rate hike at last week’s meeting. This is the highest number of votes in favour of a rate rise since May 2011. Nevertheless, past experience suggests that a majority is unlikely to form behind them. Refresh the chart in your browser |

With inflation more than double the 5% target, Turkey’s central bank left its headline policy rate on hold at 8% last week. Instead, policymakers opted to increase the late liquidity lending rate by 50 basis points to 12.25%. The Bank has decided against hikes in the one week repo lending rate in recent months, instead utilising its interest rate corridor to increase banks’ average funding costs. So while the one-week repo rate has been on hold all of 2017, the weighted average cost of central bank funding has increased from 8.3% to 11.8%. Refresh the chart in your browser |

Lloyds Banking Group has hit peak Antonio Horta-Osorio. The UK lender’s recovery under its current chief executive has been impressive, however one slices it. But from here, his efforts become relatively less important in driving Lloyds’ returns than what happens to the British economy. The UK bank is outperforming on several measures that investors care about. The margin it makes between interest paid and received increased in the first quarter to 2.8 percent, beating both Lloyds’ own target of just over 2.7 percent, and analysts’ estimates. The gold dust that is equity capital is also mounting – Lloyds now says

There just might be $100 billion of cash looking for a deal. JPMorgan’s global mergers chairman, Kurt Simon, recently dangled the audacious notion that the capital markets could fully finance a 12-figure acquisition. He didn’t suggest such a transaction was in the works, though, and there aren’t many plausible targets. Simon’s exuberance is understandable. A record $6.6 trillion of debt was raised globally last year, about half of it the investment-grade corporate variety, according to Thomson Reuters data. JPMorgan helped arrange more of these dollars than any other bank. And just over six months ago, Bayer clinched its takeover of

Jamie Dimon’s letter to JPMorgan shareholders makes for a useful bank-reform cheat sheet. The longtime chief executive reprises many old beefs with financial regulation. He now has a more receptive audience with Republicans running Washington. Dimon’s rosy take on rewriting rules should play well even to a president unconcerned by details. Though he touches on many and varied subjects, bashing the deluge of post-financial-crisis oversight accounts for a significant portion of Dimon’s latest 45-page missive. Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan, Citigroup’s Mike Corbat and others mostly sidestep the subject. They’re strange omissions considering how the new administration and a GOP-led

Early last year we raised the prospect of China throwing in the towel on reform and rebalancing. By April, with the authorities still struggling to rebalance and economic growth well below the desired level, we felt that a change of course was imminent and the idea that China would ‘double down’ became our central scenario. As if on cue, indicators associated with China’s old growth model – such as the growth in investment by state-owned enterprises – picked up, and our China Momentum Indicator (CMI) bottomed out. Refresh the chart in your browser | Edit chart in Datastream   Our

Generali’s rumble with Intesa Sanpaolo has left a fading wake-up call. After facing down a bid by the Italian bank last month, the insurer is accelerating cost cuts and hiking its dividend. The trouble for investors is that Intesa’s interest looks a one-off. Generali is hard to take out. Intesa wanted to buy and break it up, yet failed to get enthusiasm from buyers for the bits it didn’t want or its shareholders. Other potential acquirers, like Allianz or AXA, face competition issues. That leaves Generali nursing its own problems. One is common for life assurers – the gap between

Last week’s decision by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to leave its policy rate unchanged at 6.25% took investors by surprise. As our chart shows, market participants had expected a 25 basis point reduction following a negative shock from the government’s decision to recall and replace 86% of all outstanding currency. Following several years when monetary policy has increasingly been seen as the only game in town, the RBI’s decision to lean against market expectations came as a breath of fresh air. Refresh the chart in your browser | Edit chart in Datastream On November 8, India’s Prime Minister,