European Council’s Van Rompey: Europe Must Overcome Crisis to Defend Democratic Values

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy’s speech “Europe on the World Stage” recently given in London emphasized the complete change of the global landscape, identifying three main trends: “One: the stage is getting more crowded. Two: the public comes closer to

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Itaú Unibanco Forms JV With Banco BMG

Itaú Unibanco announced on Tuesday an agreement with the Banco BMG to offer, distribution and marketing of payroll services. The joint venture will be called banco Itaú BMG Factored, and Itaú Unibanco will hold the control with 70% of the

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Barclays’ Libor Rate Fixing Leads to Resignations

Barclays last week agreed to pay $453 million to settle U.S. and British authorities’ allegations that the British bank tried to fix and manipulate the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, which is the benchmark for interest rates on trillions

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BRIC Stocks Now Out of Favour … Later to Be an Incredible Investment Opportunity

With BRIC stock valuations currently low and yet with strong long term projected growth a great buying opportunity may materialize at some point going forward. Meanwhile, attractive dividend yields of 4%-5% and more are available. The “BRICs” – Brazil, Russia,

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OECD: Ominous Signs for International Investment

By Michael Gestrin, OECD After two years of steady gains, international M&A activity plunged by $107 billion, or 45%, in the first quarter of 2012. This is the second lowest level of international M&A since the start of the global

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ECB | European Central Bank: President’s Address at the 14th ECB and its Watchers Conference

Mario Draghi, President of the ECB, Frankfurt am Main, 15 June 2012 Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a great pleasure to take part in this fourteenth edition of the ECB watchers conference – and the first I am attending as President

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Bank for International Settlements – General Manager’s Speech: It’s Time to Address the Root Causes

Speech delivered by Mr Jaime Caruana, General Manager of the BIS, on the occasion of the Bank’s Annual General Meeting, Basel, 24 June 2012: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Five years after the start of the financial crisis, the world

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G20 Summit: Merkel still wants both Austerity and Growth in the Eurozone… but still no clue as to who will pick up the tab

Angela Merkel brushed off criticism of her focus on austerity, as the leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies focused their attention on the crisis in the Eurozone. In Los Cabos the EU largely postponed the discussion on the specifics

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MIGA (World Bank): During the Storm – Shift from North to South FDI

By Manabu Nose and Moritz Zander[1] At MIGA (the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency) we see the principal near-term risks for emerging market foreign direct investment (FDI) on the supply-side of financing. Despite a rise of emerging market risk perceptions, demand

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Stuart Gulliver keeps HSBC on Track for Focused Global Growth

HSBC is one of a hand full of truly global banks with both corporate and personal customers. As globalisation continues HSBC is extremely well positioned to take advantage of the shift of economic power to Asia, with its strong position

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