The Guardian (April 5)
This has become “a Japanese century – thanks to the yen’s role as easy money for global finance.” Thanks to “loose monetary policy” the yen has evolved “into the world’s cheapest and most reliable funding currency. By suppressing yields on public debt to keep Japan’s domestic economy afloat, the BoJ effectively created a publicly subsidised funding pipeline for bankers.” They can make a quick buck by borrowing cheaply in yen and investing in higher-return assets, such as US equities. The “yen carry trade” is enormous, with profits for global investors reckoned to run into tens of billions of dollars.”
Tags: Bankers, BOJ, Carry trade, Easy money, Economy, Equities, Funding currency, Global finance, Japanese century, Loose, Monetary policy, Public debt, Reliable, Suppressing, Yields
Bloomberg (February 13)
“Hong Kong is in the midst of an IPO boom, with first-time share sales coming off a four-year high in 2025 and already off to the busiest-ever start of a year. But the upswing followed a dealmaking trough that lasted several years after a crackdown on the Chinese technology companies that powered a prior wave of transactions. As a result, some banks chose to retrench and experienced bankers often looked for opportunities elsewhere. That’s made the remaining high-level dealmakers hot commodities.”
Tags: 2025, Bankers, China, Crackdown, Dealmakers, Dealmaking, High, Hong Kong, IPO boom, Opportunities, Technology, Transactions, Upswing, Wave
Wall Street Journal (July 17)
“A clearer outlook on interest rates is giving bankers hope that dealmaking is emerging from a two-year slowdown.” Though up about 8% from a year ago, Q2 global M&A volumes “are still below those of the deal boom coming out of the pandemic,” with M&A activity “unlikely to kick into full gear until interest rates come down.”
Tags: 8%, Bankers, Boom, Clearer, Dealmaking, Emerging, Interest rates, M&A, Outlook, Pandemic, Q2, Slowdown
Reuters (October 6)
“It’s getting harder for China Inc to go global, and tougher for global financial advisors to take on the rapidly shrinking pool of related mandates.” Concerns over spying cannot be squelched. Alibaba provides the latest example. “Belgium’s intelligence service on Thursday confirmed it is scrutinising the tech behemoth’s European logistics hub just days after its courier unit Cainiao filed to go public in Hong Kong.” Chinese companies can expect “rising political risks… as they expand overseas. And that, in turn, might make bankers more cautious when taking on deals.”
Tags: Alibaba, Bankers, Belgium, Cainiao, China Inc., Concerns, Financial advisors, Hong Kong, Logistics hub, Mandates, Political risks, Scrutinising, Shrinking pool, Spying
Reuters (March 1)
“Strong investor inflows into bond markets this year mean traders and bankers are confident the European Central Bank will have a smooth start to unwinding its huge bond holdings, but the long term impact of its ‘quantitative tightening’ is a big unknown.”
Tags: Bankers, Bond markets, Confident, ECB, Holdings, Impact, Inflows, Investor, Long term, Quantitative tightening, Smooth, Strong, Traders, Unknown, Unwinding
Financial Times (June 2)
“Cloudy with chance of hurricanes for Wall Street.” Jamie Dimon the head of JPMorgan Chase, started the rush to use “meteorological metaphors to make sense of the economic turbulence.” After speaking of big storm clouds and a hurricane striking the economy, other bankers followed suit. Only a few, like Goldman Sachs chief John Waldron, refused to play along. He rejected the use of “any weather analogies,” but largely agreed the outlook is complex and dynamic, “The confluence of the number of shocks to the system, to me, is unprecedented.”
Tags: Bankers, Cloudy, Complex, Dimon, Dynamic, Economic turbulence, Economy, Goldman Sachs, Hurricane, Hurricanes, JPMorgan Chase, Metaphors, Meteorological, Shocks, Storm clouds, Unprecedented, Waldron, Wall Street
South China Morning Post (September 3)
“Bankers did not cause the 2008 financial crisis…. Instead, blame for the crash lies squarely with the world’s governments. Sure, bankers were both greedy and reckless. But it was government policies that created the conditions in which greed and recklessness were allowed–even required–to flourish.” By ignoring this and “failing to learn from their mistakes, they have made another crash inevitable.”
Tags: Bankers, Blame, Crash, Financial Crisis, Governments, Greedy, Inevitable, Reckless
Euromoney (March Issue)
“As Basel III was an admission that Basel II got things wrong, Basel IV is a clear recognition that there is much that is wrong with Basel III.” Judging from their reactions, bankers aren’t terribly excited about proposals that would among other things, “restrict banks’ use of internal models to determine their capital requirements and to limit their freedom to measure risk.”
Tags: Bankers, Basel III, Basel IV, Capital requirements, Freedom, Internal models, Proposals, Risk
New York Times (March 3)
Warren Buffet’s annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders really let the finance industry have it. “Mr. Buffett has long ridiculed the financial industry, but this year’s letter, laced with references to bankers, lawyers and consultants as ‘a lot of mouths with expensive tastes,’ seemed to amp up the pugnacity.”
Euromoney (March Issue)
“Investors, bankers and policymakers were caught off-guard in early 2014 as new depths of pessimism about emerging markets were plumbed.”
Tags: Bankers, Emerging markets, Investors, Off-guard, Pessimism, Policymakers
