Monthly Archives: June 2011

Getting the boards back in control

The board of directors are elected by the owners of a company to act on their behalf; and while taking care of their interests they are also bound by regulation aiming at policyholder protection. There are a number of different board decisions to be made, ranging from recruiting the executive team to setting the business…

Unique on the European continent

Could you give us an idea of KBL European Private Bankers’ [epb] strategy?Since the 1980s, KBL epb has devoted its strategy to private banking and a pan-European onshore presence has been built up by putting the emphasis on well-known local private banking brands. Thanks to organic growth and successive acquisitions we have now become the…

Establishing a company in Cyprus

Michael Kyprianou & Co LLC is a broad based legal practice based in Cyprus and Greece. One of its areas of specialisation is the company formation, management and administration of Cyprus and offshore companies, and formation and administration of Trusts. Cyprus business lawA Cyprus company needs to have at least one director, one shareholder, one…

“Solvency II is here to stay”

A golden rule in management indicates that changes should ideally take place before problems emerge, anticipating them and ensuring a timely response, thus enhancing effectiveness. In order to do so, changes need to be thought and discussed when the existing environment is still functioning correctly. This is exactly how Solvency II was designed. It is…

Surfing the wave of wealth management

Up until now, Wealth and Investment Management (WIM) has been a fairly stable business in all the key areas such as market evolution, client behaviour, investment performance, competition, regulation and technological innovation. However, a series of different factors are reshaping this industry. Firstly, demography and wealth distribution are changing. As the over-64 world population holds…

Taking the LATAM lead

For Celfin Capital, 2010 was a year of consolidation and looking to new horizons. In the Chilean market, Celfin strengthened its leadership position across all its business areas; while in the Peruvian market, the company’s brokerage, wealth management and corporate finance operations achieved significant positions and broke even in their second year of operation. At…

A journey of transformation

The story of Cairo Amman Bank (CAB) has been described as a corporate rebirth – one in which a small financial institution with humble foundations completely reinvented itself by tapping the potential in the Jordanian banking landscape to redefine its brand position. In the 1990s, the prognosis for CAB’s growth in the market was fairly…

JPMorgan pays $153.6m in SEC settlement


JPMorgan Securities has agreed to pay $153.6m to settle civil fraud charges against it for misleading buyers of complex mortgage securities investments during the collapse of the housing market, it was announced late on Tuesday. 
 The SEC found that JPMorgan did not correctly disclose to investors that the vehicle had been created on behalf…

Change is the only constant

From a humble beginning as a trading house in 1977, Al-Tuwairqi Holding Company (ATH) is now one of the leading businesses in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The company has shown a phenomenal growth over the last two decades and today is among the top five private sector industrial concerns in the Kingdom. Dr Hilal…

Foster’s $10bn takeover bid rejected

Foster’s, Australia’s biggest brewer by sales, rejected a $9.51bn cash offer from London-based SABMiller on Tuesday, saying the bid undervalued the Australian company.The unsolicited and unconditional offer of A$4.90 per share for the firm was an 8.2 percent premium on the closing price of A$4.53. SabMiller CEO Graham MacKay confirmed on Tuesday that it made…