Capital
Banks, funds, rates and the flows that finance the global economy
AI Brings the Money Back to Stocks: Global Equity Funds Draw $44.1 Billion in a Week
Global equity funds drew $44.1 bn in a week — the biggest inflow since July, as AI bets and cheaper oil outweighed a 22-year high in US bond yields
Deposits Cool Off: Three-Month Rates at Russia's Top-20 Banks Fall Below 17%
Three-month deposit rates at Russia's top-20 banks fell to 16.94%, a low since Sept 2024, as lenders front-ran the Bank of Russia's key-rate cut to 18%
QNB Group Reports H1 2026 Results: Net Profit Rises 3% to QR8.7 Billion Amid Landmark Bond Issuance
Qatar's largest banking group posted net profit of QR8.7 billion for the six months ended June 30, 2026, up 3% year-on-year, with operating income up 11% to QR24.1 billion, capital adequacy at 19.8% and a landmark QR1.0 billion bond issuance to international investors.
Beats Without Cheers: Why Canada’s Big Six Bank Earnings Failed to Move Investors
Every Big Six bank beat second-quarter 2026 expectations, yet CIBC fell 5.3% and National Bank of Canada 4%: a deep dive into the valuation stretch at 16x expected earnings, volatile capital-markets beats, an eight-basis-point margin surprise and card-loan stress behind the market’s cold reception.
Sovcombank Plans Profit Growth in 2025 Above the 77 Billion Rouble Result of 2024
On March 14, 2025, Sovcombank managing director Andrei Osnos said at a conference call that the bank plans to increase its profit in 2025 above the 77 billion roubles of IFRS net profit recorded in 2024 (down 19% from 95 billion roubles in 2023). The result will depend on the key rate (21% at the time of the call), the cost of funding and the securities market; the cost of risk is expected near the 2024 level of 2.6% and loan portfolio growth within 10%.
A Half-Point Reset: The Fed Opens Its First Rate-Cut Campaign in Four Years
On September 18, 2024, the Fed cut its rate 50 bps to 4.75%-5% - the first reduction since 2020 - and signalled about two more points of easing through 2026
A River of Debt: How Russia's Record 7.2 Trillion Rouble OFZ Year Redrew the Bond Market
In 2025 Russia's Finance Ministry placed a record 7.18 trillion roubles of OFZ government bonds — 1.7 times the 2024 volume and 102.7% of the enlarged plan — as the easing cycle rotated demand from floaters to fixed-coupon paper. Banks and asset managers absorbed the supply, corporate issuance added its own 9 trillion rouble record, and the 5.5 trillion rouble 2026 plan arrives with a heavier redemption wall.
Dollar Leaves the Exchange: Moscow Bourse Halts USD and EUR Trading After U.S. Sanctions
US blocking sanctions hit Moscow Exchange, NCC and NSD on June 12, 2024: dollar and euro trading left the exchange on June 13, CBR prices rates from OTC data
VTB Posts Record 432.2 Billion Roubles of IFRS Net Profit for 2023 as Fourth-Quarter Result Falls 35%
On February 20, 2024, VTB published IFRS results showing a record full-year 2023 net profit of 432.2 billion roubles, in line with management guidance, while fourth-quarter profit fell 35% quarter-on-quarter to 56 billion roubles on higher provisioning, including 34 billion roubles against loans to foreign subsidiaries affected by the January decree on type C accounts.
Yield Without Risk: How a 19% Key Rate Sent Russia's Retail Money Into Record Fund Inflows
In September 2024 Russian retail mutual funds set an all-time monthly inflow record of almost 67 billion roubles — the eighth straight positive month — as money market funds captured 69.4 billion on the back of a 19% key rate, bond funds surprised with a floater-driven 9.5 billion, and equity funds merely slowed their outflows. By December the monthly record had tripled and the year closed with 753 billion roubles of inflows.
Saudi Aramco Completes $6 Billion International Bond Issuance, Its First in Three Years
On July 18, 2024, Saudi Aramco, the world's biggest oil-producing company, completed a $6 billion US dollar-denominated international bond issuance — its first debt market return in three years — after peak orders above $33 billion, more than six times the initial $5 billion target; the three $2 billion tranches mature in 10, 30 and 40 years and are listed on the London Stock Exchange.
The Dollar's Worst Half-Year Since 1973: Inside the 'Sell America' Trade That Redrew Global Capital Flows
In the first half of 2025 the U.S. dollar fell more than 10% — its worst start to a year since the Bretton Woods collapse of 1973 — as foreign investors flipped from buying American stocks and bonds to selling them in the trade Wall Street dubbed 'sell America'. This deep dive, based on NPR's July 5, 2025 analysis by Rafael Nam, unpacks the currency mechanics of the flow reversal, the three shocks behind it (Liberation Day tariffs, Trump's fight with the Federal Reserve, the Iran war that failed to summon a safe-haven bid), the $3.4 trillion One Big Beautiful Bill signature, the relative-return scoreboard that made Germany's DAX and Hong Kong's Hang Seng the year's winners, who gains from a cheaper dollar, and whether reserve-currency dominance is fraying or falling.
MTS Bank Announces Plans for an IPO on the Moscow Exchange
On April 12, 2024, MTS Bank announced plans for an initial public offering of its common shares on the Moscow Exchange. The new issue of up to 7,187,042 shares with a par value of 500 rubles can raise the bank's charter capital by 3.593 billion rubles to 18.6 billion rubles — about 19.3% of the increased capital. Majority shareholder MTS is not selling shares and will keep a majority stake; the deal includes a 180-day lock-up and a stabilization mechanism of up to 30 days. Proceeds will fund the retail growth strategy: in the medium term the bank aims to double its loan portfolio and client base to 8 million active clients and gradually raise return on equity to 30%.
When 31% Is Not Enough: Inside the Default Wave That Hit Russia's High-Yield Bond Market in 2025
Defaults in Russia's high-yield bond (VDO) segment grew sixfold in the first half of 2025 to 19.3 billion roubles, with one real-estate issuer supplying three-quarters of the damage — yet retail demand kept primary placements growing 23%. With spreads to OFZ near historic maxima and over a quarter of the segment's volume maturing between September 2025 and March 2026, the wave will keep rolling until the risk premium halves.
JPMorgan Chase Reports Q2 2025 Results: Net Income of $14.9 Billion as Trading and Investment Banking Beat Estimates
JPMorgan Chase, the largest U.S. bank by several measures including assets and deposits, reported second-quarter 2025 results on July 15, 2025: earnings of $5.24 a share on revenue of $45.68 billion topped analyst estimates, with fixed income trading revenue up 14% to $5.7 billion, investment banking fees up 7% to $2.5 billion and full-year net interest income guidance raised to roughly $95.5 billion.
Bank of Canada Holds Its Key Rate at 2.25% for a Seventh Time as Trade War and Oil Keep Inflation at 3%
The Bank of Canada left its overnight rate at 2.25% on September 2, 2026, a seventh straight hold, as 3% inflation and new U.S. tariffs cloud the outlook.
Long Money for a Long Game: How Russia's Pension Funds Bet on the Savings Programme in 2026
Russia's Long-Term Savings Programme has reached 12.1 million contracts and 938 billion rubles, and non-state pension funds now bet on maternity capital transfers, employer co-financing and a five-year withdrawal lock to turn it into the economy's first mass pool of genuinely long household money — with up to 2 trillion rubles projected by the end of 2026.
Alfa-Bank Posts RUB 118.7 Billion IFRS Net Profit for H1 2025, Up 41% Year on Year
Alfa-Bank's first interim IFRS report since 2021 shows net profit of RUB 118.7 billion for H1 2025, up 41% year on year, with net interest income rising 36% to RUB 306.4 billion.
The Yen Carry Trade's Violent Unwind: Why August 2024 Proved the World's Cheapest Money Was Never Free
On 5 August 2024 the Nikkei 225 fell about 12% in a single session and selling swept every major market, as the Bank of Japan's 31 July hike and the Fed's cut signals collided with weak US payrolls to unwind the yen carry trade. A week later strategists told CNBC the unwind was far from over: with the position sized anywhere up to $4 trillion and as much as $1.1 trillion of yen borrowing still to repay, the structural case — a tightening Bank of Japan, a fundamentally undervalued yen and an easing Federal Reserve — pointed to more forced selling, while optimists called the correction healthy and temporary.
A Cautious Step Down: Bank of Russia Cuts Key Rate by 100 bps to 17%
Russia's central bank cut its key rate from 18% to 17% on September 12, 2025, choosing a cautious 100 bps step as inflation expectations remain high
Calm at 15: Why the Market's Fear Gauge Is Not Flashing Red — and Why That Is the Scary Part
With war in the Middle East, US$100 oil, 5% bond yields and a hiking Federal Reserve, the VIX sits near one-year lows around 15. Economist David Rosenberg reads the calm as complacency in a lopsided, margin-fuelled market; strategist Craig Basinger sees earnings and AI doing the soothing. A deep dive into what the fear gauge hides.
Not to Basel, but to Voronezh: How Russia Is Rewriting the Capital Rulebook for Its Banks
Sanctions pushed the Bank of Russia off the Basel path and onto its own. In an exclusive Interfax interview, regulation director Alexander Danilov outlines the rebuild: a 30% cap on immobilized assets, tiered surcharges for systemic banks, a rising countercyclical buffer, a national liquidity ratio and loss-absorbing subordinated debt.
Switzerland Returns to Zero: SNB Cuts Its Key Rate to 0% as Deflation Concerns Grow
Switzerland's central bank cut its key rate by 25 bp to 0% on June 19, 2025 as consumer prices fall; economists see a possible return to negative rates
Sberbank Eyes a Second Straight Record: Trillion-Rouble H1 Profit and a 50% Dividend Pledge
Sberbank's H1 2026 IFRS profit rose 18.6% to 1.019 trln roubles; Gref pledged record 2026 dividends at a 50% payout after the 850.2 bln rouble 2025 record
Emirates NBD Issues Its First $1 Billion Blue-Green Bond to Fund Marine and Energy Transition Projects
Emirates NBD, Dubai’s biggest bank by assets, issued its first $1 billion blue-green bond: a dual-tranche deal under its Euro Medium-Term Note programme combining a three-year $300 million blue tranche — the largest blue bond issued in the UAE and the Gulf — with a five-year $700 million green tranche.
Glorax Raises RUB 2.1 Billion in the First Moscow Exchange IPO of 2025
Developer Glorax raised RUB 2.1 bn in the first Moscow Exchange IPO of 2025: 64 roubles a share, an oversubscribed book and a buyback offer at +19.5%
The Race for Scale: Wells Fargo, Citigroup and the Seven Regionals That Could Reshape American Banking
With merger rules loosened and the 10% national deposit cap keeping JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America on the sidelines, Citigroup and Wells Fargo are the only U.S. megabanks with room to buy a US$100 billion-plus regional lender. This deep dive maps the seven-name shortlist — Fifth Third, Huntington, Citizens, KeyCorp, Regions, Zions and First Horizon — contrasts the two CEO scripts, and explains why North American bank-deal value still halved to US$30.1 billion in the first half of 2026 while Bain sees one to three new US$1 trillion megabanks by 2030.
VTB Returns to Dividends After Four Years: Shareholders Approve a Record 275.8 Billion Rouble Payout
VTB's AGM approved the first dividends in four years: 25.58 roubles per ordinary share, a record 275.8 bln roubles, or half of 2024 IFRS net profit
T-Technologies Posts 32% Operating Profit Growth for H1 2026 and Recommends RUB 4.7 per Share Dividend
MKPAO T-Technologies, the holding company of T-Bank, reported IFRS results for Q2 and H1 2026 on August 11: operating net profit rose 25% year-on-year to RUB 52.1 billion in the quarter and 32% to RUB 98.6 billion for the half-year, net revenue reached RUB 414.2 billion, and the board recommended a dividend of RUB 4.7 per share.