“Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it” –Vincent Van Gogh Whenever someone has taken the road less travelled, the world has been made a better place. Although social acceptance may be poor and the challenges large, when the odds are overcome, the…

The dramatic market crash of 2020 is still fresh in our minds. The stock-market started to crash on 9 March 2020 with a large 2,014-point drop in the Dow Jones Index in a single day, followed by two more drops of 2,353 points on 12 March and 2,997 points on…

The investment banking industry has been steadily managing its level of activity, especially during the pandemic in 2020. It has been a principal task to go fully virtual and execute an untested working model in a matter of weeks. Many investment banking operations were executed smoothly, despite some hurdles. Clients…

The current pandemic has led to a new set of challenges for the consulting sector. This articles tries to summarize some of the trends emerging and what the consulting firms can do to come out victorious on the other side. The future is digital: Redefining the consultant’s role and global resourcing The consulting business thrives on consultants, who visit client sites…

The global banking sector is facing a formidable challenge in its efforts to continue servicing customers and maintain business resilience amid the COVID-19 pandemic. For many of our banking clients and the industry as a whole, the crisis was a catalyst for digital transformation and innovation in product and service…

Private equity (PE) is well-poised to navigate through the difficult economic conditions created by the COVID-19 crisis. Although pandemic-related disruptions decelerated global PE deal activity, the sector is beginning to rebound slowly. As with deal activity, PE fundraising declined 17% from 2019; however, the USD400bn fundraising in the first three…

Regulations were made more stringent after the global financial crisis in efforts to stabilise the financial system. Under the Trump administration, however, there was a constant push to roll back a number of rules and regulations in place during the Obama administration. President Trump revoked many regulations, some of which…

Breakneck pace of high-yield issuances in 2020 High-yield bond issuances have amounted to c. USD330bn so far this year (breaching their eight-year record), growing a staggering 40% YoY. Despite nine months into the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for junk bonds was unusually high in October, exceeding USD34bn. In terms of issuance volume, oil and gas held the highest…

QE and ECB programmes The global financial markets have been struggling, starting with the global financial crisis of 2007 followed by the economic recession of 2008–09, which led to the collapse of several global financial giants such as Lehman Brothers, AIG and Citibank, and now the COVID-19 crisis. Due to the pandemic, central banks…