It is hot and humid in Singapore's November and almost every afternoon the rain breaks its way. Then it almost seems as if the sky wants to cry. A visit to the "Singapore Fintech Festival 2018"…

Total global economic losses from natural and man-made disasters in 2017 were USD 337 billion, almost double the losses in 2016 and the second highest on record, the latest sigma study from the…

Compliance in SMEs has been a long-running issue in the media for years. Despite this, not all SMEs have adequate compliance structures in place yet. This is shown by the recent study "Compliance…

Samsung recalled 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 phones after users reported flames and explosions caused by overheating batteries (estimated cost: $5bn+). Automaker, Toyota issued a recall on over…

We often respond to blunders such as the explosion on BP's Deepwater Horizon, the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and the Volkswagen emissions scandal by asking: What were they thinking? But before…

At the end of 2016, global sector trends remained mixed, including in the regions that until now have been relatively spared by the increase in risks. Over the whole year, across 12 sectors…

The central theme of the RiskMap 2017 is the challenge to globalisation and free trade and how businesses can adapt and thrive in these changing times. Donald Trump’s triumph in the United States…

It has been another crazy week on the political and financial market front. Donald Trump's unexpected win on Tuesday sent shockwaves across global markets with everything from currencies and…

A four-week commodity rally has come to a halt as the dollar continues to strengthen. The euro, the world's most actively traded currency against the greenback, dropped below €1.09 to hit its…

Commodities from an index perspective were close to flat on the week. Behind this perceived calm, however, some major developments unfolded – as can be seen in the table below.

Crude oil…

Commodities showed broad-based gains during a week that was driven by central bank action or perhaps (as it turned out) no action at all. The "hawkish no hike" from the Federal Open Market…

Precious metals have been back on the defensive this past week with the shake-out in both bonds and stocks hurting the general level of the appetite for risk in the market. Next week's central…

The Bloomberg Commodity Index, which tracks the performance of 20 major commodities split evenly between energy, metals and agriculture, continues to show a gain of more than 10% in the year to…

I am writing this chronicle from South Africa which is almost as far away from Europe and the constant and never ending Brexit talk as you can come. It's hard even here to avoid the turbulence…

Banks are complaining about the increasing, practically unmanageable complexity of regulatory requirements, and about the huge implementation costs that institutions have to bear. However, there…

Since the international growth scenario announced by Coface last March, prospects have deteriorated slightly, and growth would appear to remain below 3% in 2016 for the 6th consecutive year.…

Commodities continued their strong ascent with broad-based gains across most sectors with the exception of industrial metals. Towards the end of another strong week, however, some profit taking…

The commodity sector was trading close to unchanged for a second week. Weakness in energy and especially precious metals was offset by gains across the agriculture and industrial metal sectors. …