Word: banking
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Naim and Tyson quickly took issue with him. "It's amazing how little worried the Europeans are about the euro," Tyson said, pointing to two controversial areas: the European Central Bank's relatively tight monetary policy and the E.U.'s battered Growth and Stability Pact, which long required governments to limit their debt and budget deficits. Exchange rates matter, she contends. The past 10 years were "a lost decade" for Germany because--among other reasons--the former West Germany reunified with the former communist East Germany at an exchange rate that was too high. "How many times...
...sliding dollar is good news for Poland. "We're the only ones not complaining," said Sikora, president of Poland's Bank Handlowy w Warszawie. Reason: Poland's external debt is in dollars, whereas most of its exports are in euros, which means it benefits coming and going. "We dream about this situation," Sikora said. Poland is the biggest of the 10 nations set to join the E.U. later this year, and Sikora is hopeful that accession will boost growth. Poland's lower labor costs give it a competitive edge, and it continues to enjoy some foreign direct investment, although...
...exaggerating. The cheap fares are luring Asians away from rickety buses, inefficient trains and traffic-choked highways. Laykha Boonlerd, 26, a bank employee in Kuala Lumpur, could never before afford to fly to Bangkok to see her family and instead made an excruciating 24-hour pilgrimage by bus and train. But with a one-way ticket on AirAsia costing only $26, she took wing in July for the first time. "I will travel much more with AirAsia," she says. Indeed, about half the travelers on Asia's budget airlines are first-time flyers like Boonlerd...
From the outside, Meritanordbanken in Helsinki looks like a typical staid European bank. Merita's ornate headquarters hall, with its rose marble columns and gilded cornices, harks back to the 19th century, when the Czar of Russia still ruled Finland. But don't be fooled. Behind the historic decor, Merita has become one of the world's most advanced banks, using the Internet and mobile phones to conduct most of its business. Some 1.2 million of its customers use the Web to bank, a world record, while only 6% of the institution's transactions are processed through a traditional branch...
...this high-tech prowess is a matter of necessity. MeritaNordbanken controls about 40% of Finland's banking market, so a merger with another domestic bank to cut costs was out of the question on antitrust grounds. Merita therefore embarked on a two-pronged strategy: use mobile and Internet technology to cut overhead, and become Europe's most aggressive bank in expanding across borders. In April it completed a merger with Denmark's Unidanmark three years after Merita joined forces with Sweden's Nordbanken. The deals have made Merita the largest bank in Scandinavia. "We see ourselves as a pan-Nordic...