Member Views

Mark Evans

BWC would like to welcome new member Mark Evans, ANZ Country Head Singapore and Head of South East Asia, India & Middle East.

Mark was appointed Country Head, Singapore in May 2022 with additional responsibility for South East Asia economies, including Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Philippines and UAE. As Country Head, Singapore, Mark is responsible for the overall business of ANZ Singapore across the Institutional, Corporate and Markets segments, and for driving connectivity between Singapore, ANZ's home markets of Australia and New Zealand and our international network.

Columbia University President Appointment

BWC Advisory Council member Minouche Shafik will become the 20th president of Columbia University on July 1, 2023.

Africa Sovereign Debt Spiral Foments Frustration

This past year, a decade-long Africa commercial borrowing binge with $30bn worth of bonds outstanding came to a screeching halt amid outright or near defaults, with distressed spreads as a measure of risk of over 1,000 basis points to US Treasuries for the sovereign benchmark index cross-section.

Debt topped the agenda at the US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, DC in December.

The Complication of Concentration in Global Trade

BWC member and McKinsey Global Institute director and senior partner Olivia White recently published The Complication of Concentration in Global Trade, in which she and MGI explore findings in and implications for supply chain resilience and globalization.

Key Takeaways from 2022 and Bold Predictions for 2023

BWC member and former CFIUS member Harry Broadman commented in Foreign Investment Watch on what the key developments in CFIUS policy during 2022 were and what might be a significant CFIUS policy action in 2023.

Linda Goldberg

BWC’s newest member is Linda Goldberg, Senior Vice President in Financial Intermediation at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Linda brings her great expertise in the areas of global banking, international capital flows, and the international roles of the dollar and other currencies to our network.

A U.S. Call for Modest IMF Gold Sales to Help Africa

"Modest IMF gold sales to help Sub-Saharan African nations and low-income countries could strongly bolster the IMF’s global role and benefit not only these countries, but also U.S. national interests," writes BWC member Mark Sobel. 

"On the heels of the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, the United States should lead an international effort to sell modest amounts of IMF gold for LICs."

Debt Fixes Can Help Rebuild Ukraine

“Policy planners in Kyiv, Washington, Brussels and London must start the complex and essential process of planning for rebuilding before the conflict ends,” writes BWC Board of Directors Vice-Chair William Rhodes today for Reuters. “In doing so they should deploy the financial innovation which helped to halt the Latin American debt crisis of the 1980s: Brady bonds.”

Fed Reverse Repos Hit a New Record: An Unhealthy Development

BWC member Hung Tran comments for the Atlantic Council that the daily volume of Fed reverse repos reaching a new record high is an unhealthy development with largely negative implications for the US financial system and economy going forward.

2023 Economic Financial Outlook

BWC member Jason Schenker of Prestige Economics and The Futurist Institute joined Bloomberg to share his expectations for the economy this year.