Silvia Pavoni

London

Editor-in-Chief at The Banker

Editor in chief @TheBanker, founder and former editor @SustainViews – both part of @FT.

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Articles

Trump is ‘wrong from start to finish’ on trade, says Reagan’s privatisation adviser

1 week ago | thebanker.com | Silvia Pavoni |Steve Hanke

Economists around the world have not been shy in their critique of US President Donald Trump’s trade views. Among them is Steve Hanke, who served as an adviser to US President Ronald Reagan and is known for his work on the Reagan-era privatisations. He is currently a professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University.
Citizens CEO’s strategy to benefit from the Trump bump

Dec 29, 2024 | thebanker.com | Michael Klimes |Silvia Pavoni

The CEO of Citizens Financial Group, Bruce Van Saun, talks to The Banker about expanding the lender’s consumer base in New York and its beefed-up middle market proposition, gained after a series of regional acquisitions. He shares his views on competing with larger players and whether the use of artificial intelligence in banking is “overhyped”. The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Making the case for social investments

Oct 21, 2024 | thebanker.com | Silvia Pavoni

Head of the Council of Europe Development Bank, Carlo Monticelli, discusses the growing demand for social bonds from a wide range of investors© Nathan Laine/Bloomberg“No way,” was Carlo Monticelli’s answer to banks requesting a discount on his organisation’s social bonds. The banks, which would have underwritten issuances by the Council of Europe Development Bank, known as CEB, felt social bonds were too niche and little known to command better pricing.
If ‘capital is a coward’, whose capital should be braver?

Oct 8, 2024 | thebanker.com | Silvia Pavoni

There is wide consensus that fighting the world’s most urgent crises, including climate change, requires both private and multilateral finance, but the details of how to get there are still very much a work in progress. It has been more than a decade since the UN launched its Sustainable Development Goals. This matters to bankers, too. At a conference on Monday, it wasn’t so much the high profile of the speakers sitting underneath the ornate ceiling of Hamburg City Hall’s “Festsaal” that struck me.
MPS finally tops Italian best-performing table

Jul 9, 2024 | thebanker.com | Silvia Pavoni

Extraordinary profitability boosts Italy’s smaller banksItalian bank watchers may not be surprised to find Monte dei Paschi di Siena topping the country’s best-performing banks ranking. After previous losses, its near-collapse and nationalisation in 2017, and painful efforts to turn the bank’s fate around, MPS closed 2023 with a $1.9bn pre-tax profit. Coupled with solid scores across most other indicators, the world’s oldest bank places ahead of its peers in the performance table.
Spain’s largest banks boost capital and profits

Jul 9, 2024 | thebanker.com | Silvia Pavoni

After an exceptionally profitable year, Spanish banking now centres around consolidation and the potential creation of a larger contender for the country’s top spot. While Banco Santander remains the dominant name in the local market by a good measure — both in terms of Tier 1 capital and assets — a potential tie-up between Spain’s second- and fourth-biggest lenders has been reigniting discussions about both national and cross-border acquisitions in Europe.
Banking, journalism and reasoning AI

Apr 12, 2024 | thebanker.com | Silvia Pavoni

As someone working in a profession very likely to be substantially affected by artificial intelligence, the latest news from OpenAI and Meta that their new large language models will soon be able to reason sent a chill down my spine. On the one hand, what fascinating progress. The positive implications for the quick flagging of potential financial crime, for example, should be welcomed. Not to mention wider applications outside of finance, like in healthcare diagnostics.
Toxic to tolerant: are investment banks appealing to Gen Z?

Mar 27, 2024 | thebanker.com | Silvia Pavoni |Michael Klimes |Aliya Shibli

A bad reputation for excessive work hours, lack of broader purpose and growing competition from other industries is forcing investment banks to change to attract young talentby , and Image: FT“When I started in the early 1990s, the managing director was a mythological figure — we analysts had no access to him, communication flowed unidirectionally, no one dared to say ‘no’,” recalls an MD working for a European investment bank.
I want more, not fewer, discussions about women

Mar 8, 2024 | thebanker.com | Silvia Pavoni

A few days ago, my colleague Liz had a bone to pick with the organisers of a conference that included a women-themed session. The panel was a breakfast gathering (clashing with the school run); it was not in a central location (adding an additional layer of logistical complication); and it was in the vein of so many other similar discussions that, as Liz wrote in her blog, still seem to yield very little in terms of progress. Judging by our readers’ response, she hit a nerve.
When should the boss speak up?

Mar 1, 2024 | thebanker.com | Silvia Pavoni

A few months ago, I joined a lunch organised by the HEC Paris business school to discuss CEO activism — the seemingly established trend of chief executives taking a stand on social, environmental or political issues. Georg Wernicke, an academic, was presenting the main findings of some new research on the subject. Speaking up on matters not directly related to companies’ activities may feel empowering, engaging and very human, said Wernicke.