The transaction banking services departments of major banks have found themselves in a tricky spot coming out of the coronavirus pandemic, with the rapidly advanced shift to expensive digitalisation butting up against a rock bottom interest rate environment that is gnawing away at revenues.

Obi Emetarom is an ambitious man. He wants his fintech company Appzone to be at the heart of African banking and payments with its proprietary cloud and blockchain based technology, and, after raising US$10mn in series A funding earlier this year, he is building the team to do it.

Corporate treasury functions are not the first place people think of looking when it comes to cutting edge technological advancement, but there is a bustling industry attempting to make treasury services as connected and frictionless as possible.

Coverage of this year's winners and interviews with the teams.

Parts of Europe’s property sector were some of the worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic, but as vaccine programmes roll out and people start visiting hotels and shopping malls again there is light at the end of the tunnel.

With US$10 trillion in combined assets – many of which are highly polluting – the world’s sovereign wealth funds have been accused of lagging behind the rest of their financial sector in terms of their climate change commitments. What can be done to change the status quo?

Following various well publicised funding rounds, the likes of Flink,Getir, Gorillas and Zapp are promising to shake up the weekly shop. Can they live up to the hype?

The Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor is often a lighting rod for controversy due to his at times outspoken contrarian opinions. Jules Evans explores the key events and influences in Thiels’s life that have shaped his character and outlook.

Turkey’s Akbank has signed a $100m sustainability-linked facility from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), becoming the Turkish first deposit bank to secure funds from the multilateral lender as sustainable finance takes deep root in the country.

Nigeria garnered US$12.2bn of peak demand for a triple-tranche Eurobond in September, with the sovereign rewarded for braving a volatile market.

Balderton Capital promotes Colin Hanna to partner

Apex Group appoints three digital banking hires