If you see a flowering of “palm-oil free” labels on supermarket shelves next year, then thank Indonesian drivers, President Donald Trump’s trade negotiators, and sickly pigs in China. Palm oil — the red, semi-solid fat used in everything from noodles and soap to pastry and lipstick — has rarely been less attractive to consumer-product manufacturers. That isn’t so much a ...

When the European Union’s MiFID II financial rule-book was rolled out in 2018, asset management veteran Martin Gilbert warned of the unintended consequences for the bankers and brokers supplying trading services and investment research to his industry. With fund managers suddenly forced to budget and pay for investment research ideas separately from their actual trades, it seemed inevitable that overall ...

India is trying something new. After watching the shadow banking industry collapse in slow motion for more than a year, authorities have decided that enough is enough. They want to experiment with in-court bankruptcy for nonbank lenders. But will going to a haircut salon leave the financial system any neater? Dewan Housing Finance Corp. will be the test case of ...