Banking and finance consulting in Europe for over 25 years

GBRW began its international journey in Europe, and continues to actively work in its home territory.

GBRW began its corporate history working on the capacity building and reconstruction of the east European banking sector following the collapse of the Iron Curtain. Much of the work initially focused on the management of stressed assets and problem loan management. Non-performing loans continue to be a significant impediment to optimal growth in some markets.

We also worked extensively in improving access to finance for SMEs in the burgeoning private sector during the transition to a more market-led model. GBRW has headquarters in London where it can work with UK-registered banks and financial institutions, particularly representative offices and the local branches of foreign banks. We also serve the need of International Financial Institutions (IFIs) based in Europe with a regional or global remit. In addition, we have a representative office in Athens dedicated to the Greek and Cypriot markets.

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Europe News

Paul Rex

Expertise (the GBRW Expert Witness Newsletter) November 2019

15th December, 2019

Nate Dickerson

Problem Loan Management Training in Kenya, Nigeria, Serbia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan

4th November, 2017

Nate Dickerson

GBRW Problem Loan Management Training in Azerbaijan and Tajikistan

10th July, 2017

Europe Assignments

Design of a Sustainability-Linked Loans framework for the SME clients of a large European commercial bank

Local Currency Market Diagnostic Study

Introduction to Sustainable Finance Seminar Series

Non-Performing Loan (NPL) Management Training for IFC

Our Team in Europe

We have a team based in London and Athens, serving Europe from east to west. They are convenient for consultation, and have deep knowledge of the region. We can also bring specialist banking and finance expertise from across the globe, especially London. We welcome contact from both potential clients and collaborators, so do feel free to connect with us.

Paul Rex

Chairman, GBRW Consulting | Managing Director, GBRW Expert Witness

Paul Rex is an experienced banker with unusually wide exposure to both developed and emerging markets, having spent 18 years in management positions with two major banks (Chemical Bank, now JP Morgan Chase, and Crédit Agricole) followed by 25 years consulting on banking and financial sector assignments in the UK and overseas.

Paul’s areas of specialisation include banking strategy; development banks; enterprise risk management (including capital adequacy); credit and specialised lending across a wide range of sectors; investment; and Non-Performing Loans and enterprise restructuring across a number of industries. Paul has an MA from The Queen’s College Oxford, is a Fellow of the Academy of Experts and an accredited Mediator. He is internationally recognised as an expert witness in high value banking litigation.

In his work as a consultant and an expert witness in more than 70 financial sector disputes, Paul has worked in more than 30 countries in Africa, Asia and Europe. He has reviewed credit policies and procedures for more than 60 banks and has drafted these documents for a number of GBRW’s clients.

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Emmanuel Skourtis

Director, Greece and Cyprus

Emmanuel is the Director of GBRW in Greece and Cyprus. Following over twenty-five years of corporate finance experience, including a sizeable number of projects/transactions in the areas of corporate finance, restructuring, valuations, crisis management and liquidations, he joined the GBRW group of companies in 2016.

During his 7 years at KPMG in Greece as Head of M&A and Restructuring Practice, he conducted a number of projects with systemic banks, involving financial analysis, reviews of internal policy, strategy planning, valuations and devising training. It was also in this period that he became Monitoring Trustee of Piraeus Bank reporting directly to the EU DG Competition and the Board of Directors. In this role, he was instrumental in redesigning and implementing a new operating and procedural model and system of corporate governance for the bank, ensured the compliance of corporate and non-performing loan portfolios and was a key player in the merger and integration of 6 banks into Piraeus Bank, making it the largest in Greece.

Emmanuel holds a PhD in Business Administration and is a visiting Lecturer in these fields at the Greek Open University.

Jeremy Denton-Clark

Director, GBRW Consulting/ Learning/ Expert Witness

Jeremy has been a Director and Company Secretary of GBRW Consultancy since 2000. He joined the GBRW group of companies after 32 years of experience as a professional commercial banker in the City of London, the last 8 years of which he was the Chief Executive Officer of a merchant bank.

Jeremy started his career in the foreign exchange department of Kleinwort Benson before moving on to the control of advances made by the French and Belgium branches of the National Westminster Bank. Moving back to London he joined for 13 years a bank owned by commercial banks in the United States, Scandinavia and Germany where he was appointed a Director and General Manager. Jeremy was then appointed the Chief Executive Officer of a merchant bank in London specialising in trade finance, private banking and lending to SMEs.

Jeremy has been a banking consultant for over 20 years and resident in Moscow, Bucharest and Zagreb on bank restructuring projects. He has delivered 52 consultancies in more than 20 countries. He is a specialist in corporate governance and organisation structure; development of a bank’s strategy and objectives; capital adequacy, funding and liquidity; risk management as well as lending to SMEs and mid-cap corporations including recovery of portfolios of NPLs and individual loans in default.

He has been a Non-Executive Director of a commercial bank in the Balkans for 4 years, an advisor to the CEO and Executive Board in a number of banks in developing markets and a trainer on technical banking topics in numerous countries.

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David Croft

Director, GBRW Consulting/ Learning/ Expert Witness

David’s experience in international finance and banking stretches over 35 years with spells in 6 countries, for the most part with Citigroup/Citibank but he has also worked for ING, American Express, HSBC and Schroders. His early training was in corporate finance but his experience is predominantly investment banking, treasury and financial markets. He has had roles in private and retail banking and fund management. He has held a number of senior management positions with Citibank/Citicorp including General Manager Citicorp Switzerland, Head of Public Sector Finance and Credit in North America, Managing Director Derivatives, Global Head of Emerging Market Equities, and Regional Treasurer Australia/New Zealand. At ING and American Express he had senior roles in risk management and the oversight of hedge fund activities and relationships.

David’s qualifications include: BSc (Physics) University College London, MBA London Business School, Diploma in Internatiional Management Ecole des Hautes Etude Commerciales, Diploma in Economics of Ecommerce.

Apart from in-depth expertise in financial market topics, he has a successful track record of developing strategy, product innovation and turning businesses around.

His consulting experience has been gained whilst at GBRW and spans: credit risk modelling and assessment; treasury, foreign exchange and liquidity management; bank capital adequacy and BIS implementation; portfolio performance and risk management; financing climate change in developing countries; securitization of SME loans; managing non-performing loan portfolios.

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