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SO IT WASN'T a blip. When UBS scored a rare victory over Citigroup to be recognized in our poll last year as the bank with the largest market share in [...]

This has been an exciting few weeks for Commerzbank. First it smiled its way through yet more poor results, while promising better times ahead. Days later, it sealed a merger [...]

RATINGS AGENCY Standard & Poor's did not make many friends in German banking last winter. On November 14 an article appeared in the newspaper Handelsblatt containing unofficial preliminary S&P ratings. [...]

THE CAPITAL MARKETS are producing new ways for banks to create a profitable business from lending to Germany's small and medium-size companies--the Mittelstand--and KfW is playing a leading role. But [...]

WHEN ITALY JOINED the 70 billion € European inflation-linked bond market last year with a five-year issue, investors welcomed the move and banks highlighted it as a trigger for a [...]

Regulation, historical rivalries, investor scepticism, language barriers and egos all stand in the way of large bank mergers in western Europe, where consolidation stalled at the end of the 1990s. [...]

HSBC wins our best bank award this year. Customers value its long-term approach to relationship banking and the that it has not been caught up in the scandals that have [...]

The new Basle II capital adequacy rules have been approved by central bankers and regulators of the G10 group of nations but banks remain confused about how to implement the [...]

There was great potential for confusion at Deutsche Bank's London office one day last month. Standing in the grand reception area was a large sign bearing the words 'Welcome to [...]

ABN Amro last month made a curious choice of words to announce the arrival of some new staff in its commodity derivatives division. The firm had, we were told, hired [...]

UBS has sparked controversy in electronic trading by becoming Bloomberg's sole provider of dealer-to-client execution in exchange-traded derivatives (ETDs). Other banks, which are themselves large clients of Bloomberg's. will be [...]

The latest new name in European banking, Calyon, becomes fully operational this month. It's the product of the 2003 merger of Credit Agricole Indosuez and Credit Lyonnais, bringing together their [...]

Baudoin Prot (pcitured above), the CEO of BNP Paribas, used a results announcement last month to deny some of the merger rumours involving his firm and to sketch out plans [...]

In the number-crunching world of financial services, an appreciation of art is rarely useful. This is not the case, though, in the Basle office of UBS, where it is essential [...]

This article focuses on trends in private banking in Asia. Behind the challenges and dramatic changes faced by a private banker lies a fundamental shift in the private-banking business model. From being of peripheral importance for many wholesale and retail banking organizations, it has become a core strategic business unit. According to "World Health Report 2003," prepared by Merrill Lynch and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, the financial wealth of high-net worth individuals globally between 2001 and 2002 grew by 6.3% compared with growth in Asia-Pacific of 10.7%, the highest of any region. Many of the world's largest private banks are already established in Asia yet are actively hiring as new markets open up. Newcomers will have to adopt more aggressive strategies as they seek to gain a foothold in the world's fastest growing private-banking market. Onshore or offshore, there are several issues on which private bankers agree. With a more sophisticated client comes greater product diversity and complication, more attentive and labor-intensive service and, as a result, escalation of costs. INSETS: Singapore's Swiss finishing school;Man Group: blue chip with a long track record;Noriba: a Shariah-compliant approach;UBS: connecting with clients' emotions

This article presents the results of a survey of top providers of investment advice such as private banks and other financial firms. A key aim of the survey of the private wealth management industry is to establish which providers industry participants themselves believe to be the best in each country and region and at the financial services wealthy people use. It has been found that private bankers are working at about 85% capacity in terms of clients they could handle. Some chief executives will privately admit that they are still burdened by the excess capacity they built for the bull markets. Others are already worrying about how to scale up. Private bankers will have welcomed signs of stabilization and recovery in the underlying base of wealth on which they earn fees, but they will have been less pleased with another report, from Booz Allen Hamilton and Reuters. Also published last June 2003, this suggested that many European customers are dissatisfied with the performance of private banks at a very basic level. They are angry not so much at poor investment performance as many banks' failure to profile and understand them. INSETS: Methodology;UBS Wealth Management: reaping rewards of European growth;Sarasin: a stress on sustainability;Bordier & Cie: a quality niche player

The article discusses that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has asked the banks dealing with foreign exchange including Deutsche Bank AG and Citigroup Inc., to review their records to check for any wrongdoings. It states that the review process is a part of a global probe into possible currency-market manipulation. It mentions that some international authorities from Hong Kong and Switzerland have started working on the probe.

This article reports that Continuous Linked Settlement (CLS), the electronic settlement network for foreign exchange, is handling a growing proportion of transactions globally, according to a new report as of June 2004. The survey shows that CLS is becoming an increasingly established and integral part of the foreign exchange markets. But some of the network's earlier plans, such as adding money market instruments, have been delayed. The report by TowerGroup found that two-thirds of the member banks of CLS now use it to settle at least 50% of their daily foreign exchange volumes. TowerGroup predicts that by the end of 2005, nearly 90% of CLS members will be using the network that extensively. Banks feed trades into the system and CLS matches and settles both sides of each trade simultaneously at fixed points through the day. Jonathan Butterfield, executive vice-president of marketing and communication at CLS Bank, says he is pleased but not surprised at the findings of the TowerGroup report. The creation of CLS was the result of a protracted period of consultation with banks and central banks. The next step for CLS is to develop market data services based on the flows it observes, which will make the system more relevant to the front office at banks rather than catering predominantly to the back office.

This article forecasts the expenditure of securities firms on information technology (IT) in 2004. The days of seemingly unrestrained excess in IT spending by banks might have ended three or four years ago but technology spending is still raising. Securities firms are set to spend $71.5 billion on it in 2004, marking slight increase of 1.4% over 2003, according to a new report from financial IT research firm TowerGroup. This is far lower than the $86.2 billion that firms spent in 2000 but it does indicate that as banking revenues and profits recover, banks and other securities firms are once again willing to make technology investments. Peter Beard, CEO of technology firm Apama, which makes trade strategy modelling software, says that banks have been reopening their IT budgets after a downturn that lasted several years. TowerGroup says that spending is likely to be particularly heavy among asset management firms. This is partly because they are being forced to move away from transaction-based models towards fee-based models, and they need the technology to support this. Institutional broker-dealers are expected to spend nearly $50 billion globally--a slight increase on the previous year. Beard says he feels that high annual levels of spending are sustainable, even though banks tend to make large system purchases only once; they then often add new smaller pieces of software later, either to meet a competitive threat or to adapt to new regulation.

The article reports on Lehman Brothers, which has finally finished moving its London headquarters from its slightly gloomy premises in Broadgate to its shiny new tower in Docklands, joining Standard & Poor's and Bank of America as new residents in what is now London's key financial district. The building is so new that the local cab drivers haven't worked out how to get to it yet. And the building is very striking. In keeping with the big banks' one-upmanship in glitzy foyer design, it is super sleek and modern. So it is a bit odd to emerge from the lift on the top floor for the meeting rooms to be greeted by antique wooden furniture and lush curtains. It all helps to give clients and visitors the impression that Lehman Brothers is a time-honoured, stable institution.

This article focuses on the issuance of InterNotes by banks in Europe. In December 2003, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) was planning to become the first issuer of continuously offered bonds in Europe. LBBW was due to join Bank of America and FCE Bank in issuing InterNotes. InterNotes are fixed-income instruments that investors can buy or sell in denominations of just $1,000, £1,000 or €1,000. They have an all-in fixed par price and a flexible coupon structure, so the investor can select monthly, semi-annual or annual coupon payments. The bonds are offered every week. InterNotes were developed in the U.S. by specialist investment bank Incapital, which is 25% owned by Bank of America. With a typical bond, two or three banks earn a tidy fee for managing it, backed by four or five banks acting as co-leads. With InterNotes, however, Incapital structures the product for a small fee and then puts around 300 banks into the syndicate. As an incentive, those 300 banks earn a large fee for selling the instruments. Since January 2001, over $25 billion-worth of InterNotes have been sold to U.S. retail investors. Developing the European market has been tougher, but Incapital could have first-mover advantage.