Over the past two years banks have been hit by a huge wave of litigation relating to residential mortgages, interbank rates, consumer insurance and money laundering. Though lenders have largely managed to absorb the costs fairly easily, it seems that the regulators are not quite finished when it comes to dishing out fines.

The new 'grand coalition' of conservatives and socialists in Germany may have a huge majority in the Bundestag, but there are already disagreements over the extent of national powers in the functioning of the eurozone banking union.

The tapering of the US Federal reserve's quantitative easing programme and a higher interest rates environment are mopping up liquidity from emerging markets, separating the top-in-class from the current-account-bingers. How does Latin America fare?

If the early 2000s were all about the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China, now attention is shifting to the up-and-coming countries of Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey – the MINTs. And with rapid economic growth predicted, retail banks in these countries will be under enormous pressure to keep up.

Once regarded as national treasures, over the past few years many exchanges have been evolving into cross-border operations, focused on capturing larger market shares. Following this wave of consolidation and collaboration, however, it still remains to be seen whether bigger really means better.

There is an optimistic feeling among the CEOs of Spain's leading banks, as profits and domestic conditions improve. With the European Central Bank's imminent asset quality review expected to be passed with flying colours, the country's lenders are now looking beyond survival and towards growth, both domestically and internationally.

Corporate bond market participants are starting to look for alternative ways to trade bonds as regulations put the squeeze on the amount of liquidity in the banking system. 

While Colombian banks are gaining ground in central America, locally owned banks are still scoring well in this year's Top 100 ranking of central American banks. 

A lot has changed in the 35 years since Kevin Brown started his career at RBS. The senior executive at RBS International Banking tells The Banker that as telecommunications have evolved, so have customers’ expectations.

With the fastest growing economy in Latin America and the lowest rate of inflation, Colombia has a lot going for it. But foreign banks looking to enter the market are finding that opportunities are rare and competition is intense. 

The acquisition of UK brokerage Collins Stewart Hawkpoint by Canada's Canaccord Genuity gave Alexis de Rosnay the chance to fulfil his ambition of building a business, as the group aims to become a global mid-market investment bank.