Commerzbank’s bold liability management exercise – the first to address Basel III at both ends of the capital structure – shows that banks need not wait for national and European regulators to finalise minimum capital requirements. It also serves as a possible blueprint for Germany’s other banks to strengthen their capital base.

M&A activity throughout the world's exchanges may improve performance, but it could also make them less competitive.

Much has been written about the shift in the balance of global financial muscle away from the ailing eurozone and US toward the likes of China and Brazil. But even within the EU itself, the same trends are discernible.

Contingent capital, of one form or another, continues to be a hot topic in European financial markets.

As the bankers' bonus season arrives and the world's media ogle the figures, something seems to have gone missing in the debate. One of the recommendations urged by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic, backed up with the threat of further intervention if ignored, was to change the way in which bonuses are paid, rather than the size of them.

Eurosceptics, many of them in the UK, have so far rejoiced at the crisis in the eurozone, believing it has proven that they were right all along – a monetary union without fiscal union makes economic nonsense. The crisis, say the eurosceptics, exposes the euro as a largely political project.

Every analyst has their own spin on what the impact of Basel III might be, and Bernard de Longevialle’s financial institutions team at credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has now added its own 16-page report. One of the most striking observations is the effect that tougher risk-weights on banks’ assets could have on certain banks that had recorded relatively healthy capital adequacy ratios under Basel II.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), a body of regulators chaired by the US Treasury secretary, issued a series of recommendations in January on how to implement the Volcker Rule and its ban on proprietary trading.

The surge in Middle Eastern merger and acquisitions (M&A) is evidence of a shift from the oil and gas sector to the development of more complex and interesting industries. Is it set to put the region on a new path?

The Banker identifies those that have been integral to their countries' recoveries from various financial crises.