Mission improbable

France Télécom: performance spurt shows signs of abating

Credit derivatives’ knock-on effects

Brian Caplen

Central banks look at road to ‘heresy’

Electronic platforms are testing customer-to-customer market

As electronic trading platforms report increased trading, some firms are attempting to fill a gap in the market with customer-to-customer trading facilities. But is there a demand? 

The big chill

As banks face some of the most challenging times in two decades and optimists are talking up a post-Iraq conflict recovery, Karina Robinson looks at the possibility and grim implications of a 10-year bear market.

As easy as ABCP

The asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) market, which started modestly as a way for banks to move assets off their balance sheet, using special purpose vehicles known as conduits, is today among the most innovative and complex financial sectors, often supporting entirely synthetic transactions. But its very success is arousing concern among some close observers.

Is Citigroup's Sandy losing focus?

In creating the modern Citigroup, Sandy Weill took the banking industry into a new era. Now beset by troubles on all fronts - Enron and WorldCom fallout, consumer finance allegations and a controversial new management structure - some analysts fear 'the king of capital' may be losing his magic touch.

Is the PFI about to hit the buffers?

Forget worrying about corporate collapses. The growth of PFI financing is playing havoc with public money. Eventually an Enron-style disaster will be rerun on a sovereign balance sheet.

Spotlight on a shady world

Melvyn Westlake says the legal row between Nomura and CSFB could result in more transparency in the world of credit derivatives.

Equity derivatives enter the dialogue

Banks are benefiting from an increase in corporate sector demand for alternative ways of raising finance while capital markets are effectively closed. 

Enron fallout: why insurers fail banks

JP Morgan Chase thought it had its Enron risks insured. Now it is fighting a legal battle to reclaim the money. The case raises wider questions about the effectiveness of credit insurance and the much-heralded convergence between banking and insurance.

As easy as ABCP

The asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) market, which started modestly as a way for banks to move assets off their balance sheet, using special purpose vehicles known as conduits, is today among the most innovative and complex financial sectors, often supporting entirely synthetic transactions.But its very success is arousing concern among some close observers. The market's role in shifting risk, often to exploit anomalies in the regulatory treatment of the banks' capital, looks distinctly uncertain when the rules change in three years time under current proposals.

eSpeed and TradeWeb win bond poll

Charles Piggott analyses the results of The Banker's survey of up and coming electronic trading systems for bonds.

Turning bad credits into profits

If your image of sub-prime is of penal interest rates and unsavoury collection methods, think again. The sector is on its way to respectability and boosting banking profits. Nick Kochan reports

Uneasy bedfellows face the morning after

Can JP Morgan Chase overcome a culture clash to emerge at the top of the banking pile?

Who will merge next?

It is not a matter of how, but of when. A major cross-border bank merger in Europe involving core countries is imminent. Investment banks are busy advising their clients on possible deals, bank chief executives are flying back and forth having talks with their counterparts and lawyers are looking at the legal implications.