In June, Eurex US unveiled a package of incentives to try to encourage greater use of its fledgling futures exchange. Since the launch of the exchange in February, it has failed to gain traction or to take liquidity from the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT).

Iceland’s biggest financial institution, Kaupthing Bank, has continued its aggressive expansion with the acquisition of the Danish medium and long-term financier, FIH, for DK7.1bn ($1.2bn). The purchase, from Sweden’s Swedbank, which surprised bankers who expected FIH to be bought by a Swedish bank, allows Kaupthing to expand its corporate banking capabilities and its presence in the Nordic region.

Total wealth of high net worth individuals (HNWIs) has only now “returned to levels only seen before the global recession took hold in 2001,” according to a recent report.

Premier Yu Shyi-kun appointed Taiwan Sugar Corp chairman Kong Jaw-sheng to head Taiwan’s new Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), which will begin operation on July 1.

Switzerland’s UBS Group heads the Top 10 list of global private banks with $1031.2bn in assets under management, according to the latest report from wealth management consultancy, Scorpio Partnership.

HSBC’s purchase of a minority stake in a private Indian bank has been pruned to 14.6%, confirming that the move made last year by the Indian government to raise the foreign investment limit in private banks to 74% is not an open invitation to foreign banks.

Conformance, competition and culture are the key to good corporate governance, says Jacob Wallenberg.

Intesa managing director and CEO Corrado Passera tells Karina Robinson how he plans to keep the bank on an upward path after turning it around.

The Middle East is not wholly comprised of Iraq. While geographically obvious, the economic consequences of this fact can be easily missed. Bahrain and Qatar, two Gulf states that might have been overwhelmed by the Iraq crisis, are in fact booming. Editor-in-chief Stephen Timewell visited both countries in May and filed reports headlined: “Bahrain’s roaring success” and “Qatar builds the dream”.