The Banker is not trying to emulate Tatler or other society magazines with their focus on personalities. All the same, in the financial industry and beyond we constantly demonstrate that we have access to the senior players that is second to none. Last month, we featured HSBC’s chairman Sir John Bond on the cover. This month, we have interviews and input from a wide variety of senior figures, ranging from Hong Kong property magnate Vincent Lo to US Securities and Exchange Commission chairman William Donaldson, who discusses the implications of Sarbanes-Oxley in Viewpoint.

Everyone is talking about regulation and little wonder, considering the burden and cost. Over-regulation not only poses a threat to the finance industry today – it is storing up problems for tomorrow.

Following the Basel Committee meeting last month, the US is on side again and the accord looks likely to keep within its timetable.

Paranoia is in vogue in UK financial circles. The EU’s recent move to ban internalisation could hit London exchanges hard and the europhobes are out in force.

One of the biggest risks for the financial system is regulation, says City of London think tank, the CSFI.

Freddie Mac, the US’s second largest mortgage finance lender, is delaying its earnings restatement until this month, having previously said it would restate its earnings for 2000-2002 by the end of the third quarter.

In an important financial and political move, Saudi Arabia announced it would grant a full branch banking licence to Germany’s Deutsche Bank, Europe’s second largest bank by assets.

Interchange fees for credit card transactions in Australia are to be virtually halved following tough action by the Reserve Bank of Australia (central bank) and the failure of an appeal by Visa, MasterCard and BankCard in the federal court.

The Turkish government is gearing up to dispatch troops to Iraq to assist in US-led peacekeeping operations and in the rebuilding of its south-eastern neighbour, in return for an $8.5bn soft US loan, despite protests from the Iraqis themselves and from Kurds living in the northern part of the country, writes Metin Demirsar.

News that South Africa’s financial sector has agreed to an ambitious black empowerment charter has pushed financial stocks upwards. The government-endorsed charter sets down detailed empowerment targets for companies, paving the way for as much as 25% of the sector’s value to be in black ownership by 2010.