BCR’s interim CEO is confident that the bank’s transformation will allow it to capitalise on the opportunities presented by one of Europe’s fastest-growing economies, he tells Philip Alexander.

Nestlé chairman Peter Brabeck tells Karina Robinson why the multi-national company, like its customers, is embarking on a wellness and nutrition diet.

Sheikh Hamad Al-Sayari, governor of the Saudi Arabia Monetary Agency, talks to Stephen Timewell about banking challenges, rising inflation, and planned currency union with the GCC states.

Peter Wise and Brian Caplen talk to chief executive Ricardo Espírito Santo Salgado about Banco Espírito Santo’s plans to expand further its well-established banking network in Portuguese-speaking countries.

BBVA is in an enviable position for 2008, having had no involvement with subprime assets. Jules Stewart talks to president and COO José Ignacio Goirigolzarri.

Despite its write-downs last year and Allianz splitting Dresdner Kleinwort off from rest of the group, Dresdner Bank’s senior executives still see opportunities to progress on the international stage. Philip Alexander reports.

China Construction Bank is the third largest bank in China and the 14th largest in the world. Stephen Timewell talks to chairman Guo Shuqing about his overseas ambitions and strategy.

European Central Bank governor Jean-Claude Trichet talks to Brian Caplen in Davos about the present crisis, the dangers of opacity and what Europe and the US have in common.

Critics within his coalition government and the media are rounding on Austria’s ‘ineffectual’ chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer but, he tells Karina Robinson, those who write him off may be in for a surprise.

Xiao Gang, chairman of Bank of China, talks to Stephen Timewell about the bank’s domestic and international strategy for the coming year.