Charlie McCreevy, EU commissioner for the internal market and services, tells Karina Robinson of his fight against growing protectionism.
“Oh God, she definitely wants to get me sacked!” exclaims the European Union commissioner for the internal market and services, covering his blushing face with his hands, on being asked whether the EU would be better off without France.

As a result of home ownership demands from a burgeoning middle class, banks in central and eastern Europe are seeking new sources of mortgage financing – and US and European asset-backed investors are only too keen to diversify their portfolios. Michael Marray reports.

European lending institutions are increasingly using securitisation and the covered bond market in tandem as a means of reaping the advantages of the different tools. Natasha de Teran explains.

Having lain dormant since the 1998 financial crisis, Russia’s domestic sovereign bond market is suddenly the focus of frenetic activity.Ben Aris reports.

It has become a tradition that in our special awards issue, Karina’s Kolumn presents its own awards for some light relief. The winners are chosen from the ranks of those who have been interviewed (or almost interviewed) on these pages over the past 12 months.

An aggressive merger and acquisition strategy is helping North Fork Bancorporation – a full-service commercial bank based in Melville, New York – to become an increasingly important player in an increasingly competitive US market.

In the race among western European banks to expand in the promising new market of central and eastern Europe (CEE), Austria’s banks are out in front of the competitors.
Erste Bank, Bank Austria-Creditanstalt (BA-CA) and Raiffeisen are among the fastest growing banks in the region. BA-CA’s strong position in CEE was a major reason why Italian bank UniCredit – itself a big player there – last month decided to acquire HypoVereinsbank, BA-CA’s parent.

In last month’s Top 1000 ranking of world banks, a number of banks did amazingly well.
They flew up the charts by hundreds of places and chalked up best profits on assets and capital. The Banker editors decided to find out why these banks did so well. In the following article, we look at the Top 50 contenders for next year’s Top 1000. Reports by Stephen Timewell, James Eedes, Jan Wagner, Will McSheehy, Monica Campbell and Simon Montlake.