The US government has agreed to pay $700bn to shore up the current financial system. European governments are enacting capital investments into their financial systems of similarly huge magnitudes. As part of this unprecedented government intervention, many are calling for restrictions on top banking executives’ pay. By John Thanassoulis.

The ongoing credit and capital market crisis has served as a reminder that markets in distress stop functioning normally. The gyrations of US treasury bill and note yields show there may not be a market at the expected price when needed. This affects all market participants, but particularly central banks. By Ousmène Jacques Mandeng.

As well as helping banks in the unsecured lending sector understand and respond to customer circumstances and ways of thinking, Visa Europe is also helping banks influence this behaviour. By Mark Austin of Visa Europe.

Whatever the market conditions, there are opportunities for all banks to invest in changing risk management to improve their financial performance, without compromising income or regulatory considerations. By Charles Stewart of Moody’s Analytics.

Bad times call for grand schemes, and bankers, advisers and economists are scraping around for fixes and explanations including forced mergers and the axing of the Basel capital regime. Writer Nick Kochan.

Better disclosure, improved corporate governance and further progress in devising sharia-compliant derivatives are among the crucial requirements. By Shamshad Akhtar.

Financial markets are experiencing almost unparallelled turbulence. Write-offs continue to mount – estimates now top $1000bn; job cuts are becoming more commonplace; and many senior executives have been axed. A few household names have even disappeared for good. But some financial institutions will become stronger in the aftermath of the credit crunch.

As Barclays CEO John Varley takes the homelessness baton from HSBC co-head of CIBM John Studzinski, they talk to Karina Robinson about charity work and corporate social responsibility.

Good corporate governance is an essential part of every board director’s job.Michael Imeson reports from a briefing that focused on the key issues from a banker’s perspective.

Through a ruthless public relations campaign, eight dissidents brought about Phil Purcell’s exit from the CEO post at Morgan Stanley. Nick Kochan looks at how and why they did it and asks if this sets a precedent in corporate governance.