Deutsche Bank's planned takeover of Sal Oppenheim will leave the German private banking sector dominated by two key players. However, Deutsche and Commerzbank are pursuing very different strategies. Writer Michael Marray

The US and European governments have so far managed to maintain investor appetite for greatly increased issuance of public debt. But decisive action will be needed to avoid paying a high price in the near future.

Banks' back offices were exposed by the recent crisis as inefficient, lacking in scalability and ripe for increased regulatory scrutiny. Policy-makers and regulators, meanwhile, began to call for the creation of centralised industry utilities, in a bid to reduce the systemic risk associated with the trading, processing and clearing of a variety of complex products.

Danièle Nouy, secretary-general of the Banque de France's Banking Commission

Distinguishing between banks' funds and shareholders' equity has become increasingly difficult as the rise of hybrid capital instruments has introduced grey areas to the financial sector. Writer Charles Piggott

Product innovation may have stalled under the threat of tougher regulations from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, but the major players still have plenty of good ideas to offer, writes Suzanne Miller.

The competitive landscape has been redrawn by the crisis, with collapsed firms being snapped up and others retrenching. Commercial banks are taking a larger piece of the pie, writes Suzanne Miller.

As US regulators set about tightening the rules on commodity derivatives trading, banks fear the changes may do more harm than good. Geraldine Lambe reports.

Although Greece currently has the lowest sovereign rating in the eurozone and the highest budget deficit ratio, its membership was enough to reassure investors that its 15-year issue in November was a safe bet. Writer Edward Russell-Walling