The issue of transparency is pivotal to the present financial crisis, writes Jacques de Larosière. He shares his thoughts on the source of the crisis and what action needs to be taken to restore investor confidence.

Banks do not like talking about liquidity risk because it kills confidence and, historically, they have not been rewarded for candour on this particular topic. But events typified by the Northern Rock debacle show this attitude must radically change, say David Vander and Bill Cuthbert, co-founders of Liquidatum.

Christian Stracke outlines five key areas where CDO ratings methodology – and structured finance ratings more generally – need to be improved in order to help restore confidence in the structured finance space.

While the rest of the market reels from the subprime-sparked credit crunch, some specialist hedge funds which speculated on a downturn are reaping hefty returns. Silvia Pavoni looks at how they did it and where they will look next.

Oliver Wyman highlights opportunities created by climate change while Celent assesses Chinese and Indian ATM markets.

The six major Japanese bank groups posted a total profit of ¥1513.9bn ($13.2bn) before tax and minority interests for the half year to September 30, 2007, down 33.5% from ¥2274.8bn in the same period in fiscal 2006.

Regulators and governments must not make the mistake of responding in haste to recent crises, such as German bank failures, the Northern Rock debacle and liquidity problems, advises Howard Davies.

The subprime crisis suggests self-regulation of innovative financial products is not enough, writes Ian Mullen.

Emerging markets used to suffer from Western crises. Now they help to solve them by pouring capital into the system.

The unprecedented action by five central banks in response to the credit crunch is only a short-term solution to the problem.