Understanding UK bank strategies can be difficult. The past year has seen not only Royal Bank of Scotland’s joint acquisition of the Netherlands’ giant ABN AMRO but also the disastrous run on Northern Rock, record 2007 profits at HSBC Holdings and, last month, RBS’s first half-year loss in 40 years, following $11.4bn in writedowns.

The European Union is in the midst of a massive regulatory upheaval in an attempt to realise its goal of a single market in financial services.

UNCTAD secretary-general Supachai Panitchpakdi speaks to Lara Williams about strengthening the organisation’s role in making developing countries part of the world economy.

Paraguay’s new finance minister tells Hugh O’Shaughnessy why the country cannot make the most of its natural assets.

State Bank of India chairman Om Prakash Bhatt tells Karina Robinson how the bank’s mission is more than delivering higher profits.

After six years overseeing the phenomenal growth of Angola’s economy, minister of finance José Pedro de Morais can look back on a job well done. He spoke to Charlie Corbett in Luanda about the country’s next phase of growth and the challenges that remain.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena’s audacious €9bn purchase of Banca Antonveneta last November required some serious work to raise the necessary financing. Edward Russell-Walling reports on how the group’s efforts ended up breaking the Italian record for capital raised.

The current crisis is not the worst the world has ever faced as Western economies have learnt much from past mistakes.

Shareholders who oust hitherto successful CEOs for problems not of their making are being shortsighted.

Bankers need to realise that the world is transparent due to the new world of the internet. Nothing can be controlled or hidden anymore. You cannot keep anything secret. It will all get out there, some way, somehow.