Counterparties to derivative trades have a wide range of considerations to think through in less than two months before new European regulations come into force.

Banks, regulators and consultants are all trying to preserve a Basel capital measurement that relies on a discredited process of risk-weighting assets.

As bankers lose confidence in the link between their performance and their pay, their attention turns to work-life balance instead.

When it comes to the issue of global warming, a carbon tax that forces all sides to put their money where their mouth is on the futures market could help to resolve a long-running debate.

Shifting regulatory responsibility away from international bodies and putting it into national hands is threatening the globalised nature of banking. The banking community should instead be concentrating on broadening and strengthening the remit of international supervisors.

The process for deciding upon and implementing global reforms could be made much more effective and time efficient if the global supervisory community invested more in technology, which would improve both international communications and data collection and analysis.

The UK's financial regulators are seeking to encourage more competition in the country's banking sector by making it easier to establish a new bank, but there are non-regulatory barriers as well.

The problems that have beset Cyprus this year have an all too familiar ring to them, but the post-crisis reaction to its economic problems by Iceland show how a full investigation into the causes of a financial crisis are essential to enable a new system that is fit for purpose to be established.

More radical steps are needed in reforming the structure, ownership and incentives for banks to make them a more attractive long-term investment.