In one corner, JP Morgan Chase, the most blue-blooded and respected of America's banks. In the other, the cream of its insurance companies. At stake in this contest of the heavyweights, a $1.1bn bill, which the loser collects. The referee: the United States District Court, Southern District of New York. The date: February 27.
The issue between the two financial heavyweights is, at one level, the interpretation of a legal contract. But, at another, it involves a difference in style, structure and regulation of different industries. Wall Street observers are talking about no less than "a clash of financial civilisations", of the kind that markets will increasingly witness as banking and insurance converge to form a global capital market.
