France’s second biggest bank, Société Générale, announced last month that it expected to break even in the last three months of 2008 and to make €2bn ($2.6bn) in full-year net profit. SocGen also said it would take €1.7bn from a second tranche of €10.5bn in state aid for French banks.

The US government’s latest injection of a further $20bn into Bank of America (BoA) takes the total amount invested in the financial sector since October 2008 to well over $200bn.

The former chief executive of one of Nigeria’s biggest banks has warned the sector faces its own potential subprime-style crisis.

Governments around the world continue to put in place ever more comprehensive bailout packages in an attempt to support their beleaguered financial sectors. The UK, France and Denmark all announced new plans in the week beginning January 19. The incoming administration of US president Barack Obama is set to follow suit, say observers.

In a rare bit of good news for the European financial sector, Societe Generale issued an early trading statement on Wednesday 21 January saying it expected to have broken even in the final quarter of 2008 and to make a €2bn full-year net profit.

Some of the world’s biggest banks and investors were sucked into a fraudulent $50bn ‘Ponzi’ scheme by one of Wall Street’s most respected fund managers. Bernie Madoff revealed last month that he “paid investors with money that wasn’t there”, he was “broke” and “insolvent” and that it “could not go on”.

In a daring bid to shake up its remuneration scheme Credit Suisse has unveiled plans to give its top bankers shares in a new $5bn fund of illiquid assets.

Ecuador’s radical left-wing president Rafael Correa last month declared his country’s foreign debt illegal and defaulted on its bonds. The country’s bond prices slumped after the decision not to pay the $30.6m coupon on the country’s Global 2012 bond.

Multichannel banking continues to challenge Europe’s retail banks. As direct channel usage becomes mainstream, the focus is switching from service to sales and value creation. Despite this management focus, direct channel sales growth has been below expectations.

Global loan volumes plummeted to new lows in October, according to data provider Dealogic. At the same time pricing has reached record highs. Just $95bn worth of syndicated loans were signed in October, the lowest amount since January 2004. This compares with ­October 2007, when $423bn worth of loans were signed.