The outcome of the tussle for ABN AMRO will have a decisive effect on the Brazilian banking scene, which is currently dominated by domestic players. John Rumsey reports.

Bank of America has stolen the crown of Citigroup. The bank, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, motored ahead of the erstwhile number one bank in our list and is now the largest bank in North America and in the world, with Tier 1 capital of $91,065m.

Nicaragua’s apparently reformed ex-Marxist president is enjoying some success courting private business and international lenders in his quest to combat poverty. Local banks are also doing well. Jane Monahan reports from Managua.

The US and IMF’s targeting of China’s currency has as much to do with playing to the political gallery as it does with economics.

If Venezuela bows out of the multilateral lending agencies, as the president has mooted, bondholders could be in for a mini windfall. John Rumsey reports.

Latin America is booming and so are its banks. The demand for commodities from a resource-hungry Asia and the consequent price boost is a gift to a continent that, bar a few countries, is not following the value-added model of economic development.

Given the economy’s good health, Brazil’s central bank governor Henrique Meirelles can afford to muse on soya and George Bush. Interview by Karina Robinson.

Once again four of the top five US banks have bucked the trend with continued profit growth in the first quarter of 2007 compared with the same quarter last year at a time when the economy is finally showing signs of the much-predicted slowdown.

Institutions specialising in retirement provision are wrong to assume that retirees will follow their logic, say Monish Kumar and Andy Maguire.

Much work is required for the US to regain a position of moral authority required to take on new challenges around the world.