Many German banks had their fingers badly burnt in the financial crisis, having disastrously expanded into areas such as Spanish real estate and global shipping. As a result, the country's private banks, sparkassen and landesbanken have largely reverted to type, happy with unspectacular but predictable growth in an oversaturated domestic market.
Frustrated by poor returns from traditional long-only portfolios, investors are increasingly examining the possibility of venturing into cross-asset derivatives strategies. And dealers are keen to offer such products, with Risk Premia indices proving particularly popular.
Low volatility and low yields are making life tricky for structured product providers. But by broadening their range of products and by doing more to tap upcoming markets, such as Asia, they have been able to ensure they get plenty of business.
The impact of low interest rates, new EU regulations and the predicted lessening of quantitative easing in Europe and the US mean structured product providers are being called upon to provide innovative solutions to reduce risk in both retail and private banking.
Hong Kong has been the world's biggest initial public offering market for the past two years. Is this a sign of a structural shift in the equity markets, in which companies' capital-raising strategy must include a Hong Kong/China element? And just how much are world leaders London and New York losing out to their Asian rivals?