UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti may just have ‘Done a Diamond’ with his widely reported message to bankers at the firm that they should take more risk and not be afraid to make mistakes.

China’s struggle to communicate effectively with markets was demonstrated by its scapegoating of journalists for supposedly worsening the crash in local stock prices.

The return of market volatility in late August put a focus on asset managers, with investment banks for once ceding the spotlight during a period of turmoil. There will surely be some bank trading mishaps, but the main threat to revenues is likely to come from diminished demand for investment products rather than dealing room blow-ups.

The dismissal of Martin Wheatley, head of the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, by Chancellor George Osborne was widely interpreted as a step towards less intrusive regulation of the financial industry

A scathing report by German regulator BaFin on interest rate rigging by Deutsche Bank will no doubt give any potential employer of former co-CEO Anshu Jain pause for thought.

Deutsche Bank’s failure to acknowledge the enormity of the change it needs to return to health was demonstrated by the strange spin it gave to the departure of co-CEO Anshu Jain.

It is now a mark of the serious individual in finance to issue a dire warning about the threat posed by a lack of market liquidity. What climate change is to the young liberal (or young person), so liquidity has become to the ageing plutocrat, secure perhaps in his own billions, but with a furrowed brow as he contemplates the potential havoc that could be wreaked by diminished liquidity.

If the movie version of The Big Short does prove successful, it could spur the commissioning of other banking-themed films.

There was virtual dancing on Wall Street after investment banks unveiled their first quarter results.

A series of reports by regulators around the German bank’s $2.5 billion fine raise more questions than answers, while serving up embarrassment to remaining senior management.

Bill Winters has some big decisions to mull while he prepares to start his new job as Standard Chartered chief executive.

Soon after Bill Winters was appointed CEO of Standard Chartered, his highest-profile protégé from their shared days at JPMorgan also announced a new job.

CEO Stuart Gulliver helpfully explains HSBC’s former practice of using a Swiss bank account in the name of a Panama registered corporation to take bonus payments for the Hong Kong bank.

Before revelations about HSBC’s private bank, its chairman and CEO were seen as a winning combination. As the fallout becomes increasingly political, could their relationship be coming under threat?

Is Deutsche Bank contemplating a secret Götterdämmerung trade that would hive off sections of its investment bank and offer senior executives an escape route?

New COO Jonathan Moulds will bring a straightforward and sensible approach to the challenges facing Barclays. Will he end up pulling the strings more than CEO Antony Jenkins?

When JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon delivered the welcome news to employees that he had been given the all clear after a recent bout of throat cancer, senior managers in attendance rose to applaud.

Confusion around US insider trading laws has led to a series of recent reverses of insider trading convictions. Perhaps US authorities should look across the Atlantic for inspiration.

The main charge against Goldman Sachs by the US Senate committee investigating commodity market practices was that the bank effectively controlled actions by its metals warehouse subsidiary, Metro International, that created a bottleneck in aluminum supply, and that Goldman could have profited from associated trades in its securities arm.

Paul Simon sang that there are 50 ways to leave your lover, and Goldman Sachs has reminded us that there are just as many ways to sneak a trade through, even when conflicts of interest threaten to drag your reputation back into the mud.

Blackstone and Pimco are talking a good fight when it comes to possible credit market dislocation. The widening in high-yield debt spreads that accompanied a bout of panic in global equity markets in mid October prompted displays of bravado from the investment firms.

Jon Macaskill imagines how the star fund manager might have recorded the reasons behind his shock move from Pimco to Janus Capital. Item one: update his enemy list.

Banking industry analysts are not to be deterred in their quest to quantify the unquantifiable. The new philosopher’s stone for the modern day alchemists of analysis is finding a way to estimate the size and impact of future fines for misconduct by banks. This may not be quite as challenging as transmuting base metal into gold, but it presents difficulties nonetheless.

The aftermath of a £250m accounting scandal that led to a £2bn drop in the value of its shares might not seem like the best time for UK retailer Tesco to think about ramping up its activity in banking.

It’s hard out there for a short, even with a multi-year credit and equity rally looking increasingly fatigued.

Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman’s desperate attempt to push down the stock of nutritional supplement provider Herbalife provides the highest profile recent example of the challenges faced by short sellers.

There is a vogue among senior investment bankers to look for a switch to a job with one of the private equity firms that are morphing into shadow finance players with an appetite for assets of all kinds.

The partial withdrawal by Barclays from investment banking is starting to look disorderly – more retreat from Moscow than Dunkirk-style retrenchment.

Summer is upon us and with it the lull of the Second Great Moderation. The First Great Moderation, in the half decade to 2008, was a disappointment, given that it ended with the worst market crisis since the crash of 1929 and a global recession.

Deutsche Bank finally managed to sell its Las Vegas casino – The Cosmopolitan – a few days before announcing a €8 billion capital raising that it will use to double down on its bet that it can make a viable return from a full-service global fixed-income business.