The UK Treasury’s inquiry into economic crime has identified fragmentation and inconsistency within the current anti-money laundering (AML) regime, while the high volume of suspicious activity reports is proving overwhelming for the regulators. But new technologies could be the light at the end of the tunnel.

Stock coverage to double, says partner; hiring spree turns to the US.

Berenberg wants to transform itself from a German firm to a European one with a UK mindset, before eventually taking on Wall Street. Partners Hans-Walter Peters and Hendrik Riehmer are convinced the old merchant banking model can be modernized, but can they avoid the pitfalls of rapid expansion?

As the signs become ever more apparent that CEO Thiam has revived Credit Suisse, Euromoney’s banker of the year shares the inside stories of a revolution.

It took an outsider to turn around Credit Suisse, to force executives and shareholders to accept that they had been following a false dream of a trading-dominated business that could somehow avoid blow-ups and produce acceptable returns.

There’s a rush to find an alternative to ‘ibors’, but with just three years to go before banks might stop submitting Libor altogether, regulators and market participants are still trying to figure out the right questions to ask.

US asset manager sets sights on Germany with new direct lending fund.

The new platform for borrowers to display indicated funding terms at which they will strike private placement deals is expanding fast.

Deal-management app promises to transform the new issue process, bringing much-needed efficiency to absorbing investor feedback and roadshow management.

Deutsche Bank is showing it can cut leverage exposure in its corporate and investment bank without slashing revenues. It has a long way to go in its pursuit of acceptable returns, but the new management team is demonstrating an early determination to deliver.

While analysts focus on net interest margins and the turning credit cycle, there is an extraordinary risk hiding in plain sight.

The British challenger needs to be more realistic about its future, with Brexit and other risks ahead.

A strong quarter for UBS contained a few of the usual curiosities in the investment bank.

Those behind blockchain-based trade finance platform we.trade, which completed its first round of transactions this month, have acknowledged that banks will have to support multiple platforms to offer a rounded digital trade service.

It is easy to see why economists love second-pillar pension schemes. Making workers pay into privately managed funds not only addresses the issue of unfunded state pension liabilities, it also creates a ready-made institutional investor base that can support the development of local capital markets. If only it were that simple.

Unbundling probe will confirm Mifid II distortions.

Rather than super-CEOs and messianic technology, European banks might find salvation simply in small-business lending by empowered staff. As some of the best-performing banks recognize, keeping to the basics offers good long-term returns.

A proposed tie-up between UniCredit and Société Générale would be a real game changer in the region: complementary and challenging.

Euromoney's coverage of the economic and financial fallout from the conflict.

Euromoney's recent coverage of the eurozone crisis focuses on the macroeconomic, political and banking sector fallout.

It is 10 years since Rajeev Misra left his position as head of credit and commodities at Deutsche Bank in a move that came a couple of months ahead of the failure of Lehman Brothers and a global financial crisis.

Loan margin pressures at the Dutch bank may be structural.

Recent glitches at TSB and Visa hint at the strain.

The bank that has led the way over the last year is Banco Santander, western Europe’s best bank. Santander is already one of the few big banks to prove that internationally diversified retail banks can be more profitable and more stable than domestically focused peers. Now it is in its rightful place, not just Spain’s biggest bank but also the one with the biggest domestic share.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s operations in western Europe over the last year have seen the bank develop its own structure to keep pace in a market that is both exciting and volatile, making it western Europe’s best bank for transaction services.

Garanti Bank has not only led the financial industry in Turkey with its environmental policies but also the whole corporate sector. For example, it was the first Turkish company to sign the UN Global Compact’s Business Leadership Criteria on Carbon Pricing. And last year it took this one step further, becoming the only financial institution in the world to be included in the 2017 CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) Water A List – one of just 78 companies that meet the highest standards for water security. Garanti is CEE’s best bank for sustainable finance.

As global banks have pulled personnel back from CEE over the past decade, a divide has opened up between the big regional lenders and the bulge-bracket groups.

It is perhaps obvious that Erste Bank is leading the charge to help the unbanked and underbanked across central and eastern Europe – it was part of its mission when it was established in 1819 after all. And some 200 years later, financial inclusion is still just as pressing in the countries it operates.

Mutual banks and publicly owned savings banks continue to dominate much of Europe’s SME banking sector. What makes Crédit Agricole stand out is not just its deep presence in this market but also its success plugging regional businesses into specialized product factories at the centre. Crédit Agricole is France’s biggest bank brand for SMEs, but unlike other big operators in this sector such as BPCE, the Crédit Mutual network or Germany’s Sparkasse, it has the benefit of better integration between the group’s components.

This year’s award for CEE’s best bank for small and medium-sized enterprises goes to regional sector specialist ProCredit Holding in recognition of its unique franchise, strong development orientation and ability to transform its business model to meet the changing needs of its countries of operation.