The results of Euromoney’s inaugural structured credit poll provide an invaluable insight into what is often an impenetrable sector of the capital markets.

Critics of Goldman Sachs enjoy accusing the firm of being a hedge fund. But such accusations look wide of the mark given that Goldman’s Asia’s equity guru, Hyder Ahmad, has just quit to start his own fund.

Complacency can lead to extinction according to Goldman Sachs’s key principles. The extent to which its bankers take that tenet to heart was amply demonstrated at Euromoney’s inaugural Asia Awards for Excellence in July [see Asia awards 2006 for more on the event]. As guests arrived for the pre-dinner cocktail reception, one sharp-eyed Goldman banker spotted an unfamiliar but evidently important dignitary entering the room, accompanied by an impressive entourage of aides and hangers-on.

Goldman is unbeaten on volumes while turning out some of the most ground-breaking and innovative deals.

What are perceived outside the firm as conflicts of interest have not deterred clients from lining up to use Goldman Sachs’s M&A expertise.

The owner of a large portfolio of power plants, Goldman is adept at financing and risk managing energy assets.

The US firm has a powerful reputation for innovating around clients and for spotting opportunities faster than most. It is also one of the biggest liquidity providers in flow products.

The US investment bank’s move points to a greater focus on the FIG hybrid capital sphere from its DCM coverage teams.

The real test of Goldman Sachs’s new model will come in a prolonged downturn.

“Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country,” thundered John F Kennedy in his inaugural address. Hundreds of column inches have been devoted to former Goldman Sachs chairman and chief executive Hank Paulson’s nomination as US Treasury secretary. Hank will not be pleased by this largesse of newsprint.

One piece of analysis that is certain to be a fixture on desks this summer is a 59-page report by Goldman Sachs. In preparation for the football World Cup, which kicks off on June 9 in Germany, Goldman Sachs has put together a guide to each participating country and its team’s chances of success.

Competitors gloating over the firm’s current predicament are likely to be sorely disappointed.

Goldman Sachs has reshuffled its Latin American investment banking team by naming Eduardo Centola and Martin Werner as co-heads.

Goldman Sachs might still be the firm to beat when it comes to global M&A but it has just lost the chairman of its European investment banking business, Claudio Costamagna, who will leave this month after 17 years at the firm.

Year-long talks to create leading investment bank in Brazil break down.

Morgan Stanley took the most M&A advisory mandates worldwide in the first half of the year, but Goldman Sachs had edged ahead again by November.

GSAM's boutique structure provides a potential model for other asset managers.

The US firm's business mix is making it more difficult to bring success in the primary markets

A Goldman Sachs trading game at the Trade Tech Equities conference in Paris this April was billed as "five hours to make a million."

Other banks are unlikely to follow the US firm's example of advising on both sides of a takeover

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have benefited from another wave of fees as China?s largest listed companies tap stock markets again.

Goldman Sachs is struggling to reassure other brokers that they have nothing to fear from its plans to turn proprietary platform RediPlus into a multi-broker trading system. Rivals see contradictions, a grab for profits, and a desire to dominate equities trading. Antony Currie reports.

The powers that be at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein are no doubt raising their eyebrows and saying: "I told you so."

Goldman Sachs’s warrants site has one property that clearly places it ahead of competitors: the fact that it allows a comparison of warrants from any bank - not just its own.

Highly commended: UBS

Highly commended: UBS

Runners-up: Deutsche Bank, CSFB

Awards for Excellence 2002

It's often the smaller deeds that prove most important in the long run, and that is what Goldman Sachs is hoping will be the case with a new data service it is launching.

Investment banking