While jumbo IPOs and merger deals have hogged the headlines, the global markets have accounted for substantially the larger part of Deutsche Bank’s revenues in the region over the past decade and even the firm’s fiercest rivals are forced to concede that Boon Chye has built a formidable business. Lawrence White spoke to this year’s winner of Euromoney’s outstanding contribution to financial markets in Asia award about how he built up the business, what challenges the industry now faces and what he would have liked to have done differently.

As Michael Cohrs retires as head of investment banking at Deutsche Bank, he leaves a flourishing M&A advisory business to complement the bank’s top-three trading businesses. It’s astonishing to see this outcome and think back 15 years to his arrival with colleague Maurice Thompson from SG Warburg. Deutsche Bank had just been given the IPO mandate to privatize Deutsche Telekom but had no idea how to do the deal. Cohrs and Thompson came across to execute it in the wake of a failed attempt to engineer a takeover of Warburg by Morgan Stanley.

Pandit knocks Citi into shape

Out of adversity comes opportunity. So thinks Brian Moynihan, Bank of America’s new chief executive. He says that the much-derided Merrill Lynch takeover will seal the firm’s ambition to become the ultimate universal bank. No one doubts the size of the platform. But can Moynihan succeed where Citigroup failed and show that biggest really can be best? Helen Avery and Peter Lee report.

When Argentine president Cristina Kirchner tried to grab $6.6 billion of reserves from the country’s central bank, its governor Martin Redrado refused to play ball. A stand-off ensued that threatened a full-scale constitutional crisis. This exclusive account reveals the political tensions and the dirty tricks as Redrado struggled to maintain the independence of the central bank, eventually at the cost of his own job.

Legendary troubleshooter Oswald Grübel has had a tough first year at UBS, trying to mend the bank’s tattered reputation and staunch the outpouring of client money. But his biggest challenge may be convincing the markets that his methods are working.

Assailed on all sides for preparing to pay huge bonuses from a financial market kept alive by systemic government support, Lloyd Blankfein is having to fight Goldman’s corner almost as fiercely as when the crisis was at its worst. He tells Peter Lee that it is not business as usual.

While most have spent the past two years hunkering down, Standard Chartered has used the financial crisis as an opportunity to grow its wholesale business. Sudip Roy asks CEO Peter Sands if this signifies a change in the bank’s culture.

From the ruins of a failed, large investment bank, Vikram Pandit and John Havens are trying to build the foundations of a much better, smaller one. It’s still global in ambition but designed to deal with fewer clients, commit its capital much more thoughtfully and this time in the right businesses. Sceptics either say they’ve heard it all before or question why it took the bank’s leaders so long to reach the obvious conclusion. But the early signs are that it’s working rather well. Peter Lee reports.

Lloyd Blankfein reveals it's not business as usual at Goldman Sachs. Find out why.

The Middle East’s best-known international investor says his faith in capitalism remains unshaken. Only time will tell if and to what extent his belief in Citi, so severely tested over the past year, will endure. Taimur Ahmad interviewed him in Riyadh.

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal gives has forthright views on global regulation, and the prospects for local and regional capital markets in the Middle East. He explains the role that Kingdom Holding can play in promoting Saudi Arabia’s standing in the international financial community.

Morgan Stanley’s incoming CEO explains strategy; Mack and Chammah take new responsibilities

Bank of England deputy governor Paul Tucker understands bankers’ fear of excessive regulation, but he’s not easing up. He insists banks should improve the quality of their capital and sees no role for subordinated debt. He wants strong banks to blow the whistle on the weak and to know that, in future, the shareholders of survivors will pick up the tab for bailing out the system. Peter Lee reports.

A year after acquiring Lehman Brothers’ Asian and European businesses, Nomura says it is halfway to building a global investment bank. Few people outside the firm think it will succeed. To some, it is already the ‘other Lehman takeover’. But Nomura’s leaders are determined to win the battle. Lawrence White and Helen Avery report.

The finance minister has enhanced his country’s reputation for sound fiscal policy that takes full account of social justice, while a strong regulatory regime has kept the financial sector out of the chaos. Helen Avery reports.

With nearly 30 years’ experience at the central bank, Durmus Yilmaz is the ideal person to steer the country’s financial system through the global credit crisis. Sudip Roy reports.

Bank of England deputy governor Paul Tucker understands bankers’ fear of excessive regulation, but he’s not easing up. He insists banks should improve the quality of their capital and sees no role for subordinated debt. He wants strong banks to blow the whistle on the weak and to know that, in future, the shareholders of survivors will pick up the tab for bailing out the system. Peter Lee reports.

The head of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, winner of Euromoney’s lifetime achievement award in Asia, talks to Lawrence White about his career and how regulators should respond to the crisis.

In a speech at the Euromoney Awards for Excellence dinner in London July 8th, Deutsche Bank’s chief executive Josef Ackermann called on the industry to engage with governments and regulators to help inform inevitable changes in the global banking industry, to help preserve the vital role that banks play in promoting global wealth and enhancing global trade.

Of the few global banks to have survived without state assistance, HSBC is the best positioned in the most attractive emerging economies. Its global banking and markets business is thriving. Its rights issue confirmed it as a better credit than many governments, and deposits have flooded in. Regulators will force other banks to copy it. Best of all, it has admitted its mistakes. Peter Lee reports.

Brady Dougan and Paul Calello stripped down Credit Suisse’s investment banking vehicle as the credit crisis hit. Now they’re showing off a streamlined, non-polluting, yet powerful firm that even their competitors admire. Is Credit Suisse the model of a new investment bank? Clive Horwood reports.

The leaders of nine of the world’s pre-eminent financial institutions discuss the challenges facing the global banking industry: restoring trust among policymakers and stakeholders; avoiding regulation that will hurt economies as well as banks; bringing compensation back into line; and making money in a radically changed world.

It has already won a reputation as one of the world’s leading hedge funds. Now Citadel has its sights set on investment banking. Chief executive Ken Griffin sees a sweet spot where many firms have left the stage. He normally succeeds in his goals. Chief executive Ken Griffin believes his newly expanded business will be a force to reckon with on Wall Street, says Helen Avery.

Larry Fink wants BlackRock to be one of the key names in finance for the future. Consolidation of investment managers – possibly including BGI – may achieve that goal. But his firm’s influence on the present is already great, as adviser of choice to banks and governments alike on problem assets totalling $7 trillion. Peter Lee reports.

Foreign exchange, money markets and rates have returned Deutsche Bank to profitability. Anshu Jain, the firm’s global head of markets, says it’s all down to applying smart solutions to relatively simple products. But don’t be fooled into thinking he’s given up on more complex business. Clive Horwood reports.

"We can have all the rhetoric we like, but at the end of the day we have to go out there and do the business."

Euromoney was the last publication to carry an in-depth interview with Marcel Rohner before he resigned as CEO of UBS at the end of February. In the interview he details the challenges that will now face his successor, Ossie Grübel.

UBS’s chief executive was the first global bank head to tackle the impact of the credit crunch. His actions may have saved the bank. Much remains to be done. The future of the firm’s investment bank is in doubt. And so will Rohner’s own position be, if he doesn’t quickly return the bank to profit and shut the door on outflows in its wealth management franchise. Clive Horwood reports

The European Central Bank’s president knows that confidence must be restored before markets begin to function normally again. But he believes that the concerted action of central banks and governments means financial institutions should now be preparing to restore normal lending and borrowing relationships.