Huge sums of money lost, hidden contracts found, people in power because of privilege rather than professionalism, undue political influence and even death. No, it’s not the latest scandal from the Vatican, but the Monte dei Paschi drama. And now the spotlight is falling on the wider implications of its near-fall – not least, the ownership and board structure of many of Italy’s leading banks.

April 2013 marks my seventh anniversary with Euromoney. During that time, I have watched, sometimes awe-struck, sometimes gobsmacked, developments in the financial markets. I have written about big banks, hedge funds, asset managers and the twists and turns of politics at these institutions.

Some would say that Orcel’s pay package is yet another example of same old, same old. So it was exciting to come across an example of the new paradigm in the financial sector. What do I mean by that over-used phrase? In short, a firm that is doing things differently from the discredited big-bank universal model. I have been seeing the name Berenberg Bank a lot recently: often in connection with research calls on European stocks. My curiosity piqued, I was pleased when a friend introduced me to two of the firm’s senior management. In mid-March, I met Andrew McNally, head of Berenberg Bank UK, and Hendrik Riehmer, a managing partner, to learn more about the business.

Increasingly however, bankers want to be seen as human beings and not as money machines. I was amused that even Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, is keen to portray a cuddlier image. In March, Blankfein appeared on CBS’s evening news programme espousing the cause of gay marriage.

High-profile Malaysian CEO Tony Fernandes is intent on furthering his companies’ pan-Asian expansion, notably through AirAsia. He sees such international activities as The Apprentice Asia and ownership of Queens Park Rangers FC as useful publicity for his business ventures.

The market needs a high profile issuer looking to raise a lot of money

Plan might founder due to federal stance akin to that for a wider Eurobond.

The annual report for 2012 released by UBS in March demonstrated that its management continues to flounder, while offering perverse hope that the disaster-prone bank might be stumbling towards a sustainable business model.

An underdeveloped manufacturing base and revenues dependent on remittances are holding the country back.

Putin gets a strong but pliant central bank governor in Elvira Nabiullina. She might please other constituents too.

Brazil’s consumption-led economy is starting to run aground.

More banks could ease their regulatory capital requirements by securitizing loan or derivative portfolios.

Character does matter in post-crisis banking; if yours is in question, it is time to get out.

ETFs and swaps drive alternative beta; fixed income braced for negative returns.

Lebanon can boast something few developed economies have – growth and a well-capitalized banking sector. Sadly, this and the promise of a natural resource windfall cannot hide the dire need for structural reforms and leadership from the top to undertake them.

Record issuance while EMTN volumes slip; exotic derivative trades hit by appetite and regulation.

Umpqua Bank in Portland, Oregon, has succeeded in making bank branches profitable. It is now the largest community bank on the US west coast. CEO Ray Davis talks of giving customers an entirely different experience. How far can he go?

When two management reports from 2010 audited by KPMG were leaked to the campaign group Global Witness and released online, the world was given a remarkable insight into where the LIA had invested. And since all its assets have been frozen since early 2011, it is very likely still accurate.

Morgan Stanley veteran joins Goldman; UBS leads fee table

Correlation books and CVA exposure on the block; RWA relief boosts capital.

Mohsen Derregia was plucked from nowhere to run the $60 billion fund of the Libyan Investment Authority. He found a mess that he spent a year trying to clean up. Now, as many of LIA’s investments are being reassessed, he’s on his way out. He tells an extraordinary tale of sovereign wealth in a conflict-torn country.

Ostensibly designed as middlemen to safely channel bank credit to the neglected private sector, credit-guarantee companies have not been content with this fee-earning business.

The agonizing process of agreeing a bailout in Cyprus has set troubling precedents for creditors, laid bare fractures within the European currency union and reminded investors of the ad hoc, inconsistent and arbitrary nature of its institutions’ response to sovereign crises.

Euromoney columnist Jon Macaskill imagines how Doug L Braunstein, the former chief financial officer of JPMorgan, chronicled his testimony at last week's Senate hearing.

German lobbying scuppers mutualization; senior bondholders to share Cypriot depositors’ fate.

Mervyn King, the outgoing governor of the Bank of England, put a temporary halt to the slide in the pound on Thursday, but the currency still faces challenges in the weeks ahead.

The strength in the dollar after Wednesday’s robust US retail sales data highlights the shift in the foreign exchange market that has seen the US currency shed its mantle as the funding currency of choice in the first few months of this year.

'We would be thrilled to make a return in the teens,' he tells Euromoney.

Morgan Stanley argues that authorities will continue to drive negative real rates, making high-yielding peripheral government debt – which banks are compelled to hold – a good buy.

Strong foreign demand powered Thailand’s second inflation-linked bond, highlighting expectations of price pressures in developing Asia and the shortage of investable inflation-hedging products.