Bank has fought back up the DCM rankings; Merger of DCM and global transaction banking coverage partly explains how

Highlights growing importance of food sector; Part of growing M&A trend

Launches find it hard to raise capital; Investment banking salaries prove more appealing

New rules boost transparency; Goldman launches MTF

Investor appetite returns; Listed companies tipped to debut

In his final interview as chief executive of HSBC, the bank he served for almost 40 years, Mike Geoghegan answers the questions that matter. Did he jump or was he pushed? Should HSBC remain supervised and headquartered in the UK? What happened to the Nedbank takeover? Will the bank list in Shanghai? And he reflects on a stellar career that mirrored the globalization of banking, and in which he was forced to deal with many financial crises.

Local regulators keen to attract new entrants; Aversion to banks exacerbated by AUB affair

The management reshuffle at UniCredit continues. Two weeks after setting out his strategy for central and eastern Europe, new chief executive Federico Ghizzoni – himself a former head of CEE at the group – named the man who will be charged with implementing it.

Sovereign wealth funds buy in; Firm now valued at $9.7 billion

Mumtalakat to diversify portfolio; Alba IPO raises $338 million

Extent of US bank failures to be revealed in H2 2011; M&A in US banking sector will be subdued

Banks might refuse to underwrite and distribute sovereign debt at risk of principal reduction.

Corporates are still squirrelling away cash, so bond issuance has shrunk. When and how will the cash be put to work?

Will South Africa join the growing club of interventionist central banks?

What multinationals really want to know: when can we issue debt on the Chinese mainland?

The SEC’s regulatory interest in the market in private-company shares might cripple this source of funding.

Bondholder standoff on the cards at ailing Punch.

Bank has had good results by sticking to its derivatives skills; Michel Péretié, head of CIB, is seeing first fruits of investment in M&A advisory

Competition is intense in trade finance banking while the funds banks need to engage in it are harder to raise, reducing margins. Basle III will probably only make things more difficult. So, paradoxically, fierce rivalry runs parallel to collaboration and increased risk sharing. Laurence Neville reports.