The US firm is committed to breaking into the European debt markets – again

Santander's retail banking specialists' biggest challenge to date will be to turn around the fortunes of Abbey. Can the Spanish bank's model be successfully applied to the highly competitive UK market?

Singapore: CAO executives charged

Saudi Arabia's Capital Markets Authority has moved closer to full implementation of the 2003 capital markets law by announcing the imminent licensing of non-bank financial intermediaries. CMA governor Jammaz Al-Suhaimi said in late May that regulations on the establishment of brokerages would soon be issued; this will put an end to Saudi commercial banks' monopoly on share trading in the kingdom. However, foreigners look set to remain excluded from offering brokerage services. Nahed Taher, senior economist at National Commercial Bank (NCB), and an adviser to the CMA committee reviewing the brokerage regulations, says the rules should appear by mid-July. They will be accompanied by rules regarding applications for asset management and financial advisory licences. She expects that financial advisory companies will be required to have minimum capital of SR400,000 (just over $100,000) while brokerages will need minimum capital of SR2 billion (about $500 million).

With a long history in the region, the most extensive network of any bank and a full suite of financial products, Citigroup is the biggest force in Asian banking. Yet it is still facing challenges. Chris Leahy spoke to Robert Morse, chief executive officer, corporate & investment banking, Citigroup Asia Pacific, about the bank's performance in Asia

GREs get a pick-up from rating change Government-related entities (GREs) got a substantial lift from Moody's Investors Service when the credit rating agency

"In 1994 banks held 70% of all loans. That's now dropped to 29%. Institutional investors now hold 64% of loans. That's not syndicated lending, it's capital markets. They need to change the name."

CNOOC, China's state-controlled international oil company, launched the first contested bid by a Chinese company when it announced an all-cash offer for Unocal, a US oil and gas company with assets in Asia. CNOOC's offer values Unocal equity at $18.5 billion and outbids the recommended $17 billion shares-and-cash deal from US oil major Chevron. The Chinese company's move is expected by the market to lead to a protracted bidding war.

Santander is one of the most remarkable stories in modern banking. Even the group's highly-ambitious chairman, Emilio Botín, is amazed at how the bank has grown from a small Spanish domestic bank to a place in the global top 10 in just 20 years. He reveals the strategy that has made Santander what it is today.

A new book explores how the Florentine dynasty lent money and still went to heaven. Mark Johnson looks at the ways in which Italy's fifteenth-century bankers circumnavigated religious prohibitions to make their margins

When all around its rivals are spinning off businesses, Lehman Brothers is sticking to a strategy of acquiring rather than relying purely on organic growth. CEO Richard Fuld has exceptional backing inside the firm for this approach. But can the openness and mutual cooperativeness of his managers survive more expansion? Fuld spoke to Euromoney's Antony Currie about Lehman's future.