Rather than super-CEOs and messianic technology, European banks might find salvation simply in small-business lending by empowered staff. As some of the best-performing banks recognize, keeping to the basics offers good long-term returns.

A proposed tie-up between UniCredit and Société Générale would be a real game changer in the region: complementary and challenging.

Equity capital markets moves at Citi and BAML say more about the two firms than they do about ECM.

The bulge-bracket firms are back in Latin America – and their resolve will surely be tested over the next 12 months.

One big deal might kick off a new round of mergers, but the risk of over-paying remains.

Ten years on from a financial crisis often portrayed as caused by the greed of bankers, we are talking recycled carpets and alleviating poverty. It is a genuinely good thing.

It is 10 years since Rajeev Misra left his position as head of credit and commodities at Deutsche Bank in a move that came a couple of months ahead of the failure of Lehman Brothers and a global financial crisis.

Deutsche Bank’s failure of the recent Federal Reserve stress tests drew attention, but while the regulator was happy to kick the battered European bank while it is down, this was in stark contrast to its treatment of favoured home-town players Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

The industry needs a change in the macroeconomic environment.

Europe may not be enough after Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran deal.

Loan margin pressures at the Dutch bank may be structural.

Recent glitches at TSB and Visa hint at the strain.

A wave of regional mergers will be the nail in the coffin of the small banks and credit unions.

View the award winners here.

July 2018: An Awards for Excellence special

What is said on tour, stays on tour. Unless it is part of an awards pitch. Here are some of the mixed metaphors, subtle and not-so-subtle jibes and some incomprehensible nonsense we heard during the pitches for this year’s Awards for Excellence.

Good, sustainable returns for shareholders are finally in sight, 10 years after the global financial crisis.

The old charges against Citi’s wholesale banking division no longer apply. Its scale and breadth are a big positive that no other bank can match. Its diversity and balance are clear strengths that its competitors increasingly envy. As a firm, it’s more joined up than anyone thought possible. And its clients value what Citi can deliver more than ever before.

Having stabilized the bank after the financial crisis, Bank of America’s management conceived a simple plan for its future: maintain a diverse set of businesses but deal with less risky customers; provide them with fewer, simpler products; automate for efficiency; and then grow by doing more for these customers. Easy to say, but hard to do – it took time and billions of dollars of investment. With results now shining through, the bank that once looked too big to succeed has a shot at domination.

The first dual-class deal in Hong Kong; the intended first Chinese depositary receipt: Xiaomi’s IPO was not short of landmark intentions, but only some were delivered.