Summary table of top banks, with quick links to more related content on euromoney.com

* Harry Culham update: 6 February 2008

Merrill Lynch is believed poised to add to its lengthy list of global heads it has hired and fired over the last decade.

Summer torpor shattered by the sound of distant gunfire. Of what do I speak? The unexpected hostilities in southern Lebanon? Wealthy hedge fund managers stalking grouse on the verdant Scottish moors? Chuck Prince exercising with his personal trainer? Of course not. I am referring to the recent putsch at Merrill Lynch. “Just when I thought it was safe to poke my head above the parapet,” a Lyncher moaned, “I realize I need to don a balaclava.”

SpencerLake has joined HSBC as global head of debt capital markets after 17 years at Merrill Lynch. Lake had only recently been appointed to a newly created role of head of debt capital markets for the Asia-Pacific region at Merrill. He will be based in London and manage HSBC’s 250-strong origination team. He reports to Daniel Palmer, head of global capital markets.

Strength comes from the top. And it is from the tight-knit senior executive group that Stan O’Neal believes Merrill derives much of its strength.

The awards for excellence season is always an interesting time for Euromoney’s journalists. As we consider the relevant merits of different banks and their diverse businesses, there is an opportunity to get to the real heart of what makes a bank tick. To do that, you need to see the leader.

Under Stan O’Neal’s leadership, Merrill is back as a force to be reckoned with in investment banking.

Merrill Lynch has worked hard to fill the gaps in its CDO franchise this year and exported significant innovation into Europe.

What lessons did Stan O’Neal learn from the restructuring of Merrill Lynch at the turn of the decade? What are Merrill’s plans in mortgages, private equity and asset management? And what continues to drive Merrill’s CEO forward? O’Neal reveals all to Clive Horwood in his first in-depth interview since becoming the firm’s chairman and CEO.

When Stan O’Neal took over as president and CEO of Merrill Lynch in 2001, the thundering herd of the 1990s was clapped out. O’Neal imposed a ruthless cost-cutting strategy that saved the firm’s independence. Now his rebuilding plans are starting to bear fruit. Can Merrill heed the lessons of the past, but at the same time make it back to the pinnacle of investment banking? Clive Horwood reports.

Stan O’Neal’s story is unique in investment banking. Born in Roanake, Alabama (because his home town’s hospital refused to serve African Americans), raised in Wedowee (population 750), he was educated in a schoolhouse built by his grandfather, who was born a slave. O’Neal’s father moved his family from the cotton fields to Atlanta, where he worked on a General Motors assembly line. Stan O’Neal worked there as a teenager but GM spotted his strong intellect and sent him on a scholarship to the GM Institute, where he gained a degree in industrial administration. He then took an MBA in finance at Harvard, graduating in 1978.

Richard Longmore, head of EMEA FX sales, has abruptly left Merrill Lynch.

Merrill Lynch has hired Tim Skeet as a covered bond product specialist reporting to Amir Hoveyda, European head of debt capital markets. He joins Merrill from ABN Amro where he was head of financial institutions origination for Germany and France. He joined the Dutch bank at the start of 2003, before that he held a senior FIG relationship banker role at Barclays Capital. Skeet is a veteran of the debt capital markets and one of the best-known faces in the covered bond sector. He started in the business some 25 years ago at Samuel Montagu.

What’s going on at Merrill Lynch? The investment bank has posted impressive overall first-quarter results, as revenues hit the $8 billion mark, but the Latin American debt capital markets desk seems to be lagging.

What does Merrill Lynch’s $9.8 billion BlackRock deal mean for the European asset management industry?

Euromoney’s annual poll of polls shows that universal banks still dominate overall because of the breadth of their business. But firms such as Barclays Capital, Merrill Lynch and Société Générale are scoring notable successes in their chosen areas. Clive Horwood spoke to their heads of investment banking.

Amir Hoveyda has become sole head of EMEA debt capital markets at Merrill Lynch. Appointed joint DCM head a year ago, he will pass responsibility for financial institutions to Siddharth Prasad. Under Hoveyda, Merrill has enjoyed a significant success in hybrid capital. His former co-head, Spencer Lake, will now focus on the public sector and corporate coverage effort. Jan Pethick remains chairman of EMEA DCM, which comprises all origination activities across the fixed income universe, including cash and derivatives.

Mercury had great people and a great process. When Merrill Lynch paid £3 billion for Mercury in 1997, the former City Cinderella dominated asset management. But within a few years the name had gone, and so had many of Mercury's star managers. Angela Henshall analyses how the Mercury ethos has been exported to all segments of the industry, and why Mercury's acolytes are still calling all the shots.

BEST BANK

Return to UBS tops private banking poll

There is no room for nostalgia in the new-look Merrill Lynch. Charles Merrill might have wanted to bring Wall Street to the masses but it is the affluent who command the most attention from his successors. Since 2000, James Gorman has shaken up the private-client business with dramatic results.

Merrill Lynch

Merrill Lynch

Not for the first time, Merrill Lynch is making a push into forex. While the competitors sit back and wait for it to fail, Merrill insists that it will become a top-ranking firm. Katie Astbury reports.

Merrill Lynch wins a special award for most improved bank in fixed income partly because it has overhauled its technology, It has rolled out a number of new features, many of which are very sales-friendly. And it has done all this cheaply.

How much would you pay to dine with your CEO? Too much and you'll be seen as a creep, too little and you can wave goodbye to that promotion. That's the quandary facing Merrill Lynchers, who can bid for a tête-á-tête with Stan O'Neal - CEO in waiting.

Head of EMEA debt markets, Merrill Lynch

Awards for Excellence 2002

Merrill Lynch has merged its high-grade and high-yield research teams. So has JP Morgan. They say it provides quality coverage, especially for fallen angels. But is it really just cost cutting in a bear market?