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“Our funding costs will go up. But I’m quite happy to see that and our CDS spreads widen if that’s the price of demolishing the myth that we are dependent on state support” A eurozone bank CEO sees upside from the Cyprus depositor bail-in, although that’s easy to spot at a national champion bank

The Turkish central bank governor’s unorthodox policies have riled, muddled and, say some, outsmarted markets. He thinks they work. But is he trying to do too much with so many different instruments and targets?

Engrossed in a book at the Frankfurt airport departure gate on a chilly March evening, Euromoney found ourselves the last passenger called to the BA flight back to London.

After my March column had been published, I suffered a pang of writer’s remorse. Had I been too harsh when I criticized the “crony capitalist culture” at Barclays’ investment bank and accused group chief executive Antony Jenkins of hypocrisy?

It is not only bankers and asset managers figuring out new ways to finance the Mittelstand; so are the companies themselves. In February a group of entrepreneurs launched a new subordinated debt fund manager to address the problems firms have in sourcing debt at this level. The new firm, called Rantum Capital, was founded by Joachim Hunold, founder of Air Berlin, together with Michael Rogowski, former president of the BDI (Federation of German Industries); Wolfgang Hartmann, CEO of the Frankfurt Institute for Risk Management and Regulation; Heinz-Peter Schluter, founder of Trimet; media entrepreneur Karlheinz Kogel; Hans-Joachim Korber, former CEO of Metro; and Lothar Steinebach, former CFO of Henkel.

Perish the thought: the US is seeking to sharpen personal liability against bankers falling foul of anti-money laundering laws, raising the spectre of bankers in jail. Financial institutions must urgently redouble their compliance efforts as recent lapses catapults the issue up the regulatory agenda.

The SMEs that dominate the German economy continue to rely heavily on local relationship banks for finance. But the special circumstances of some companies and the eagerness of non-bank lenders to get into the market mean that funding through such instruments as Mittelstand-focused bonds, Schuldscheine and subordinated debt is becoming more prominent.

Sberbank CEO German Gref says he has led Russia’s biggest bank through a thorough transformation. It has grown onto the international stage and bulked up in investment banking. What are his objectives, and how does he see its role at home and in the region?

“We are going to go armed and we will get this fucking money”

The Cyprus solution is inadequate as well as sending the wrong messages on depositors’ risks and free capital flows. Then there’s Slovenia... and Italy.

The European Union’s decision to cap bankers’ bonuses is deeply troubling. Normally, I admonish bankers for making off with too much of shareholders’ money. However, this cap might have serious implications for the way in which European financial institutions compete, as well as the role of London as a main financial centre.

Standard & Poor’s met its late-April deadline for a response to a US Justice Department suit accusing the agency of fraudulently rating CDOs with an energetic rebuttal of the case for the prosecution.