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No more international fire fighting for Chip Kruger and Gary Holloway. The two men, who stepped down as co-CEOs of NatWest's capital markets business Greenwich Capital in March, have now gone back into business together. And this time they're keeping it small.

Russia’s banks, compared with those in other developing economies, are making a meagre contribution to economic growth. The big corporations, such as Lukoil, have their own banks, and banking institutions in which the state has a stake are beginning to dominate the rest of the sector. Most of the commercial banks are puny, the survivors mostly being those that were too small to wreck themselves in the GKO market crash. That means they have been able to do little by way of lending to smaller businesses.

The secretive partnership of Lazard is not accustomed to public scrutiny, let alone attack from outside. But in early 2000, French entrepreneur Vincent Bolloré announced that he had acquired 31% of one company in the complex Lazard ownership chain. When Swiss bank UBS revealed that it too had acquired shares in other companies in the chain, Lazard chairman Michel David-Weill rushed to fortify the defences against the threat to his family bank's independence,which he cherishes above all else. In November 2000, David-Weill announced that Bolloré had gone away, having achieved what looked like a successful greenmail operation. But he is not the only threat to David-Weill's command. While battling his outside assailants in public, David-Weill has faced a less visible but more serious challenge from rebels inside the Lazard ranks. They have wrung significant concessions out of this last of the banking aristocrats. Now, if an independent Lazard is to thrive, it must stem the tide of departures and rebuild morale within.

External and internal pressures are making Lazard chairman Michel David-Weill's position precarious. But he will leave only with the greatest reluctance.

Head of asset-backed finance, Bear Stearns International

London law firm Allen & Overy is a major participant in JP Morgan’s Trinity risk collateral management product.

The number of banks seized by the government in Turkey has recently risen to 10 but foreign banks still manage to elude having their fingers burned.

Several banks are benefiting from the slew of former DLJ bankers who have decided that their new owners, CSFB, are not for them. Lehman and Salomon Smith Barney have done particularly well in the US, and UBS Warburg and Deutsche Bank are not far behind. But in Europe another name has joined the list, and it may be a surprise to some: Bank of America.

The panic’s over. We can all go back to normal. We’ve got it all under control. That’s the message now coming from the investment banking world as we wind down for Christmas.

Banks around the world have browbeaten their regulators into accepting so-called hybrid tier one securities issued by special purpose vehicles. Now the investment bankers who arrange capital issues are looking for the next challenge of finding new issuers for these securities.

A major priority for the UK's Financial Services Authority is developing a suitable regulatory stance in e-commerce and internet delivery of financial services. Its approach rests on judgements about the potential risks from e-developments to its statutory objectives – market confidence, consumer protection, public understanding and reduction of financial crime – and working out strategies to mitigate and minimize risks. By Lydia Bailey and Crispian Lord

The Chinese have a heavy historical load to shrug off. It's the financial system. The need for restructuring is recognized and a start has been made on dealing with banks' non-performing loans. Privatization will then be possible. But for all the bankers' adoption of western business suits, it's far from clear whether the government can bring itself to leave Chinese banks free to develop truly commercial lending policies. And then there's the stock market - the most hedged about with restrictions on foreign access in all Asia. Opening it up will mean grappling with weighty corporate accounting issues. More worrying still, it raises the scary prospect of unrestricted currency convertibility.