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The grass, they say, is always greener. In a rapidly consolidating industry a handful of global custodians control the clearing, settlement and reporting of the bulk of the world's trading. They're no longer satisfied with that. They want to execute the trades too. Andrew Capon reports.

At the end of April, Thomas Renyi, chief executive of Bank of New York, and several senior colleagues set off across America to persuade institutional shareholders in Mellon Bank of the value in the merger proposals Bank of New York first made public on April 22 in a letter to Mellon's directors. By appealing over the head of Mellon CEO Frank Cahouet - who swiftly rejected the proposal - Bank of New York has come within an ace of that rarest of things in the recent tumble of bank mergers: a hostile deal.

Leaders of Africa's new deal

"Five years from now, financial services will be virtually unrecognizable. The industry, like airlines and aerospace before it, will be dominated by a handful of national and global giants that will dwarf even the biggest players we know today." Although that's how consultants McKinsey predict developments in banking and insurance, it only echoes what every bank CEO is saying, in public or private. And they have very little time in which to answer the questions this trend raises: What is our role? Do we have the management talent to be a buyer? Should we give up and sell to the highest bidder?

Sitting on the balcony of his plush Bangkok apartment building, sipping his gin and tonic and watching the city's pollution-enhanced sunsets (the fumes make for some spectacular pink and orange evenings), one of Bangkok's most prominent farang investment bankers is amused to see a poignant sign of the times.

The UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA) booked its first high-profile transfer from the private sector last month, appointing Gay Evans of Bankers Trust as director of markets and exchanges. Evans will report to head of financial supervision Michael Foot from September.

Leaders of Africa's new deal

Leaders of Africa's new deal

Who's to blame for Asia's crisis? And what happens now? Nine of the region's movers and shakers give their views on the pace of change across the region, the part played by the Japanese banks, the future of Hong Kong's currency peg and the role of China.

I expect the US equity market to fall 30% to 40% this year. The catalyst for the turn in sentiment will be static (or falling) corporate profits, rising inflation and higher interest rates. Mania will drive the collapse. When the dust settles, the US economy will slide into recession. Consumers will retrench to pay down debts. The dollar will fall. It will be the dawn of a two-year bear market.

BankAmerica and NationsBank had both bought into hi-tech investment banking, so when they merged there was bound to be surplus capacity. It was worse than that, though. BA's Robertson Stephens and Nations' Montgomery Securities had a bitter mutual history and could hardly have worked together. Michelle Celarier reports.

On Wall Street, the cult of McKinsey continues to flourish. Long considered the management consultancy of choice by bankers and brokers, McKinsey's image has been further burnished in recent years by the success of several ex-employees who have made the leap to the securities industry. Prominent among them are Phil Purcell, chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Larry Linden, a partner at Goldman Sachs.