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Retail banking is undergoing dramatic change. New delivery mechanisms such as the internet and aggressive new competitors such as supermarkets will eat into the easy profits previously enjoyed by retail banks. Can the big banks see off the threats? Rebecca Bream reports.

There can be few industries that have changed as much this decade as banking. And there will be few that will change as much over the next decade.

Bankers are a competitive bunch, though competing to give money away seems an unusual form of behaviour.

Salaries and bonuses paid to workers in the City of London are unfair and unjustified. At least according to the majority present at the Futures and Options Association's third City debate, held last month.

It's boom time in Europe's private-equity business. But what if your client is so far behind the times that the term leveraged buy-out leaves a blank look on his face and he thinks high-yield bonds are a reference to 007's success rate with the ladies?

BankAmerica, Bankers Trust and NationsBank, each bought a specialist West Coast equity house last year. Integration proceeds apace with the predicted clash of cultures. Cross-selling of products is a controversial issue as are compensation systems. Even office environments are a total contrast. Says one investment banker: "Nothing has really changed here. That's the way people like it." It may be 10 years before we can judge these mergers' success or failure. By Michelle Celarier.

Aad Jacobs, head of ING, enjoys a ritual on his journey to the bank's headquarters in Amsterdam each morning. He reads the paper, starting with the sports pages then turns to the business pages to see which bank ING is supposed to be buying that day. Some of the rumours, he says, leave him dumbfounded. But they continue to crop up for a good reason. ING has often expressed its wish to find a second home in Europe outside the Netherlands. Its executives are convinced that the single currency will lead to a single European market in banking services and are keen to position themselves accordingly and not fall into the trap of being over-dependent on a Netherlands market which itself may be attacked by new foreign competitors.

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For bond market participants the European single currency will be as good as implemented once they know in May which countries are included and at what rate. Sovereign and supranational borrowers have done most to adapt their strategies to the changes; on the whole corporates have been rather sluggish. As market structures, credit research and maybe even a benchmark emerge, it will be time to catch up. James Rutter reports

LEBANON

The virtual roundtable

You thought banking was about money, markets and return on risk-adjusted assets. Not in the 21st century. The Banque Imaginaire exists because it had to be invented. It thrives on its wits, in the land of Cats and fat tails. David Shirreff reports.