Search results for

On September 26 last year, a new Russian revolution got under way: a quiet revolution, which has passed almost unnoticed in the West.

With his four wives and baronial castle, Jacob Palmstierna, chief executive of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken, had long been a target of the gossip-mongers in Stockholm. Not very pleasant gossip at that: his haughty manner had made Palmstierna unpopular as long ago as his college days. So when details of a juicy little scandal over his personal taxes began to leak out earlier this year, Sweden thoroughly enjoyed the whole affair, particularly the part where police raided S-E-Banken, the Wallenberg bank. But Palmstierna's resignation last month is bad news for all of the Swedish financial community, as Neil Osborn explains.

The best that can be said for Citibank is that it wasn't solely to blame for the most embarrassing deal in years; Chase, Salomon and Lazard should all bow their heads for their parts in the LBO financing that so nearly sent the world's markets into the abyss. Only the Japanese were blameless – even though everyone tried to put the blame on them. Here, Peter Lee reveals how the incredible earnings projections for UAL were developed and names the executives who put the transaction together. And one moral emerges from the story: if you're a mean, hard-nosed CFO, sooner or later the banks will exact their revenge.

The market for asset-backed securities could make the corporate bond market look like a minnow – there are trillions at stake. Peter Lee assesses the bond-boggling numbers.

In the summer of 1969, the Eurobond market was in a real mess. It had grown rapidly over the previous six years, with the annual volume of new issues soaring from $148 million in 1963 to $3.1 billion in 1968.

When Rupert Hambro landed at Luxembourg International Airport in 1963, he was met by guards armed with machine guns. The airport was then no more than a landing strip with a couple of Nissen huts. Hardly a site for international terrorism. But the heavy security was not designed for Hambro; it was to protect his luggage.

20 YEARS: A SCRAPBOOK

For 40 years, all roads of Italian capitalism have led to a single man at a single merchant bank – Enrico Cuccia and Mediobanca. During the past four years this obsessively secretive 80 year old, whom his close friend André Meyer considered to be Europe’s best financier, was nearly dethroned. He stays, but what succeeds him? Steven Solomon looks at the man who has built up Italy’s oligopolistic family capitalism.

Secretive, aggressive, unpredictable and highly successful, the state fund managers of the Kuwait Investment Office (KIO) are among the world's most important investors. Only the Swiss Big Three banks have more funds invested internationally than the $60 billion or more of the tiny emirate's oil wealth now in play around the globe. Who makes the decisions? What's the strategy? And what are the internal politics? By Martin French

Private banking is a business that more and more banks want to be in. It looks easy; go to Geneva and buy one of the banks already operating there. American Express did that, and had the foresight to ensure that the old owner, Edmond Safra, would not compete directly for five years. The five years are up next month, and Safra has a score to settle.

Everyone within hailing distance of Wall and Broad streets on the afternoon of October 19 may have experienced the same feeling: that our lives had taken one of those profound turns that would affect us in ways we couldn’t yet know.

A private banker is a friend, confidant and counsellor to an often idiosyncratic client. It's an intimate relationship, and a lucrative one. The Swiss still lead the field.