Rather than super-CEOs and messianic technology, European banks might find salvation simply in small-business lending by empowered staff. As some of the best-performing banks recognize, keeping to the basics offers good long-term returns.

A proposed tie-up between UniCredit and Société Générale would be a real game changer in the region: complementary and challenging.

Equity capital markets moves at Citi and BAML say more about the two firms than they do about ECM.

The bulge-bracket firms are back in Latin America – and their resolve will surely be tested over the next 12 months.

One big deal might kick off a new round of mergers, but the risk of over-paying remains.

Ten years on from a financial crisis often portrayed as caused by the greed of bankers, we are talking recycled carpets and alleviating poverty. It is a genuinely good thing.

It is 10 years since Rajeev Misra left his position as head of credit and commodities at Deutsche Bank in a move that came a couple of months ahead of the failure of Lehman Brothers and a global financial crisis.

Deutsche Bank’s failure of the recent Federal Reserve stress tests drew attention, but while the regulator was happy to kick the battered European bank while it is down, this was in stark contrast to its treatment of favoured home-town players Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

The industry needs a change in the macroeconomic environment.

Europe may not be enough after Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran deal.

Loan margin pressures at the Dutch bank may be structural.

Recent glitches at TSB and Visa hint at the strain.

A wave of regional mergers will be the nail in the coffin of the small banks and credit unions.

Good, sustainable returns for shareholders are finally in sight, 10 years after the global financial crisis.

Six banks caught up in scandal with another likely to follow.

A strengthening dollar is going to make life harder for emerging markets, whether you want to hear it or not.

There’s an old joke about a tourist approaching a local to ask for directions: The local considers, sucks on his teeth for a while and replies “I wouldn’t start off from here if I were you”.

As they rapidly lose market share, investment banks must evolve their capital markets businesses.

Will Romania go the way of Hungary when it comes to the independence of its monetary authority?

For the moment, Africa looks to be a step too far.

To expect impact investment to be of greater size now than it is would be to miss the point of it altogether.

Goldman Sachs delivered strong first-quarter trading results that were followed by a reorganization of the management of its securities division.

The coming move towards a Volcker Rule 2.0 that relaxes monitoring of proprietary risk taking by bank dealing desks has been portrayed as a result of president Donald Trump’s administration finally placing its preferred officials in key regulatory positions.

Banks are having to pedal back on big ambitions and focus instead on core competencies, but that could be positive for all.

Despite the latest attempts to stymie them, Eurosceptic populists remain the most powerful political force in Italy – largely thanks to anger at a banking crisis, often fanned by the ECB. Now their approach to power is killing the last chance of fixing the banking union, and possibly the euro.

Listing is a great result, but the rule change it required dilutes good governance.

The only assets CFIUS will allow the Chinese to buy are the ones China doesn’t want and won’t allow. What next?

Malaysia’s election, while politically invigorating, spells economic uncertainty and opens wounds for banks.

What to do when questions are being asked about the effectiveness of low-trigger CoCos? Issue higher trigger ones, of course.

Expectations of further M&A following CYBG’s approach to Virgin Money might be wildly optimistic.