Beneath the Great Game geopolitics of US-Vietnam relations, there are some intriguing possibilities in the detail.

Should we take Vivek Ramaswamy literally or seriously?

Financial market practitioners might be forgiven for reflecting on a job well done now that the final Libor panel has ended its submissions. The journey has been immense, but the focus is turning to loose ends, including the argument that just won’t go away: is there a place for credit-sensitive rates in a post-Libor world?

As other investment banks cut staff, HSBC has been hiring to build a leading bank in tech and healthcare.

Banks and investors opposed to European Union derivatives clearing plans have made an astonishing charge: the EU is worse than the US in jealously guarding its own markets.

A tactical retreat on crypto regulation might help SEC chair Gary Gensler to avoid being bogged down in a war of attrition for the rest of his term.

With a new proposal for long-term debt issuance, US banking regulators have launched the next phase of their war against the lack of confidence that shook the industry in March 2023. But it is becoming increasingly clear that the approach is less about precision strikes and more about a carpet-bombing campaign.

The manner of the campaign against chief executive David Solomon risks causing the lasting damage that his internal opponents presumably wish to avoid.

The second-quarter earnings season saw more detail from US banks on how they are preparing for the worst in commercial real estate exposures. We look at how the data shapes up for the super-regional sector.

Moody’s took a swing at US banks last night. The moves might have seemed indiscriminate, but it’s hard to argue with the conclusions. After the scares of March, the sector is far from out of the woods.

The investment firm founded by securitization experts in 2015 has grown to an $8 billion portfolio of 60 companies without managing any third-party funds and still sees big potential returns, notably in football clubs, from applying the discipline of structured finance to operating businesses.

Banks including NatWest and JPMorgan are struggling to put out reputational risk-management fires.

Analysts are looking beyond China for clues as to where the main Asian currencies will go over the remainder of 2023 as they try to second-guess Japan’s monetary policy plans.

All private banks are different: in how they project their brand, build business, serve clients and generate fees. But they all seem to have two things in common. They love lending to rich people with big art collections and chatting about ocean preservation.

Good banks do not collapse in times of turmoil. But the best banks do more than that – they are so buttressed against stress that when it strikes, they not only emerge unscathed but can act decisively in support of the whole sector. JPMorgan was that bank in March 2023, able to play that role because of its consistently superior performance.

Only the biggest and soundest of the US regional banks were able to come through the wreckage of March 2023 unbowed. None did so better than Citizens, a bank that was already consolidating two fine strategic moves at the start of the awards period and was able to consider another at its end. It wins the award for the country’s best super-regional bank.

Moribund primary equity capital markets and a rising interest rate environment meant that investment banks were tested more than ever in the past 12 months as they sought to give clients the options they needed in spite of poor conditions.

The most striking thing about this year’s winner of the US best super-regional investment bank award is that PNC Financial Services Group prides itself on not really having an investment bank.

Jamie Dimon puts a limit on staff travel to one of JPMorgan’s more exotic branches.

The two chief executives should be on the undercard for the Musk/Zuckerberg cage fight.

How many Brics are there in a dollar?

Banks are not waiting for loans to stop performing before they sell them.

Rising default rates will soon separate the smart private credit managers from the mediocre. This offers opportunity for the winners to scale up.

Veteran banker Tom Montag is to join the board of Goldman Sachs in a bid to bolster support for embattled chief executive David Solomon. Weak second quarter earnings could make this task harder.

Could trading of US sovereign credit default swaps trigger a global systemic meltdown? Probably not, but default swap shenanigans aren’t helping to calm jittery markets.

Inflation is not beaten and rates may rise further. But high-grade bonds can still provide steady income and low risk, playing a new old role in investor portfolios.

Social bonds need to prove they have impact.

Leading firms join a new network of networks, but crypto natives see just another walled garden.

Banks keep up on the record commentary on the rules.

Fears were already growing about dangers lurking in US commercial real estate even before the wave of turmoil that has hit banks in the last two months. After the pandemic and a rush of rate hikes, there is little debate that the sector is at a turning point – the question is whether something worse is on the horizon.