Scandals and losses are ending the co-dependency between European banks and retail shareholders, highlighting the conflict of interest in relying on depositors for capital – and showing up a barrier to Europe’s new bail-in framework.

A string of jumbo strategic corporate deals made 2018 one of the busiest years ever in M&A, but falling equity markets, slowing economies, rising debt costs and geopolitical uncertainties have now dimmed the outlook severely.

The amount of dry powder that private equity firms now have means they are sometimes putting even more than 50% equity into deals – it’s a huge cushion that is contributing to reckless lending behaviour in the debt markets.

It is worth over $50 billion and its deals are among the most important and influential in Asia, it is at the vanguard of Chinese private equity and yet it talks to nobody, but market participants in Asia and beyond need to understand it.

Even as the most infamous cryptocurrencies crashed this year, new ones were already emerging, designed to peg their value to fiat currencies.

Asset management is one of the few opportunities European banks have for growth and good returns, but regulation is challenging the captive market and margins are falling.