Bangladesh boasts some of the best economic growth in the region, but faces challenges in infrastructure development, financial inclusion and the operating environment for business. Ten of the most senior figures in the country provide the answers for the next step forward.

The island’s geographical position has always given it a natural advantage as a trading centre. Now the country is keen to boost its private sector and draw in foreign investment.

Lloyd Blankfein’s swingeing cost cuts at Goldman Sachs really hit bankers where it hurts in March: their phones. No longer will their employer simply pick up the tab for their smartphone usage – Goldman bankers now face the indignity of having to itemise their monthly bills and (good grief!) claim their money back.

Who’d be a regulator? David Tweedie, who was chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board for a decade right through the global financial crisis, knows more than most about the challenges involved.

To keep the spirit of impact investing, it is worth opening up the terminology to be more inclusive of a myriad of strategies.

There just aren’t enough bankers in the US government, said no one ever… oh, except the American Bankers Association.

The Philippines has perhaps the only president in the world more confrontational than Donald Trump. Yet business is good for banks and their customers. The political volatility trade-off will need progress on infrastructure to be a success.

Money laundering is surely one of the most persistent and pervasive risks faced by banks. The practice is said to be just as common in the Middle East as anywhere else. So how do financial institutions there train their staff to deal with this threat?

Christian Meissner, head of GCIB at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, has changed his own outlook to the long term, while forcing his division to do the same

An HSBC insider reacts to news that Mark Tucker, chief executive of Hong Kong-based insurer AIA, will be the next chairman of the bank

The emir of Kuwait has revealed a grand plan to transform the country into a regional financial centre by 2035. The country’s bankers and businessmen say they’ve heard it all before. Can Kuwait finally deliver on its promises?

Any bank promoting its new strategy as ‘version 4.0’ has clearly suffered a chequered recent history. Now Commerzbank’s management is pinning its hopes on a renewed focus on corporate clients, especially in Germany. It sounds simple, but insiders admit it will require a cultural, as well as digital, transformation.

With increasing wealth and a desire to create sustainable social and environmental impacts, Asia is overtaking the US as the driver of innovation in philanthropy. It’s also creating a great opportunity for private banks and others.

Its 50th anniversary should be a cause for celebration at the Asian Development Bank. But president Takehiko Nakao knows the ADB needs to move forward, not look back. For all its achievements, the bank has struggled to help Asia cope with its infrastructure and environmental issues. And, increasingly, its governance is called into question.

The European leveraged loan market is in overdrive, offering unprecedented terms to borrowers and pushing leverage to uncomfortable levels. Cash-rich non-banks are breaking out of the mid market and into syndication. But stoking competition for assets exposes their Achilles’ heel: the yields they have promised their own investors.

Fintech may not disrupt capital markets as quickly or as profoundly as it has retail financial services, but the incumbents should not be complacent. With regulators insisting on greater transparency and audit trails for investor allocations, the control of information that made the banks’ masters of these deals is already slipping.

President focused on quality not quantity of lending; China prepared to give up effective veto to new members.

Senior bankers hail acceleration of digitization; impact felt across financial services industry.

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein seems to be on a comfortable glide path towards maximizing the value of the performance stock units that will provide most of his future compensation.

Goldman's new incentive scheme for its top management has some curious quirks.

The country needs constructive criticism to pull it out of its stasis. But who will speak up?

Williams & Glyn fits a pattern of how mishandled dealings with the UK government and the EU have overshadowed the banks’ wider recovery. Now, as the end to an epic restructuring nears, Brexit begins.

Emirate last in GCC to issue bond debut; Kuwaiti issuers to follow the sovereign.

The increasing burden of France’s regulated savings comes just when banks are less able to afford them.

It is tough to create a franchise in global finance, but over the last five years Christian Meissner has mixed a potent cocktail at Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s global corporate and investment bank. Can it build its relationships with key clients to the point where it becomes a true challenger to JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs?

Deutsche Bank’s new-look bonus scheme looks a bit annually retentive.

Rumours that a listing for the Swiss universal bank might be shelved cast doubt on the CEO’s strategy for Credit Suisse.

As UBI Banca prepares a new capital raising linked to its purchase of three rescued banks, CEO Victor Massiah says his bank and others can do more to build economies of scale through mergers.

The provider of cloud-based wholesale bank operating systems has grown fast in the US, starting with SME lending for community banks and growing to a key partner of the country’s biggest commercial lenders.

Lost amid disappointing 2016 results, HSBC’s Global Banking and Markets (GB&M) division has already hit the group 10% return on equity (ROE) target and holds out hope for more to come.