Traditionally seen as great for service, but second best in investment performance, private banks have been polishing up their act, investing in research and third-party products to diversify portfolios and win back market share in asset management from other financial service providers. FTSE PriBIL’s Private Banking Indices show that high-net-worth individuals should be taking private banks’ portfolio management more seriously. Plus we profile three of the banks that outperformed it. Helen Avery reports.

Major errors of concept and execution in the Iraq war have weakened the US: a sharp lesson in the limits of what seemed like limitless power. Its allies have been discredited, its enemies strengthened. Its real or wannabe rivals, China and Russia, are new global power centres. Its sway in Latin America and Africa has been compromised. The new Asian regional powers must steer a careful course in a complex world.By Charles Dumas, Diana Choyleva and Gabriel Stein.

Roger James reports on why the market might finally be ready for takeoff.

Private banks have never had it so good. Every region in the world offers a growth opportunity. Clients want an ever-increasing array of products and services. This leads to intense competition, evident in Euromoney’s latest annual private banking survey. But is further consolidation inevitable? Helen Avery reports.

Another record year for financial institutions suggests no end to the boom in financial markets. But a correction in the global imbalances that have so far sustained the boom threatens economic growth and could have painful consequences for global capital markets. Are we on the cusp of a downturn?

Is the post-Goldilocks crash inevitable? Charles Dumas looks at an alternative scenario, where the bubble refuses to burst.

Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch’s US dollar, low-risk portfolio caters to high-net-worth clients who want to preserve their money over the long term but are also looking for performance.

The causes of unprecedented global financial imbalances are complex, and understanding them is key to predicting what happens next. But do global economic prospects, as Brian Reading suggests, boil down to a simple question: will Americans stop wanting to borrow and spend before Eurasians stop wanting to save and lend?

The southeast of the region could be the star performer in 2007.

It could be that the bank is simply too large, and only disposals can change the culture. But the recent changes are, to date at least, a missed opportunity.

Five years after the economic crisis, concerns emerge about overheating.

Big strategic acquisitions might be an exciting diversion for banks’ senior managers. But it is shareholders that pay for them.

Wealth managers are muscling in on the fund of hedge funds business.

Abuse of information prompts worries about integrity in credit markets.

Is it really likely that DK will now be able to persuade better-quality individuals to join the firm? It might be struggling to retain the ones that are left.

Corporates need to recognize that they need to care about their CDS investors and that the old attitude of concentrating on the requirements of bondholders alone will no longer wash.

The US private banking market is becoming increasingly competitive as domestic and foreign players battle it out for the country’s wealthiest clients, who are making increasingly complex demands that require more holistic approaches from banks. Private bankers’ salaries are at all-time highs and there seems little chance of them coming down in the near future. Helen Avery reports.

Car parks that rival Monaco for the quality of the marques, apartment prices that rival those in New York, but a stock exchange capitalization of only $50 billion. That’s Almaty. Kazakhstan’s government hopes to develop its capital markets and create a financial centre there for all central Asia. The buildings are going up. Will there be enough tenants to fill them? Chloe Hayward reports from Almaty.

Hundreds pushed out at Dresdner just ahead of bonus round.

Unsuspecting staff at the Citigroup Centre in London passing by the fixed-income trading floor were shocked to see their head of high-yield sales and trading, Mickey Brennan, and their head of emerging markets sales, Marc Pagano, getting their heads shaved while fellow staff members cheered on.

The best agency players make attractive acquisition targets.

Chesapeake is first US energy issuer to target euro investors this decade.

The influence of investors in credit default swaps has conspicuously failed to match the growth of the market itself. But a recent restructuring could be the watershed moment that changes the credit markets for ever. Has the ground shifted beneath corporate issuers’ feet without them even noticing? Louise Bowman reports.

Charles Dumas warns of a ‘reverse Robin Hood’ scenario.

The Saudi banking sector is set for sustained growth on the back of GCC-wide economic development. Foreign banks are keen to join the bonanza.

One market segment – banks – has been noticeably absent from the glut of Russian companies rushing to undertake IPOs in recent years. Is there now a danger that, after the long wait for exposure to Russia’s banking sector, investors will be overburdened with supply? Kathryn Wells reports.

The looming pensions crisis means individuals will have to take more responsibility, work longer and begin to save. If the US goes from a nation of spenders to a nation of savers, as it must, what will the impact be for the global economy, asks Gabriel Stein.

Better guide to risk than VaR. According to some hedge fund industry participants, stress testing is becoming a more widely used measure of risk among prime brokers and managers.

We can work it out.

In October 2006, Merrill Lynch raised $279 million to fund the leveraged buyout of Indonesian coal mining company PT Berau Coal by Indonesian businessman Rizal Risjad. The transaction was financed using two layers of secured structured debt with the subordinated issue, dubbed CELLS – collateralized equity leveraged loan securities – offering investors equity participation rights in the future sale or IPO of the company.