Emerging-market countries will enter new territory next year. For the first time since the asset class was established in the late 1980s, these nations will become net creditors in the global economy, according to data from Fitch Ratings.

May's credit market turmoil hit the profits of all four US brokers that reported second-quarter earnings last month, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley especially. There'll be more to come in July when the universal banks, and Merrill Lynch, report. JPMorgan has already warned that its trading results are the worst for some time. But the firm has at least had the chance to offset some of its problems with gains from June's more bullish credit trading environment.

When all around its rivals are spinning off businesses, Lehman Brothers is sticking to a strategy of acquiring rather than relying purely on organic growth. CEO Richard Fuld has exceptional backing inside the firm for this approach. But can the openness and mutual cooperativeness of his managers survive more expansion? Fuld spoke to Euromoney's Antony Currie about Lehman's future.

Eight out of 10 investors say they have yet to use the heavily marketed trades

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Saudi Arabia's Capital Markets Authority has moved closer to full implementation of the 2003 capital markets law by announcing the imminent licensing of non-bank financial intermediaries. CMA governor Jammaz Al-Suhaimi said in late May that regulations on the establishment of brokerages would soon be issued; this will put an end to Saudi commercial banks' monopoly on share trading in the kingdom. However, foreigners look set to remain excluded from offering brokerage services. Nahed Taher, senior economist at National Commercial Bank (NCB), and an adviser to the CMA committee reviewing the brokerage regulations, says the rules should appear by mid-July. They will be accompanied by rules regarding applications for asset management and financial advisory licences. She expects that financial advisory companies will be required to have minimum capital of SR400,000 (just over $100,000) while brokerages will need minimum capital of SR2 billion (about $500 million).

A new book explores how the Florentine dynasty lent money and still went to heaven. Mark Johnson looks at the ways in which Italy's fifteenth-century bankers circumnavigated religious prohibitions to make their margins

The annual guide to the leading banks across the globe by market capitalization, plus all the other key statistics you need, including the largest banks in every region.

Santander is one of the most remarkable stories in modern banking. Even the group's highly-ambitious chairman, Emilio Botín, is amazed at how the bank has grown from a small Spanish domestic bank to a place in the global top 10 in just 20 years. He reveals the strategy that has made Santander what it is today.

Boards are faced with a tough decision on a structure to combine the banks' strengths in central and eastern Europe

The German exchange aims to take on CME to tap the growing interest in FX as an asset class