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Jonathan Chevenix-Trench, chief operating officer of institutional securities at Morgan Stanley, has followed long-time ally and former co-president Zoe Cruz in leaving the firm. Cruz and fellow former co-president Bob Scully, who has been moved to a client-support role, have been replaced by Walid Chammah and James Gorman. Morgan Stanley has said that Chevenix-Trench will not be replaced. His responsibilities are to be split up and assumed by various senior executives.

In barely a decade, Erste Bank has gone from being a purely Austria-focused savings bank to a regional retail banking powerhouse. Guy Norton charts its rise to prominence and asks: where does it go next?

Losses from sub-prime-related securities have forced many foreign investment banks to think twice about their ambitions for Japan. However, some lower-profile foreign franchises sense an opportunity to strike while rivals are wavering or cutting back. Credit Suisse’s Japan head of investment banking, Andrew Brownfield, thinks his firm is well positioned to make such a move. Lawrence White reports.

Vikram Pandit faces one of the toughest challenges ever seen in the banking industry.

It must have been the shortest tenure ever in the most senior job in global banking.

Reprise of Glass-Steagall is not a suitable response to the market’s present woes.

The way in which debt assets are marked to market has intensified the liquidity crunch. Far more should therefore be done to rethink the process.

Trading will continue to concentrate in the hands of the largest players.

An increasing number of hedge funds are cashing in on the opportunities presented in the distressed mortgage-backed securities sector as banks try to offload their sub-prime exposure. Citadel snapped up for a mere $800 million E*trade’s $3 billion ABS portfolio, which comprised mortgage-backed securities and CDOs. About 60% of the assets were rated double A and higher. Along with Goldman Sachs, Waterfall Asset Management and Solent Capital, hedge fund investments in distressed mortgage-backed securities and CDOs are believed to have surpassed $10 billion since July.

The priority for banks in 2008 will be shoring up balance sheets by raising capital.

CLS announced in early December that it had extended its services to cover the net proceeds of non-deliverable forward (NDF) trades. The service has gone live with six member banks and one third-party customer and it will cover 48 reference currencies. Proceeds will be settled in any of the existing 15 CLS settlement currencies.

The year of the MTF?