Storm clouds are gathering above the UK banking sector. Azhar Rizvi recommends taking shelter in continental Europe.

As Leonard Schrank announces his retirement, speculation begins over which management style would best fit SWIFT.

India’s banking sector could learn some useful lessons from Iceland’s strong showing in The Banker’s Top 1000 world banks.

While tighter security is essential in preventing terrorism so, too, is addressing its root causes. This includes tackling disaffection with globalisation, which must be seen to benefit the wider community.

Political life is seldom dull in the Philippines. Two past presidents – Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada – have been brought down by popular demonstrations. Now President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is fighting to stay in office and carry out essential reforms. “I must do what has to be done and damn the torpedoes for a while,” she told The Banker’s senior editor, Karina Robinson. For an understanding of the various contradictory forces that make reform such a challenge in this troubled country, see this month’s Karina’s Kolumn and the article on the Philippines that follows.

Having rewritten Lloyds TSB’s poor growth story, CEO Eric Daniels now wants to strengthen the bank’s franchise, he tells Karina Robinson.

Gerrit Zalm, the Dutch finance minister, calls for banking supervision in the European Union to be overhauled.
Obstacles to European cross-border mergers and acquisitions in the financial sector still exist and the fortifications of some national markets remain hard to penetrate.

China has entered a new cycle of growth and is willing to integrate further into the world economy, contributing to the greater global good, according to Jin Renqing, the Chinese finance minister.
The politician was speaking at a presentation to mark his acceptance of The Banker’s Finance Minister of the Year, Asia award in London early last month. Mr Jin outlined the latest macroeconomic developments in his home nation and revealed Chinese efforts to maintain a stable economic outlook.

Two main candidates are lining up to replace Enrique Iglesias as president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the biggest multilateral development bank in Latin America. Mr Iglesias, who has held the position since 1988, has decided to step down at the end of September.

The republican chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Richard Shelby, has thrown his support behind the new chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Christopher Cox. He also criticised former chair William Donaldson for failing to listen to his Republican peers.