Rising from the ashes?

With 2008 now behind us, it is clear that the global financial services market bears the battle scars of a hugely challenging year. There is little doubt that at points, the world's banking system faced a real threat of collapse, and while that threat has receded significantly, confidence will take much longer to recover. In part at least, the recession was brought on by savage but necessary de-leveraging in the global credit markets and, as 2009 progresses, the effects of this flight to quality will continue to affect very considerably both the availability and cost of finance. The Gov...