Caveat emptor

Investors' perception of risk has changed significantly over the last 15 months as the credit crisis has worked its way through the global financial system. Banks and building societies, the traditional guarantors of low-risk investing such as cash deposits and guaranteed funds, have been shaken to their core by a breakdown of confidence in lending markets and poor consumer sentiment. The list of high-profile banking casualties has grown alarmingly long. In Europe, a string of institutions including British former buildings societies Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, Glitnir Bank an...