What a truly glorious year 2006 has been for the investment banking and financing industries in Asia. Looking back from December with the Hang Seng Index at nearly 19,000 and the Philippines sovereign 10-year bond just 160bp back from US Treasuries, it is tempting to think of the year as one where equity and bond prices marched higher without skipping a beat. But that is not actually what happened. How easy it is from this vantage point to forget the wobble that hit the equity markets in May and June (caused by some fairly banal comments from...Read more
Whether acting as financier, trader, adviser or investor, when Goldman Sachs commits to a transaction or a client, it rarely gets it wrong. It manages the inevitable conflicts of interest with a remarkably deft touch and makes a fortune as a result. Goldman Sachs is clearly the model many in the industry want to follow and it is IFR Asia's Bank of the Year.