When the second edition of this guide was published in spring 2008, the banking and financial sector was facing a crisis that began in the United States and later spread to become a global economic crisis, the first of its kind because of ist universal impact. Confidence between financial partners, then between financial institutions and clients, disappeared. Collapses were averted only by state intervention. Many established ideas were called into question, especially as the crisis began where the regulations were the most stringent and the oversight of financial institutions the most severe.

Were the oversight systems inadequate? In part, certainly. But the influences of human nature are even more important: the simultaneous rush by many players to buy the most profitable investments of the moment, causing nothing short of a group blindness to the existing risks. In the United States this tendency was heightened by the encouragement of mortgage lending and a lax monetary policy.

Where do we stand today? This guide, for its third edition, will not be a recipe book to escape from the crisis or avert its consequences. By explaining today's financial world and the way in which its stakeholders act, it seeks to identify the constant factors which dominate the markets. The process of reflexion is intended first and foremost for bank clients, but those whose job it is to advise them may also benefit.

The financial world is not the jungle some people would have us believe, because they fail to grasp its mechanisms. However, it is complex. The wide range of subjects dealt with in this guide is sufficient proof of that fact. In response to this complexity, regulations have been imposed by both state and private bodies but in effect apply at present only at national level, with the risk of proliferation of paralyzing regulatory systems.

Some rules are of course agreed internationally (Basel Committee at the Bank for International Settlements or the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering - FATF). But implementation and oversight are still national. Stabilisation of the global markets will therefore require agreements and the intervention of executive bodies on a global scale.

To understand these developments, observers must remain in touch with the workings of the financial world, its structures and stakeholders. This guide seeks to present them to you in the most focussed and comprehensive manner possible. If, after reading this publication, you are convinced that this objective has been achieved that will be the just reward for our authors and for all those who support us in this venture.