U.S. banks are seeking renewed stability in the wake of post-crisis changes-aggressive regulation and legislation, consolidation, and changing consumer attitudes and behaviors towards money.

Economic development in Africa, one of the world's fastest-growing emerging markets, continues to rely on a strong banking sector. To provide economy-boosting financial services and infrastructure more effectively in Africa, major banks are now actively investigating how best to expand their footprint there.

As bank brands become increasingly commoditized and competition grows more intense, customer loyalty has all but vanished. In this environment of complex imperatives, understanding the factors that drive loyalty, and managing these factors successfully, is critical to staying relevant, competitive and profitable.

Over the past few years Brazil has experienced the benefits of economic stability and growth, prompting the migration of almost 30 million people to the middle class and a new level of purchasing power. However, Brazil's strong domestic demand leaves many investors wondering: Has the country come too far too fast? In this podcast, Standard & Poor's credit analyst Milena Zaniboni discusses Brazil's rapid growth surge and explains why we expect banks to deal effectively with any looming risks.

Most banks in Asia-Pacific are unlikely to face significant difficulty complying with Basel III's higher capitalization requirements in 2013, according to a recent Standard & Poor's report. But some may struggle more than others. In this podcast, Standard & Poor's Managing Director Naoko Nemoto explains why most Asia-Pacific banks are likely to meet the requirements while some may have difficulty.

A pesar de las crisis económicas y del consiguiente incremento en la regulación, el sistema bancario mexicano ha mantenido un nivel de capitalización que se compara favorablemente con los bancos en todo el mundo. En opinión de Standard & Poor's, el capital ajustado por riesgo del sistema tiene una alta calidad y se sitúa en 10%; los bancos han mejorado la calidad de sus carteras de crédito desde 2007. En este podcast, Angélica Bala, Senior Director en Standard & Poor's nos habla sobre la trayectoria y el panorama para los bancos en México.

Nicholas Dunbar, author of The Devil's Derivatives: The Untold Story of the Slick Traders and Hapless Regulators Who Almost Blew Up Wall Street ... and Are Ready to Do It Again.

BBVA - The Web 2.0 Innovation (Re)-Evolution provides details of the banks Innovation and Transformation journey that began in 2007. This case focuses specifically on the Web 2.0 applications that BBVA developed during this period and the part they played in the company's strategy.  This case is organized through a timeline with video interviews which allow students to review the situation of the company before the Innovation and Transformation journey, as well as to consider challenges that this plan could bring in the future.

I believe the financial services industry worldwide was lacking of a comprehensive benchmark on social media activity on more and more popular online communities like facebook or twitter. This is precisely why back in early 2009 me and my team at Visible Banking started tracking the social media presence of banks, insurance, investment firms and more widely financial services firms all over the world.

As the value of e-commerce transactions continues to grow, competition for the payments market is heating up and European banks are beginning to take notice. This podcast considers innovations like iDeal in the Netherlands-which leverages existing bank infrastructure to facilitate direct transfers between consumer and merchant accounts-and the feasibility of replicating this model elsewhere.

The Chinese banking sector still faces a number of obstacles down the road, despite the major banks' generally strong positions. Banks' exposure to local government financing vehicles and the property sector are currently hot industry topics. In this CreditMatters TV segment, Managing Director Ryan Tsang, Financial Institutions, takes an in-depth look at these issues and the trends shaping China's banks.

The world's banking industry faces massive upheaval as post-crisis reforms start to bite, says Jonathan Rosenthal in his special report.

Italy's banks are slowly digging out of one of the deepest recessions in the past half century, as the country's GDP declined a cumulative 6% in 2008-2009. But banks are climbing over difficult and new terrain, such as persistently slow domestic economic growth, much higher prices for wholesale funding due to sovereign credit worries in the eurozone, and tougher capital rules in the run-up to Basel III. In this podcast, Standard & Poor's credit analyst Renato Panichi provides an in-depth look at the situation and what could lie ahead.

Total assets in Kenya's banking sector grew by 27 percent from 1.325 billion shillings in 2009 to 1.678 billion shillings in 2010 with profit before tax for the sector recording a 61 percent climb or 77billion shillings. Analysts at rsm ashvir consultants however note significant investment is risk free government securities at the expense of onlending to the public and want the government to cut rates in its securities to spur lending to the borrowing public.

Since March 28th, 2011, Standard & Poor's has downgraded, by several notches, the five Portuguese banks that they rate to 'BBB-'. S&P has also lowered the short-term ratings to 'A-3'. The outlooks on four of the five banks are negative. One bank still remains on CreditWatch negative. What prompted their rating actions on the banks? In this podcast, Director Elena Iparraguirre explains their rationale, why they feel sovereign risk and banks' ratings are so tighthly correlated, and their main expectations for the Portuguese financial system.

French banks continue to post adequate results and benefit from sound asset quality. However, they will continue to operate in a constraining playing field featuring low domestic economic growth, uncertain capital markets, and stricter regulations. The tighter regulatory regime should prompt banks to bolster their capital. In this CreditMatters TV video, Standard & Poor's Director Elisabeth Grandin takes an in-depth look at the situation.

Canadian banks will be focusing their attention on pursuing growth, managing risks and investing in innovation, state the authors of Canadian Banks 2011: Perspectives on the Canadian banking industry. This year, the annual report includes perspectives from leading financial services investment managers and analysts along with a video with PwC's banking leaders.

CeCe Morken, President of Intuit Financial Services, discusses how the banking industry has evolved rapidly over the past decade. She also highlights how regulatory and economic requirements, more non-bank competitors, disruption of the established business model, and a dramatic shift in customer behaviors and mindset will continue to fuel change in the banking industry.

Despite the financial crisis, emerging-market banks have raced ahead says our banking editor, Patrick Foulis

After my post last week about my latest presentation with an audio file, my keynote in Bahrain this week was going to be a variation of the presentation. Due to being unable to fly to Bahrain, I mentioned on Monday that most of the day had been spent editing a video file for the conference to be able to present my keynote.