The editor looks back and forward to update on the news agenda.

Much has happened in the two weeks since I wrote my last recap of events! UBS has acquired Swiss rival Credit Suisse in a deal that will cause reverberations for years. Many jobs will be cut. The banking reputation of Switzerland has taken a blow from which it will not quickly recover. We’ve written about the write-down in high-risk bonds issued by Credit Suisse, the return of Sergio Ermotti as CEO at UBS, and pondered where this saga leaves the wider industry. We intend to continue tracking developments in Zurich and the wider world in coming weeks. 

In the US, the First Citizens takeover of most of Silicon Valley Bank put an end to the most immediate crisis phase at SVB, but it hasn’t of course silenced debate about whether backstopping of depositors by federal US authorities is a good idea. We see lots of commentary about whether the regulatory/risk management lessons of the 2008-2009 financial crisis were properly learnt. And politics is, sadly, an arena where learning lessons is often notable for its absence.

Away from the banking mess, we’ve written about technology quite a bit, and I wrote an editorial about what to make of the advance of artificial intelligence (AI) and whether there’s a danger of it getting overhyped. We will see how this pans out. There’s a mixture of anticipation and fear in the air.

In other articles, we have had content about what investors can or should do to shield portfolios from a potential global recession; the infusion of a Canadian family’s wealth into Rockefeller Capital Management. In the offshore world, the British Virgin Islands have set out the case for why such an international financial centre contributes to the global economy, and we had this interview with the firm YieldStreet in the US.

What to expect? We continue to look at developments in technology and how this will affect the wealth industry around the world. The doings of family offices, and their specific investments, remain an important regular feature on our news services, and I am looking forward to carrying new insights thank to our exclusive media partnership with Highworth Research, a UK-based data and analysis business. Interviews are coming down the pipe with a range of Swiss and other European digital assets firms. The collapse of cryptocurrency platform FTX in the US and worries from regulators mean the digital assets space is going through tough times, but some industry figures remain optimistic.

Later this month I am off to Monaco to cover a conference, and take the temperature (literally) of this principality and see how it fits into the financial center world. At the start of May I switch to New York for our annual North American awards program, and I am really looking forward to getting insights. And then it is off to Singapore at the end of May. It’s a lot of travel, but worth it.

Please note that this news service has added a new feature: guest articles. For example, we have a guest article slot where experts in the sector regularly update us on topics, such as the use of cash in the current environment, and the pros and cons of real estate investing. For some time now, these news services have also carried sponsored content in a curated part of the site.

In the multi-media side, I recently interviewed Filippo Noseda of Mishcon de Reya about what privacy means in today’s world where there are demands for transparency and disclosure. 

As ever, if you want to tell us about stories, article ideas, or give feedback on what we publish, don’t hesitate to contact us. My email is tom.burroughes@wealthbriefing.com