Germany
Josef Ackermann
Chairman, Deutsche Bank
Is Josef Ackermann Americanizing Deutsche Bank? The 54-year-old Swiss-born executive, who took over as chairman last month (Germans still don't like CEOs), is already shaking things up at Germany's largest bank. Ackermann gives all due respect to German political sensibilities, but he is also taking management power over Deutsche away from the company's supervisory board and putting it squarely on executive front lines. Increasingly, that will mean more emphasis on the securities trading/underwriting and asset-management businesses the company has acquired rather than on commercial and retail banking in Germany. Industry watchers expect Deutsche to make another acquisition in either the United Kingdom or the United States to compete more broadly with Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase.

United States
FleetBoston
FleetBoston's influence stems from its decisions "not [to] invest any new capital in Latin America" and to "reduce its overall exposure" in the region. That left firms wondering if other foreign banks would leap at the opening, or follow Fleet's lead. In business in Argentina since 1917, Fleet has announced cumulative losses there of $1.3 billion. Most other foreign banks seem to be standing pat despite Standard & Poor's warnings that their Argentine subsidiaries put them at risk. But expect them to be hypercautious lenders. Spain's Banco Santander Central Hispano, which owns Argentina's Banco Rio, has already set aside $1.1 billion to cover losses — more than Banco Rio's book value.

United States
William Harrison
CEO, J.P. Morgan Chase
The urge to merge can be hard to resist. When William B. Harrison Jr., 58, became CEO of Chase Manhattan in 1999, he was determined to keep up with Citigroup, which acquired Salomon Smith Barney and then Travelers Group in 1998. Harrison's aim, like Citigroup's, was to get into more-lucrative investment-banking services. To that end, he purchased Hambrecht & Quist in 1999, before the tech collapse, and then pulled off a megamerger with J.P. Morgan. Postmerger performance has suffered — earnings were down by 70 percent last year. The bank also has more than $2 billion in exposure to Enron, and its dealings with Enron are being investigated by the SEC and the Federal Reserve. Nonetheless, J.P. Morgan is the second-largest bank in the country, with a huge syndicated lending operation and a growing presence in investment banking.

China
HSBC Holdings Plc

Bank of China
Outside Hongkong and Shanghai Bank in Hong Kong, two bronze lions stand guard; passersby rub the paws for good luck. And why not? The bank is part of London-based HSBC, one of the world's largest banks and the most powerful financial institution in Asia, outside of Japan. But HSBC's presence in China is currently limited, and its strong ties to the colonial past may handicap it in establishing a stakehold in the Middle Kingdom. Indeed, some observers think the future belongs to Bank of China. That's something of a long shot; BOC has been rocked by revelations of massive theft, and concern over the solvency of China's banking system is mounting. Still, China wants to show that it's serious about cleaning up the system — and BOC is its strongest financial arm.

United States
John J. Mack
CEO, Credit Suisse First Boston
He's called "Mack the Knife." Since jumping from Morgan Stanley last year, the CEO of CSFB has cut some 3,000 jobs, and the severance costs contributed to a billion-dollar loss in the fourth quarter. Mack has also been busy with damage control. In January, he paid a $100 million fine to settle SEC allegations that the firm charged investors outsized trading commissions in return for initial public offering allocations. And CSFB is one of the firms New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer is investigating for conflicts of interest. Still, it is one of the strongest franchises on Wall Street. It was the leading underwriter of junk bonds in the first quarter, topped the list of global M&A advisers, and is actively seeking to increase its presence in Europe and Asia.

United States
Henry Paulson Jr.
CEO, Goldman Sachs
When markets go south, Wall Street investment houses go with them — even Goldman Sachs, the bluest chip in the investment-banking industry. Since Hank Paulson, 55, ushered the company through its public offering in mid-1999, however, Goldman has continued to outperform its peers. In one of the most difficult years in a decade, its revenues slipped by just under 6 percent last year, compared with a drop of 14 percent at Merrill Lynch.

Its premier franchises in M&A advisory services and securities underwriting are extraordinarily attractive assets to megabanks like Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase, which both sport market caps far larger than Goldman's. Paulson is determined to keep Goldman independent, but with its stock down 40 percent from a peak of $130 in 2000, that could be difficult.

France
Michel Pébereau
CEO, BNP Paribas
With total assets of $735.8 billion on December 31, 2001, Paris-based BNP Paribas has grown through acquisitions into one of the world's largest banks and the second-largest in the euro zone. The self-styled "bank for a changing world" has offices in 87 countries and a finger in every retail- and investment-banking pie.

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