Despite five years of intense regulatory effort and management action, banks and financial institutions are still the least trusted sectors in the whole global economy, according to the just-published Edelman Global Trust Survey of 2013.

FORBES: How Bankers Can Recover Our Trust: Audio Of My London Talk

James Adams is a Senior Analyst at Sageworks, a leading provider of credit risk management, loan loss reserve and stress testing software to financial institutions.

FORBES: For Banks, There Are Risks In Using Excel For Underwriting

The firm's move deeper into the asset-management business comes as more Japanese financial institutions seek to tap the huge amounts of household money sitting in low-interest savings accounts, but often lack the expertise in offering them attractive products.

WSJ: Japan's Orix Buys Dutch Asset Manager

While we celebrate the individual genius in the quintessential financial boutique firm making brilliant contrarian maneuvers, it remains true that the largest institutions have the advantage in terms of financial strategy and risk management.

FORBES: The War Against Big Banks Is A War Against Your Mind

The performance of individual financial institutions was judged by their profits, their capital cushions and their risk-management systems, which were supposedly becoming ever more sophisticated but failed to detect the approaching systemic collapse.

ECONOMIST: In praise of the ideas of Russ Ackoff

The additional capital requirements in combination with enhanced risk management standards, in theory should lead to reduced risk of bank failures, and should decrease the interdependence between financial institutions, effectively reducing the risk of future banking crises.

FORBES: Basel Barriers: How capital requirements would impede progress in the sovereign debt crisis

Goldman Sachs is a leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm that provides a wide range of financial services to a substantial and diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments and high-net-worth individuals.

FORBES: Goldman Sachs Loses Midas Touch In Trading

If the Dresdner plan now goes ahead, Germany's retail financial markets will take a big stride towards Allfinanz: the provision of banking, insurance and asset management by single institutions.

ECONOMIST: The big one?