Across the board, the firms have taken billions in write-downs for exotic credit derivatives that just a few months ago were the hottest business on the Street and not seen as a huge risk management issue.

FORBES: Merrill Under Fire

After the world's economic powers meet at several summits in the coming weeks, they're more likely to issue a broad set of principles about risk management, oversight and consumer protection than to make sweeping regulatory suggestions.

FORBES: Business In The Beltway

Secondly there is the credit risk issue attached to the mushrooming of wealth-management products, an asset class of uncertain size and quality which banks created in order to attract deposits with higher rates of return.

WSJ: Philip Bowring: China Needs a 1997-Style Crisis