Interpol agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) and Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts) are determined to bring to justice one of the world's most powerful banks, the International Bank of Business and Credit. Uncovering illegal activities including money laundering, arms trading, and the destabilization of governments, Salinger and Whitman's investigation takes them from Berlin to Milan, where the IBBC assassinates an Italian presidential candidate. Following a lead on the assassin to New York City, Salinger is involved in a gunfight in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. An ally of Salinger's in the NYPD tracks down the assassin's handler, who helps Salinger reach Istanbul, where the CEO of the IBBC is conducting an arms deal. After Salinger's plan to record the CEO's conversation and expose him as a fraud is foiled, Salinger faces off with him on a rooftop. After the CEO explains that killing him will accomplish nothing, since a hundred other unscrupulous bankers are ready to take his place, he is abruptly killed by an assassin hired by the surviving family of the same Italian presidential candidate he had ordered killed earlier in the film, ending the movie. However, during the credits, it is indicated that the bank continues with its plans and is successful, regardless of the death of its CEO. Pre-release trailers indicate that a source for the drama may be found in the quasi-historical corporate entity known as Permindex and the defunct Bank of Credit and Commerce International.

• Clive Owen as Louis Salinger, an obsessive Interpol agent.
• Naomi Watts as Eleanor Whitman, a Manhattan assistant district attorney.
• Armin Mueller-Stahl as Wilhelm Wexler
• Ulrich Thomsen as an investment banker who gets involved in an arms-dealing ring.