People: Mark Collier, Chairman and CEO, Investia

A year on from the Basque separatists' ceasefire and the region is booming, led by Bizkaia, largest of the three Basque provinces. Its capital city, Bilbao, is upgrading its infrastructure to cope with the huge numbers of visitors to the new Guggenheim Museum. It's attracting international banks and technology companies, partly thanks to favourable tax rates. But Madrid is contesting these. Meanwhile ETA extremists remain a threat. Jules Stewart reports.

Rumours about an impending sale of Warburg Dillon Read have been circulating for over a year, ever since more derivatives losses were announced following the merger with UBS. This year they have resurfaced, despite a healthy performance so far (WDR accounted for 30% of UBS's pre-tax profits for the first nine months of the year, bringing in $1.34 billion). Chase Manhattan, which lacks an equity operation, and Salomon Smith Barney, which lacks a significant European equities operation, have both been touted as buyers.

Triple-A Dutch bank Rabobank wanted to build a flourishing international business in London. Things didn't go well, not least because the local staff were given too free a rein. A crackdown had to come. Now Rabo's taken a new tack, an alliance with Germany's DG Bank. It could be a fruitful match, but negotiations are protracted and the final arrangements far from settled. Laura Covill reports.

People: Clare Marshall, former treasurer, Export Development Corporation

If you ever forget - or never knew - what being a banking lawyer is all about, there's a book that will make it all horribly clear, says Christopher Stoakes

For five decades, a small Milan bank has wielded power over Italian finance and industry. It has anointed and toppled bosses, fostered and blocked mergers, and defeated every attack on its influence. Its secretive machinations have infuriated supporters of transparent markets. In recent years, Mediobanca was presumed in decline as the world around it modernized. But in 1999 the firm struck back, steering the consolidation of Italian finance in its favour with help from its patriarch, Enrico Cuccia. Yet even in its year of triumph, Mediobanca faces a worsening internal split: between an old guard obsessed with power and intrigue, and a young investment-banking team who want to be less Cesare Borgia, more Goldman Sachs. Marcus Walker reports

People: Mark Collier, Chairman and CEO, Investia