Japan's Ministry of Finance building has the feel of a British public school, and its occupants consider themselves the real rulers of Japan.

Having pursued a dirigiste approach to local non-financial companies in the 1990s, encouraging expansion abroad and regional leadership, the Singapore government has now turned its attention to the banks, urging liberalization, consolidation and outward-looking expansionism. It can't force the banks to do what it wants. But it gets very cross when they don't.

Application service provision has transformed prospects for suppliers of risk-management software. Systems that smaller corporations would once have found too costly, or too feature-heavy, have become available relatively cheaply and in digestible chunks from ASPs on the internet. Even larger companies can see the advantages of the ASP strategy and it is possible that the model will supersede the installed software approach. Boris Antl and Richard Laden check out what is available and forecast market developments

Malaysia has emerged from the Asian crisis to find itself occupying a lower place in the regional pecking order. From being one of the must-have equity markets for foreign investors, it has become an also-ran. Domestic equity demand is also depressed and it’s likely that in the near future bond markets will offer more interest.

Olds joined DBS as CEO in mid-1998, the First foreigner to run a Singapore bank. He has since been overseeing a complete overhaul of the bank’s business lines, transforming the institution from the last vestiges of its role as a traditional development bank lending at low margins, to one hoping to dominate at the retail and wholesale level, both in Singapore and Asia-wide.

"The boys have made a mess of it," mused Brian Winterflood, chairman of Winterflood Securities, on hearing the news of the appointment of Clara Furse as the first woman chief executive in the 228-year history of the London Stock Exchange, "so why not let the girls have a go?"

Head of global markets, Deutsche Bank

Elizabeth Horn Ozden talks about technology trends and the Turkish retail market.

Hong Kong companies have been rated top in no fewer than seven sectors in Euromoney’s annual survey of the best-managed companies in Asia. Chinese and Malaysian firms are highly rated in energy and entertainment. IT and technology companies headed several country polls last year and the Nasdaq effect and a slack period in the semiconductor market have not prevented analysts from continuing to rate them highly this year.