Last month's surprise resignation of US Treasury secretary Paul O'Neill and White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey smacks of desperation in the Bush administration. Only two weeks earlier, O'Neill had indicated that a costly stimulus package was unnecessary as the US economy was recovering nicely. He suggested that a simplification of the tax code was his sole priority and that government funds should be directed only to troubled sectors, such as the airlines.

Years of heavy losses from traditional assets are prompting investors to seek new havens for their money. Overlay managers sing the praises of going beyond hedging to invest actively in forex.

In the sober world of finance, naming a bank after a famous vodka seems like suicide, but not in Russia. In 1999 Roustam Tariko, owner of Russia's leading vodka brand, Russky Standart, decided to open a bank with the same name.

The volume and sophistication of Poland’s debt strategy last year made it the golden mandate for emerging-market debt teams. And they’ll be chasing Poland hard in 2003. But could its public debt prove too large even for this masterful finance ministry to handle?

There have been many departures from investment banking this year but doubtless staff around Citbank in London will be mourning the loss of Nicola T from their compliance department more than many.

Citibank opened its first retail branch in Moscow in November as Russia's leading commercial banks begin to slug it out for Russia's retail banking business.

Few people know currency overlay - an industry always on the verge of maturing - better than Neil Record, chairman and CEO of Record Currency Management. According to Mercer Investment Consulting, the company he started was awarded the world's first currency overlay mandate in 1985, when the Water Authority Superannuation Fund asked it to implement a dollar-based hedge.

Despite the supposed fiscal rectitude demanded by dollarization, Ecuador has once again spent itself into trouble.

HVB and Commerzbank face an awful choice: lend more to German companies and rack up those NPLs, or stop lending, induce more bankruptcies and drive away customers.

A pioneer of foreign investment in post-Soviet Russia, Bill Browder has battled with corporate misdeeds and tracked the “bad guys” to take his Hermitage fund up 446% since 1996.

CEO, Duke Street Capital

CEE issues have innovated on several fronts this year. Bulgaria made Europe’s first Brady exchange, Poland revived sterling sovereign issues and Gazprom launched Russia’s biggest ever domestic corporate bond.

Riba, Gharar, Murabaha, abba, Ijarah, Salam, Istina, Sukuk, Mudarabah, Musharaka, Takaful

Lehman Brothers' trials and tribulations with its wayward chef continue (see Euromoney, November 2002).