Taking the advice of Benjamin Franklin that "in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes" CIBC has latched on to a new source of stable cashflow - funeral services.

Russia

There should be cost advantages to using a pan-European equities exchange such as Virt-x. However, some potential users say complexity outweighs savings and much of Virt-x’s market share is Swiss stocks.

Cantor Fitzgerald’s prescience in buying up financial e-commerce patents could boost its earnings as it rebuilds after its tragic September 11 staff losses. Its claims, though, have not gone unchallenged and sympathy for the firm might wane as litigation proliferates.

Enron

Vulture funds – or distressed-debt investors, as they’d rather be called these days – have never had it so good. The supply of distressed-investment opportunities is at an all-time high. It’s going to stay that way for a while yet – regardless of whether the global economy booms, slumps or just bumps along.

Euromoney's largest ever foreign exchange survey reveals the market's evaluation of the leading banks.

Russia

Forex trading platform Atriax was backed by some of the biggest-hitting banks. Its failure marks it out as yet another example of how bad technology and poor management can ruin a good idea.