The new member states of the European Union offer foreign fund managers a fast growing asset pool. However, the market has already been targeted by such firms as Allianz Dresdner. Is it too late for others to make an impression? The chance to shine may come when investors look outside their home markets.

Have French efforts to create a national champion in the pharmaceuticals industry left its companies more vulnerable to hostile takeovers?

The EIB vehemently disputes the criticism that its risk management isn't up to scratch – a criticism contained in Emac's draft report but removed from the final version. At the end of last year, it put all its risk management functions in its risk management directorate, headed by Pierluigi Gilibert.

ECM bankers at an investment bank near Liverpool Street in London have added a new twist to an old English pub game.

Demand for equity-linked issues remains strong but issuance has dropped off dramatically from 2003 levels. Bankers look to slowing stock markets later in the year to revive the sell side of the market.

Latin America's high-net-worth individuals have followed their peers in the rest of the world in demanding more sophisticated and personalized services from their private bankers.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development decided to restrict its already minimal lending to Uzbekistan in April, after the bank decided that the country had failed to meet economic and humanitarian benchmarks it set one year ago.

www.breakingviews.com

Philippe Maystadt, president and chairman of the board of directors of the European Investment Bank, speaks to Euromoney's Mark Brown about the bank's lending policies, criticisms from the European Parliament and the bank's response to EU enlargement.

Corporate issuance is down in Europe but supply is being bolstered by dollar issues from European corporates. So is this a good year for the debt markets? Bankers are not sure.

Crédit Agricole?s Alternative Investment Products Group plans to launch a directional fund of hedge funds this year using a global macro and systematic trading strategy. The alternatives manager would also consider launching an equity futures single-strategy fund of funds, which would round out its single-strategy fund offering.

Greece?s newly elected conservative government has managed to convince most market participants that it is serious about making good on its promises for faster economic growth. It will, however, have to work hard and deliver fast to avoid disappointing these high expectations in its race against time to prepare the country for the Olympic Games.

Singapore will soon be second to Switzerland in offshore private banking, having overtaken its main Asian rival, Hong Kong. And it is attracting money from wealthy Europeans as well as from Asians.

A high-spending chancellor and a continuing consumer boom might not be in the long-term interests of the UK. They are, though, fundamental to foreign investment that is pushing up sterling.

Bankers are eager for the implementation of Saudi Arabia's capital markets law. But this won't happen until the regulator's chairman is appointed

May has arrived, which means it?s time for City gents to swap their bowler hats for boaters, and head to the English countryside for summer sporting events. Or was that just the way it was before Big Bang?

Rising volumes of primary issuance in Europe mask the fact that most companies are not selling shares to fund growth or to restructure.

GlaxoSmithKline used careful timing to make the most of the dearth of jumbo dollar corporate issues so far this year.

Cheap, profitable and geared for growth - that is how Moscow?s investment bankers are selling Russia?s burgeoning steel sector. Years of investment are bearing fruit and high international prices are boosting bottom lines. But the big-four steel companies are getting too big for their boots. As they turn their attention to landing large international contracts, the leading companies are getting ready to step into the big league by getting their corporate governance act together and analysts are expecting a round of mergers.

Credit provision is once again becoming a dangerous game. Tight bond spreads on high-grade, high-yield or emerging-markets paper are one obvious warning sign that investors? desperate chase for yield has overcome any sensible discrimination about underlying credit risk. But the clearest indication that institutions have failed to learn from the last recession and credit crunch is in the syndicated loan market.

Norilsk Nickel's Gold Fields deal is the largest single Russian cross-border merger and the second-biggest single foreign investment in South Africa. It needed a record-breaking unsecured Russian loan.

The accession of 10 new states to the EU on May 1 provided an opportunity to reflect on the success of the European project. For a continent riven by centuries of war and rivalry to build peace and prosperity is a momentous achievement.

The noose tightened around oil company Yukos?s neck last month and bankruptcy loomed large only weeks before the trial of its former CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky was due to start.

When the European Parliament approved the Investment Services Directive, including the controversial Article 27, hearts sank across the City of London.

The latest new name in European banking, Calyon, becomes fully operational this month. It?s the product of the 2003 merger of Crédit Agricole Indosuez and Crédit Lyonnais, bringing together their investment banking and capital markets businesses. The rebranding and relaunch are being kept relatively low profile, mainly because the new name is already well known among clients. Indeed it is backdated, having been used to refer to the bank since January.

www.breakingviews.com

Political rhetoric in the US about the loss of service-sector jobs to India has not deterred American companies from consolidating their offshore outsourcing business in the country.

UK house prices leapt by 2.1% last month. The price of the average UK home now rises by £100 a day, putting more pressure on the Bank of England to raise interest rates.

The continued strength of the oil price means that Saudi Arabia is set for another successful economic performance this year and unless there is a change in this market, should deliver a second successive year with a budget surplus.

For the first time in a generation, Saudi Arabia has posted two budget surpluses in a row. Sustained oil prices underlie this, though, and economic reform needs to be kept at the top of the kingdom's agenda.