International investors this summer gained their best chance yet to invest in Transcaucasia, the region of the CIS separating Russia and the Middle East, with the start of voucher privatization in Azerbaijan. The country's programme is more open to foreign investment than almost any other in the CIS and lets investors take exposure to an economy that is growing at more than 5% a year.

Rather than demonizing George Soros as the prime mover of the run on their currencies, Asian central bankers need to ask themselves hard questions. Why did the hedge funds go on the attack, and who provided the funding? Do they realize what banks are up to, have they decided which of these activities are legitimate, and are there any effective means of restraint? Laura Covill reports.

When Armstrong World Industries, a $2 billion US company, announced in early June that it was launching a $354 million hostile takeover of Domco, a Canadian floor-products maker controlled by Sommer Allibert of Paris, investment bankers were surprised to learn that the company's long-time investment banker, Goldman Sachs, was not advising Armstrong.

Australia's financial markets have hit the headlines this year. While Australian dollar-denominated Eurobonds have been in vogue with European investors, privatization and a changing mortgage market have spurred a wave of issuance by Australian companies. Albert Smith looks at some of the landmark deals.

Issuer: Republic of Ukraine

Foreign banks looking to diversify in international markets have pinpointed Latin America as the new growth area. But whereas in the past they largely confined themselves to investment banking and elite customers they are now seeking to build broader retail operations, either through outright purchases of local banks or buying large stakes in them. Michelle Celarier reports on a race that has sent the prices of even the shakier institutions to surprising levels.

Emerging market governments may be keen to attract foreign equity investment, but, as foreign investors in Russia are learning, the lack of legal protection threatens to stop such investment in its tracks. By Christopher Stoakes.

The biggest contest in the 21st century will be to win in China. Whether it's IPOs, M&A or mutual funds, growth forecasts for China put all other markets in the shade. But the world's biggest potential market is also the toughest to crack. What's the right strategy? Steven Irvine looks at how the major investment banks are positioning themselves.

The African Development Bank (ADB) gets full marks for its efforts to reform and modernize its operations in what is arguably one of the world's toughest banking environments.

In the old days, regulators set the rules and bankers followed them. Now, the Group of Thirty wants to create voluntary standards for global risk management. Some people applaud this experiment. But bankers who Oppose it have been biting their tongues. James Smalhout reports.

How can Russia's small and underfunded equity brokers break into the more lucrative areas of investment banking? By joining forces with foreign institutions, according to the conventional wisdom. But one local broker may have found a different way to turn itself into a major player. In mid-August, details emerged of a deal that brings together Russia's largest securities broker, Troika-Dialog, and the city of Moscow, likely to be one of the country's major sources of financing business over the next few years. The Bank of Moscow, in which the city of Moscow holds a majority stake, will form a strategic alliance with Troika-Dialog. After completion of a share purchase for an undisclosed sum, Bank of Moscow will own 20% of Troika and Andrei Borodine, the Bank of Moscow president, will have a seat on its board of directors.

This is the game to beat all games. And it has a purpose: to give bankers and regulators experience of a financial crisis without the pain of losing their money - or their jobs. Euromoney (with PA Consulting Group and CSFI) set the conditions for a financial meltdown and invited 50 experienced professionals to come and play it out. The tension and the rivalry were real. Most agree they learned something about crises, and perhaps how to prepare better for the next one. By David Shirreff.

Richard Wood's agreeable daily commute consists of a stroll across Prague's Charles Bridge while he looks at the castle and swans and thinks about what he has to do that day. "It beats the tube," he says.

Want to buy a biggish local bank at a knock-down price? Join the queue of foreigners bidding for former state-owned banks in central Europe - but watch out for messy loan books and murky questions of ownership. Antony Currie reports on the restructuring of the region's banking systems and profiles three of the newly foreign-owned banks.

Investment bankers have nothing but plaudits for Gao Jian, the man who is turning China into one of the world's premier borrowers. A smallish, soft-spoken individual, Gao is the director general of the state debt-management department at the ministry of finance. He cuts a distinctive figure, sporting a shock of spiky hair, a worsted silk tie and chunky black, rectangular spectacles.

Asset privatized: Svyazinvest

Some unusual rumblings have been heard from Singapore recently. In July the resignation was announced of Koh Beng Seng, deputy managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and reckoned to be the country's hard man of financial regulation. Then the prime minister persuaded him to withdraw his resignation and asked him to join a committee on banking deregulation. Behind the scenes, a furious debate is raging about the kind of financial centre Singapore should be.