Last year was a record year for M&A in the CIS, according to a report prepared by professional services firm Ernst & Young. The report. Mergers and Acquisitions in the CIS, reveals that the Russian M&A market, the largest in the region, grew by 70% to $30 billion for 2004. Ukraine and Kazakhstan followed Russia with $2.6 billion and $ 0.7billion in M&A activity, respectively.

After a totally barren 2003 and a hesitant 2004, Germany's primary equity market looks to be reviving. Bad memories of the dot-com crash and the generally weak equity culture mean there's no rush to market but much is expected of private-equity exits.

Best bank

The secretive partnership of Lazard is not accustomed to public scrutiny, let alone attack from outside. But in early 2000, French entrepreneur Vincent Bolloré announced that he had acquired 31% of one company in the complex Lazard ownership chain. When Swiss bank UBS revealed that it too had acquired shares in other companies in the chain, Lazard chairman Michel David-Weill rushed to fortify the defences against the threat to his family bank's independence,which he cherishes above all else. In November 2000, David-Weill announced that Bolloré had gone away, having achieved what looked like a successful greenmail operation. But he is not the only threat to David-Weill's command. While battling his outside assailants in public, David-Weill has faced a less visible but more serious challenge from rebels inside the Lazard ranks. They have wrung significant concessions out of this last of the banking aristocrats. Now, if an independent Lazard is to thrive, it must stem the tide of departures and rebuild morale within.

Derivatives exchanges

The battles rage for Telecom Italia, Société Générale and Gucci. Europeans have learnt aggressive US-style tactics. Optimists think corporate Europe has woken up after trailing the US for years. But these mega deals are driven by clan rivalry and gigantism, rather than efficiency.

No single benchmark yield curve has emerged for the euro. So there is some confusion about how Eurobond issues should be priced. That anomaly raises deeper questions about how government debt and its derivatives will trade in future and which electronic platform will grab the lion's share. David Shirreff reports.

The first month of euro trading has come and gone, and the battle for short-term futures contracts rages on. Liffe, Eurex and Matif - the UK, German-Swiss, and French futures exchanges - have been competing for market share of three-month futures contracts since January 4. Already there have been disputes about which has made the most successful transition to the euro and which is most liquid.

Deals of the Year

Making up the rules in Brazil

Touted as the world's first Federal Reserve Board-approved internet bank, Security First Network Bank (SFNB) was one of 1996's hottest internet IPOs. The $48.8 million deal, sole-managed by Friedman Billings Ramsey, a Virginia-based investment-banking boutique, was priced at $20 a share. Some early investors may have done well, as the share price more than doubled to $45 soon after launch. But the virtual bank, which had garnered only about $55 million in deposits by the end of 1997, was just a little too far ahead of its time. The Atlanta-based company focused on developing its widely acclaimed software, and didn't have anything left over to build the bank. Losses for 1996 and 1997 totalled $50 million, $3 million more than SFNB had raised during the public offering. The stock sank into the single digits last year.

Investing in the Indian capital market is sometimes called the great paper chase. Share certificates come in tiny lots of 50 to 100 shares, clean deliveries are uncertain and the process of transfer can take up to a year at the end of which an investor may discover that his shares are fake, stolen or lost.

"Much may be made of a Scotchman if he be caught young." So Dr Johnson had it. In the case of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, an institution founded by Scots and still governed by one, it has grown to be the world's most profitable financial group. The unique international officer culture that has driven it – young men caught young, trained up, messed together, posted, reposted, in the bank for life and rarely back in the UK – will have to change, but it's bending and adapting rather than breaking. Steven Irvine reports on its fitness for the 21st century.

"Much may be made of a Scotchman if he be caught young." So Dr Johnson had it. In the case of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC), an institution founded by Scots and still governed by one, it has grown to be the world's most profitable financial group. The unique international officer culture that has driven it –­ young men caught young, trained up, messed together, posted, reposted, in the bank for life and rarely back in the UK ­ will have to change, but it's bending and adapting rather than breaking. Steven Irvine reports on its fitness for the 21st century.

No-one believes that investment bank research is fully independent. As competition and costs escalate, the pressure on analysts to hawk deals and withhold negative views is intensifying. While some analysts get rich in the new environment, many have quit, and investors have turned to their own and third-party research. Michelle Celarier reports.

MICHAEL VON CLEMM END OF A LEGEND