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Doubts have surfaced about the feasibility of monetary union after a tense meeting of central bankers.

Euromoney has incorporated its annual credit research poll into a new fixed income research survey. The intention has been to give those banks that no longer follow the traditional fundamental sell-side credit research model a chance to be nominated by their clients.

Political horse-trading in Serbia continues following the late January elections. However, despite the lack of a new government the country remains a strong magnet for foreign direct investment. In recent weeks, Serbia has concluded the politically sensitive sale of a leading mining company and the Belgrade Stock Exchange remains one of the best-performing bourses in the region. Romania’s Cuprom has secured the ownership of RTB Bor, Serbia’s largest copper mine, paying €303 million for a company the World Bank had suggested be closed down. Additionally, Cuprom has agreed to invest a further €137 million, alongside a €120 million commitment from the Serbian authorities to upgrade and provide equipment for the facility. Despite opposition from nationalist politicians and RTB Bor’s own management, the sale was pushed through by the outgoing government in the hope that it would boost economic prospects in Bor, one of Serbia’s poorest towns. Cuprom managing director Horia Simu says that the government had achieved the best possible price for the mine at a time of high copper prices. Copper prices have risen 44% in the past three months alone.

The International Securities Exchange, which pioneered electronic equity option trading in the US, has listed contracts on four currency pairs: US dollar/euro, US dollar/sterling, US dollar/yen and US dollar/Canadian dollar. Timber Hill will serve as the primary market maker, and Citigroup Derivatives Markets, Lehman Brothers and Optiver US will act as competitive market makers. The contracts are very much aimed at the US retail sector.

Czech power provider CEZ has been voted central and Eastern Europe’s best-managed company for the second year running. Rising energy prices are helping the firm to record strong profits, but why are analysts so impressed by the firm’s management? Lawrence White reports.

Dresdner Kleinwort has bolstered its Russia and the CIS investment banking franchise with the appointment of Igor Lojevsky as chairman of global banking and capital markets. He will join the bank in July following gardening leave, having most recently worked at Deutsche Bank in Moscow where he had been head of sales and origination for Russia and the CIS since 2005. Previously, Lojevsky had been co-head of investment banking for Vneshtorgbank in Moscow from 2003 to 2005 and had also worked in London from 2001 to 2003 for Deutsche Bank’s corporate finance team. Lojevsky effectively replaces Bob Foresman, who left the bank to become deputy chairman of local investment bank Renaissance Capital. Russia is Dresdner Kleinwort’s strongest market outside the UK and Germany. According to Dealogic, the bank was number one for Russian initial public offerings as of end-2006, Eurobonds and securitizations, and number two for syndicated loans.

With the exception of JPMorgan, US banks have now lost their position of dominance in credit research. At the bottom of the last credit cycle, US banks swept the board in Euromoney’s credit research polls. Since then, however, it is their European counterparts that have proved themselves more useful to their clients. Société Générale, with wins in investment grade and overall trade ideas, as well as a host of first places in sub-categories including investment-grade credit strategy, is the big upward mover in this year’s poll. Last year, the French bank placed fifth in overall investment grade, and failed to win a single category.

Chinese regulators now want the largest state-owned firms to list at home, leaving smaller private companies to trade in Hong Kong. But these might be the best Chinese companies and losing them may be a big mistake.

Euromoney collected data for its 2007 FX survey by polling named individuals at industrial and commercial corporations, financial institutions, institutional investors and state agencies.

As demand for financial services accelerates in Europe’s fastest-growing economies, several firms based in the Baltic republics have quietly been building impressive investment banking operations that now compete with larger Scandinavian rivals. This success story might have an unhappy ending, however: analysts have been sounding the alarm amid fears that Latvia might be about to devalue its currency. Lawrence White reports from Riga and Tallinn.

One man, one vision might be a line from a naff Queen song but it neatly encapsulates the role Herbert Stepic has played in building Raiffeisen International into one of the strongest banking franchises in Europe.

Ukrainian politicians and bankers are considering allowing the dollar-pegged hryvna to become a managed floating currency. A first reading of a draft law in the country’s parliament, the Rada, has led to expectations that such a change could be made within 12 months.