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Having had serial relationships with three global investment banking houses, all of which deals unravelled, Thai investment bank Phatra Securities can be forgiven for wanting to go it alone. Although the firm still enjoys good relations with one ex-partner, the new-found independence clearly suits its style.

CEO, Greenpark Capital

German business doesn't like equity. The old Rheinland model that was the foundation of the Wirtschaftswunder and Germany's spectacular rise from the ashes after the second world war is based on close working relationship between private enterprise, the local bank and the regional authorities. There was no need to open a company up to public scrutiny in the form of demanding shareholders. "Germany is all about private equity, in that private ownership is still the norm. If you take a list of the 30 biggest listed companies in Germany and a list of the 30-biggest companies then there is only limited overlap," says Siegmar Thakur-Weigold, head of alternative investments at HSBC. "There is a long tradition of buying companies here, but none of selling them again. Selling has been seen as a sign of weakness."

New approaches to managing currency funds have proliferated as demand holds up from investors disillusioned by poor performance in other asset classes. But could the market be getting saturated?

Virtually unknown outside its native Malaysia, investment bank Commerce International Merchant Bankers has rapidly consolidated its domestic dominance. Running out of room to grow, the firm is acquiring Singapore stockbroker GK Goh in its first big step to create a regional investment banking force. The ambition is evident and so are the challenges.

Khathar hunnu bhanda marhu ramro. Or in English: "It is better to die than live a coward." That's the motto of the Brigade of Gurkhas, as London financial sector workers are about to find out.

Best fixed-income interdealer

The opening of German financial markets to true securitization looks set to relieve banks of badly performing loans, add new capital to the mortgage markets and revolutionize the financing of Mittelstand companies.

In the global automotive sector over the past three months, investors have focused on the problems facing GM and Ford.

Best at equity derivatives

TUI Northern Europe, a division of TUI AG, the world's largest tourism and services group, has selected Trintech's ReconNET to automate the verification and reconciliation of cash banking and credit card transactions, including foreign currency deposits from Forex Bureaus distributed throughout its 1,100 agencies. Additionally, the module automates the verification and reconciliation of the company's principal disbursement account.

Almost all venture capitalists expect to see an increase in UK activity this year, in both volume and value of deals, with particular consolidation in the retail and financial services sectors.