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Jacques Chirac, France's president, might have described his country's relationship with Britain as ?l'amour violent? ? a turbulent love affair ? but London is the place to be nowadays if you're French.

Participants Katie Martin, Dow Jones Let me start by setting the scene a bit. The most recent study from the Bank for International Settlements found a one-third rise in daily trading volumes to $1.9 trillion a day. Financial accounts and hedge funds formed a big part of that boom, with their share of the volume rising to about a third. That segment is understated too as prime brokerage relationships allow clients to execute under their banks' name. So it appears that the battle to convince investors that currencies do provide a meaningful source of returns has been won. Monica, why has this asset class sprung to life as it has?

Two recent deals for funding in the public-private partnership market use innovative structures. Banks and construction companies are starting to find funding advantages as the capital markets warm to project finance assets

Debate: Is currency the perfect asset class?

Revision of Greece's public finance accounts has underlined the need for a big effort to reduce budget deficits. However, the government seems unwilling to tackle crucial areas such as social security reform. Dimitris Kontogiannis reports

Congratulations to Tim Herrington on his appointment as chairman of the UK Financial Services Authority's regulatory decisions committee. As head of the global asset management group at international law firm Clifford Chance, he undoubtedly has the technical expertise needed for his new role.

Two leading Russian investment banks, Troika Dialog and Trust Investment Bank, have both completed management buy-outs.

After five consecutive 25-basis point interest rate increases by the US Federal Reserve in the second half of 2004 the year might have been expected to end with credit spreads lower, a sell-off in emerging-market debt and a slowdown of real-estate investments.

Bullish predictions of the size of Caspian oil reserves made in the 1990s now look greatly exaggerated. With the BTC pipeline linking Azerbaijan to Turkey opening this year, Julian Evans asks just how much oil there is in the region, and whether there will be any more finance deals anything like the size of BTC.

Return to UBS tops private banking poll

return to UBS tops private banking poll

Hong Kong investors' addiction to the fast buck has often landed them in trouble. The latest preoccupation, the M share, entails feverish punting in listed stocks that are themselves punting on neighbouring territory Macau's gambling industry. As a clever few rapidly enrich themselves at the expense of the gullible masses, the inevitable result looms. Chris Leahy reports.