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Despite being only nine months into 2004, exit value has been confirmed as the highest ever recorded.

As CFOs take on more responsibility in the corporate structure, treasurers are taking a greater role in strategy, according to a survey by recruiting firm Crist Associates.

The effective management of tax rates and the days sales outstanding (DSO) process can save finance executives almost $6.5 million for every $1 billion of revenue, claims a recent publication by the Hackett Group, the provider of process benchmarking for corporates. Companies with world class finance operations ? classified by Hackett's empirical evaluation ? show lower effective tax rates of 29%, compared with the peer average of 32%. Similarly, the management of DSO at efficient corporates shows an average of 42.2 days against 49.2 days for their peers.

The Gherkin might be London's most celebrated new building but it isn't popular with all those who work in it.

In Soviet Russia "speculator" was one of the worst of insults. It summed up all the pejorative associations of capitalist activity that the socialist state instilled in its citizens.

In a move that will sit well with the start of formal accession negotiations with the EU in a new era of low inflation, Turkey will start 2005 with a slimmed down New Turkish lira.

Are Russians getting soft? Mikhail Gorbachev tried - unsuccessfully - to curb vodka drinking. These days, though, it's the hazards of a boom in beer drinking that exercise legislators

Prime brokerage revenues could more than double over the next five years to $11.5 billion, according to financial services technology consultancy Celent.

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FSA renews pressure on equity research

UK regulator the FSA has given the fund management industry the opportunity to devise its own more transparent system of client commissions. But there is an impending time limit, and a crucial area - the creation of a competitive marketplace for research - is proving a recalcitrant problem.