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Microsoft has placed payments, STP and regulatory compliance at the top its agenda for this year's annual SIBOS event to be held in Atlanta, US. The technology event predominantly attracts financial institutions and technology vendors though SIBOS is this year hoping to play up the corporate involvement.

Back in 1998 the Japanese telecommunications company, NTT DoCoMo, made an offering to investors worth ¥2.1 trillion ($19.1 billion), and it is a measure of Japan's economic fortunes that, in the intervening years, no company has come close to surpassing that offering. But investors will at least be cheered by news that Electric Power Development, the Tokyo-based energy wholesaler, looks set for its own IPO at a value somewhere between ¥347 billion and ¥375 billion. This would make it the largest IPO in Japan since NTT DoCoMo's monster offering in 1998.

Rhodia and Cable & Wireless have too much debt, while energy companies and utilities have too little, according to a report from Morgan Stanley.

Corporate Finance is compiling its 1st annual Loan Market Survey for corporate treasurers and CFOs. A short point-and-click survey, it will examine corporate approaches to the loan market, current trends and topics, such as covenants and fees, and give you a chance to rate the services of the banks you use.

Although a flood of issuers came to the primary bond markets last week, banks are predicting a global slowdown in issuance due to tightening interest rates.

Rob McFarlane, CFO of the Lyttelton Port Company and a key architect of its floatation eight years ago, has offered his resignation to the company. The company is currently searching for McFarlane's successor. The maritime company, based in New Zealand, recently announced an 8% increase in earnings during 2004. Digital Insight, the on-line banking operation, has suffered a drop in its stock price following the departure of Elizabeth Murray, the company's CFO. Shares fell 13% to $13.57 on the news. Murray, who joined the company in 2002 after an executive role with Korn/Ferry International, has left to pursue other career opportunities.

A corporate's credit rating is central to its financial health. It determines cost of capital and drives investor relations. In CF's October cover story the magazine is going to explain how to make the rating process less tiresome and how best to manage your rating agency relationship.

Since the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act US companies have become the best for corporate governance in the world.

More major corporates than ever are participating in CF's regular surveys with over 250 responding to CF's 2004 FX survey.

Corporates could learn a lot from the public sector about how to manage outsourcing, according to a paper published by the CFO of IT services company Steria.

Working capital is a large component of corporate liquidity, accounting for close to 15% of sales and 20% of capital employed at Europe's top 1000 companies, according to a 2003 report by REL Consultancy, the financial advisors. Though net working capital for European companies is falling, says the report, there is still ?580 billion of cash tied up in business operations. Working capital is made up of operating cash, trade receivables and inventories ? it is the capital in these areas that CFOs are hoping to capture.

The picture for European M&A in the media sector may be about to change. While figures are still far below the media ?bubble? of 2000/01, according to a report by PwC, total M&A deals to date highlights a sharply improving trend towards the end of 2003 and this continues through to September 2004.