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RBC has gone golf mad. As homage to the winner of the Masters Tournament 2003, Canadian-born Mike Weir, RBC Royal Bank has launched a credit card in his name. The RBC Mike Weir Visa Card offers clients golfing-related rewards for points. Cardholders can use their points, for example, towards green fees or receive offers from some of Canada?s top golf courses. RBC Royal has also just announced that cardholders can enter a contest to win a round of golf with Weir himself at his home course of Taboo in Ontario. ?I?m glad to join with RBC in a venture that rewards golf devotees,? says Weir, who is currently on the PGA Tour, but the pressure is on. RBC has promised that cardholders will be awarded extra reward points for every victory Weir clocks up. Cardholders have already nabbed themselves 500 points for Weir?s win at the Nissan Open in February. And if he wins one of the majors or the Bell Canadian Open in September, cardholders will receive a bonus 1,000 points. They will have to cross their fingers, though. Weir tied a mere ninth at the British Open in July. Devoted fans are confident, however, that he?ll do better on home ground in September.

In every industry, the vast majority of frauds are committed by the defrauded company’s own staff. But nearly 10 years after the collapse of Baring Brothers, banks have been slow to understand how to manage employee risk.

New issuance of American depositary receipts is being hit hard at the moment, despite growing demand from investors in the product. JPMorgan research estimates that total ADR capitalization at the end of last year accounted for $650 billion, around 33% of all foreign investment in the US, yet new ADR issues from Europe have virtually dried up. Plentiful issuance from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, which accounted for 60% of supply in 2000 in the era of large-scale transatlantic acquisitions funded through stock such as Vodafone's acquisition of AirTouch and large IPOs is now a thing of the past. Many major European corporates already have a US listing but others are being put off by uncertain equity market conditions and new regulatory burdens with the introduction of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

The Federal Republic of Germany?s securitization of e5 billion of Russian Federation Paris Club debt is a landmark transaction.

Euromoney's first financial technology users' survey polled the market to find the software companies that had hit the heights expected of them by an ever more demanding financial services industry. As Jonathan Turton discovered, it's an industry that has never been afraid to get its programming feet wet, but the stakes are getting higher as compliance demands on financial institutions increase.

Equities order-routing firm Lava Trading prides itself on its independence and neutrality. So why has it agreed to an acquisition by Citigroup?

Baillie Gifford exemplifies the traditional image of the cautious but successful Scottish investment manager. But if it wants to leap up to the big league, the partnership might have to consider changes to its structure.

Since Asia's 1997 financial crisis, most Thai financial businesses have been forced to focus on recovery and restructuring. But Asset Plus Securities came through unscathed. Now called Asia Plus Securities, the firm shows what might lie ahead for other Thai financial firms if they can get their houses in order.

For those who couldn't make the Euromoney Awards for Excellence dinner on July 15, the hot ticket was Deutsche Bank's global derivatives conference in Barcelona. After dinner at the grand Finca Mas Solers in the hills above the the nearby resort of Sitges, Deutsche executives and their clients were treated to a private performance from diminutive Australian diva Kylie Minogue.

Alex Bernand (AB) joined Bank of America in 2001. As Managing Director, he runs Structured Credit Trading globally as well as International Investment Grade Trading. Prior to that, Alex spent six years at BNP Paribas trading asset swaps and emerging markets. Antoine Chausson (AC) is Regional Head of Structuring in the Credit Derivatives group at BNP Paribas, which he co-founded in 1997. He has over twenty years' experience in trading, structuring and marketing interest-rate, equity and credit derivatives in Europe and in the US.

The Prague Stock Exchange, which had been more or less comatose for years, sprang into life thanks to the $211 million IPO from generic drugs maker Zentiva. It was the first IPO on the exchange for a decade.