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All the international businesses of Merrill Lynch's GPC group made losses in 2000-02 but the Japanese business suffered most. Now, after a restructuring, and a shift in focus towards high-net-worth individuals, the business is back on track and in profit.

The first day of the Goodwood Festival last month, one of the UK?s most important horse-racing events and a highlight of the summer season for over 200 years, was indeed memorable. ?Glorious Goodwood?, dubbed the most beautiful racecourse in the world, lived up to its reputation. A number of ABN Amro?s senior debt and equity capital markets bankers and an assortment of journalists basked in sunshine, enjoying the scene. The only trouble was picking the right horses. Nearly everyone went for Pango, the winner in the last race, shunning another horse called Freeloader, even though it seemed to be running in ABN Amro colours.

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?

With massive capital, some of the finest minds and cutting-edge technology, the bulge-bracket global securities firms offer clients a seamless one-stop service. Despite their dominance, though, cracks in the securities walls they have built remain to be exploited, as Wellington Securities is proving.

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.

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

There is no room for nostalgia in the new-look Merrill Lynch. Charles Merrill might have wanted to bring Wall Street to the masses but it is the affluent who command the most attention from his successors. Since 2000, James Gorman has shaken up the private-client business with dramatic results.

Despite Banco Santander?s headline-grabbing takeover offer for Abbey National, it is the consistent growth in domestic M&A that is the real good news for Europe.

Concern over regulatory compliance among corporate treasurers has soared to 30% in 2004 ? a six-fold increase on 2003 levels, according to a poll conducted by Treasury Strategies. Almost 80% of corporate treasurers, the poll reports, are undergoing projects, or have plans to do so, based on Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. Financing and credit concerns, followed by the use of technology and cash management top the list of priorities for corporate treasurers in 2004, while the survey also reports negligible changes in staffing levels.

The European Commission has announced an investigation into the regulation of rating agencies, calling for evidence that could lead to legislation on the issue.