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Quality borrowers got away a lot of issues last month, but investors are getting more choosy, especially about dollar bonds. Rising interest rates and an equity revival also raise uncertainties about the year to come. Mark Brown reports.

In December, GM outlined a revised strategy designed to deliver at least a 9% return at its pension plans, including increased allocation to such asset classes as emerging-market debt, high-yield bonds and real estate while reducing global equity allocation to less than 50%. Some commentators feel that investing in more exotic asset classes and using hedge fund managers with the aim of reducing volatility is slightly odd. But GM treasurer Walter Borst insists that investing in additional asset classes will add to diversification and so reduce volatility on a portfolio basis. "We can do this because we have such large assets under management and expertise in house," he says. "Some people have said that by investing in some of these asset classes we must be adding risk. Well, some of the items might be more or less risky, but we like to think we're a little more sophisticated than that."

The European equity-linked market generated over e9 billion in convertible redemptions in January, which is almost a third of what is expected in maturities and puts through the whole of 2004.

Public shareholders have grown increasingly antagonistic to private-equity sponsors buying up companies on the cheap and refloating them at a premium in bull markets. Taking companies partially private could win public investors round and increase the potential size of such transactions. Peter Koh reports.

The scores for this year's Poll of Polls were compiled using league tables and Euromoney surveys published in 2003, as outlined below.

If there's one woman in the debt markets that bankers have to keep sweet, it's Cynthia Ranzilla, vice-president of US funding and global markets at GMAC. She is responsible for dishing out mandates to banks in every asset class and market where GMAC funds its $275 billion asset base and it's something she takes very seriously. "It's a continuing challenge to manage the relationships so that meaningful business can be provided to the banks while awarding that business based on each firm's attributes," she says.

Deutsche regains top spot in Euromoney's poll of polls, while UBS and JPMorgan close in on Citigroup as it falls to second place. Andrew Newby reports; research by Andrew Newby, Paul Pedzinski and David Skalinder.

Valuing private banks for M&A transactions is a complex process, and not one that is unanimously agreed upon. Sebastian Dovey, head of consulting for Scorpio Partnership, thinks it is not enough to look merely at assets under management when putting a price on private banks. "Looking at AUM and the level of wealth per client is not a telling sign of the company's value. You could end up with wealthy clients who are all very old, and want their money to stay static." In this case, the buyer may have overestimated the transaction-based fees that should be achieved from the acquisition.

Josef Ackermann (pictured) says his trial is an "image problem for Germany, for Deutsche Bank and for me – in that order". This is certainly true, but almost underplays its significance. The trial has become a flashpoint for those opposed to attempts to overhaul Germany's creaking economic model.

These days it's no fun being an analyst, what with all the sniping at your reputation. Imagine if, on top of that, you're struggling to find a date.

War, epidemics and political uncertainty dominated the financial landscape in 2003, interrupting roadshows, delaying deals and making it difficult to predict market movements. Some issuers pulled their deals. But others found ways to meet new types of investor demand. Volatile equity markets sparked unusual convertibles. Warmer sentiment towards Russia produced a whole range of deals. Hostile takeovers returned. And high-yield bonds and LBOs enjoyed a resurgence. Antony Currie, Julian Evans, Deborah Kimbell, Chris Leahy and Katie Martin report