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Spain's savings banks have built a solid market share and reputation. And the new finance law looks set to strengthen their position yet further.

Harald Orneberg, a former banker at Salomon Smith Barney and founder of Orn Capital, is one of the new breed of hedge fund entrepreneurs. He has built his business from multiple hedge funds with different strategies and is winning over fans.

Investment banks are eager to do debt deals involving derivatives with Italian local authorities. Such a high level of competition is good news for the borrowers but they are also facing closer regulation of their use of innovative structures. • Jennifer Morris reports

Investors are still piling into US corporate bonds but there’s little sign of improved credit quality to justify this desperate enthusiasm. What’s more, interest rates must rise sooner or later. • Kathryn Tully reports

Euromoney collected data for its 2003 forex survey by polling named individuals at industrial and commercial corporations, financial institutions, institutional investors and state agencies.

The German banks' latest ploy for repairing balance sheets bloated with non-performing loans is laughable. Siphoning off the good loans and leaving behind the non-performing ones - those that the banks really should be doing something about - can only result in balance sheets in worse shape than before.

The Indian stock markets fundamentally reassessed Indian information technology stocks last month. Jolted by a sharp fall in profit margins and a profit warning for the next fiscal year from Infosys, the bellwether for Indian IT companies, the stock sank. The market capitalization of Indian IT stocks has shrunk by over a third this year to Rs662.8 billion ($14 billion) on April 24, tipping the 30-share Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex to a six-month low. That is likely to lead to the postponement of an initial public offering by Tata Consultancy Services, the biggest exporter of Indian software services, which has been trying to list for over a year now.

Investor demand for US

For two months Hong Kong's 6.8 million residents have been at the centre of the Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak, better known across the border in mainland China as "strictly avoiding realistic statistics". But the crisis now seems driven more by fear and hysteria than actual risk of infection.

The history of legislation on banking foundations in Italy is not a happy one. Successive governments have tried to stamp their mark, with the aim of eroding the foundations' power. This government is no different. Finance minister Giulio Tremonti has tried to wrest a bit more influence from them and next month, or perhaps the one after, could be the moment of truth. That's when the constitutional court will present its decision on whether the foundations must sell the shares they hold in banks. It isn't difficult to see why what these bodies do interests the government. Between them, the 89 foundations hold almost e40 billion in assets, including big stakes in Italy's banks. This ownership dates back to 1990, when the government decided to split savings banks into two in recognition of their different and sometimes conflicting functions. One body - the bank - became a joint-stock company responsible for financial operations. The other - the banking foundation - retained charitable status and a social role, maintaining cultural attractions and historical monuments for example.

When CLS Bank finally launched its foreign exchange settlement services in September 2002 it was pretty well guaranteed success. After all the delays in implementing the system, combined with all the practical, legal and diplomatic hurdles that the project had to overcome, there was little chance that the 52 settlement banks, or the initiative's management team, would allow it to fail.