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Financial engineering for ethical investors

Head of credit research, Gartmore

A complex debt exchange during a merger transaction saved AT&T Broadband and Comcast the expense and the hassle of raising new debt. Bankers won’t want other companies to follow suit.

Bank reform in Russia is hampered by the dominance of the two big state-owned banks, neither of which can be speedily rationalized or sold off without disruption. So although the central bank is now intent on regulatory activism it is seeking to enable competition rather than enforce it.

"I wish my last year had been in better times," sighs Albrecht Schmidt, soon-to-be ex-CEO of HypoVereinsbank, over lunch in a London restaurant. "There's still so much to do." Officially Schmidt is still CEO until January - the changeover was bought forward from May to pacify investors - but when Euromoney meets him in mid-November, he's already handed over day-to-day responsibility to the new CEO Dieter Rampl. Schmidt now spends his time shuttling between Munich, Brussels and London in his job as an ambassador for the Munich Finanzplatz.

The volume and sophistication of Poland’s debt strategy last year made it the golden mandate for emerging-market debt teams. And they’ll be chasing Poland hard in 2003. But could its public debt prove too large even for this masterful finance ministry to handle?

Islamic law once forced Muslims to make do with poor investment returns. Now, complex Shariah-compliant structures are burgeoning to add value. We look at the market leaders.

Indonesia

In the sober world of finance, naming a bank after a famous vodka seems like suicide, but not in Russia. In 1999 Roustam Tariko, owner of Russia's leading vodka brand, Russky Standart, decided to open a bank with the same name.

Riba, Gharar, Murabaha, abba, Ijarah, Salam, Istina, Sukuk, Mudarabah, Musharaka, Takaful

Few people know currency overlay - an industry always on the verge of maturing - better than Neil Record, chairman and CEO of Record Currency Management. According to Mercer Investment Consulting, the company he started was awarded the world's first currency overlay mandate in 1985, when the Water Authority Superannuation Fund asked it to implement a dollar-based hedge.

CEE issues have innovated on several fronts this year. Bulgaria made Europe’s first Brady exchange, Poland revived sterling sovereign issues and Gazprom launched Russia’s biggest ever domestic corporate bond.