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The word from Paris is that BNP Paribas chairman and CEO Michel Pébéreau is more than a little distracted from his favourite pastime of reading science-fiction novels.

Foreign exchange

Global ECM volume fell 29% from 2001 levels to $308.1 billion in 2002 according to financial data services provider Dealogic. Goldman Sachs retains its place as top bookrunner in global ECM for the eighth year in a row.

Bear markets breed their own types of deals - balance sheet repair, restructuring, liability management, monetization of illiquid assets, securitization, opportunistic acquisitions. The pace and intensity of such deals may vary between the long hard slog and sudden bursts of activity, but companies and bankers that do well in them tend to share certain characteristics: a refusal to accept defeat, creativity that may be inspired by desperation, and a determination to deal with complexity and hold their nerve. Banks must sometimes underwrite risks they would rather not take, just to complete deals.

The IMF has come under heavy fire for its decision last month to roll over $6 billion it lent to Argentina. The republic has failed to implement or even promise any of the reforms the IMF considers necessary, say critics, and the Fund has lost credibility by caving in to the Argentines' blackmail tactics.

M&A

Ukraine

If equity research is quarantined from sales, will institutional investors feel the pinch? Many feign indifference to the crackdown, which was partly triggered by their own apathy. If pressed, though, they admit new structures could be costly and fundamentally change the way they do business.

Sovereign borrowers

India inched its way closer towards full convertibility of the rupee early last month when finance minister Jaswant Singh unshackled foreign investment by Indian companies, mutual funds and investors. However, the fine print shows that the old control mindset of the Indian authorities has not changed.

General Hilmi Ozkok, Turkey's army chief of staff, last month expressed his displeasure at prime minister Abdullah Gul's interference in army policy towards Islamist officers. In a speech he made at the military's annual party for the media (Islamist journalists are not invited) Ozkok said Gul's attitude would "indubitably encourage those who got mixed up in recidivist [meaning Islamic fundamentalist] activities".

The AKP’s hefty majority in Turkey’s November elections looked promising but indecision has taken a hold on the new government, not least in its commitment to the discipline required by the IMF.