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It could be crunch time for European convertible issuers as redemptions fall due with stocks at long-term lows. Others face the prospect of investors putting the bonds back to them. Yet again it's the telecoms companies in the thick of it all.

"There comes a time in every man's life when he must make way for an older man." Those parting words - scornfully delivered by a sacked member of the British shadow cabinet in the 1970s - must have been ringing in the ears of at least three ousted European CEOs in recent weeks. Jean-Marie Messier of Vivendi Universal, Ron Sommer of Deutsche Telekom and Thomas Middelhof of Bertelsmann will not be the last rock-star CEOs to go, but all three have been replaced by their seniors: Messier by former Rhône-Poulenc head Jean-Rene Fourtou (aged 63); Sommer by Deutsche Telekom management and supervisory board veteran Helmut Sihler (72); and Middelhof by Bertelsmann stalwart Gunter Thielen (59).

Issuer: Bank Markazi Iran (central bank)Amount: e500 millionLaunched: July 10 2002Bookrunner: BNP Paribas, Commerzbank

Insurance

The travails of Credit Suisse never cease to surprise and enthral.

These are not happy times in corporate credit. Accounting and trading scandals, miserable results and defaults have produced dire results for investment-grade issuance. Now finance directors are doing their utmost to avoid suffering humiliation in the markets.

Energy derivatives

WorldCom symbolizes the pitfalls of the current market

Investors reacted unenthusiastically to Pfizer's plan to merge with rival US drug company Pharmacia, sending the shares 11% lower. It's not that the deal doesn't make sense but in today's volatile markets any bold move is frowned upon.

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Demand for prime brokers has never been so high, thanks to the proliferation of new hedge funds. Spurred on by this, State Street is the first custodian bank to offer prime brokerage. Will it succeed?

US firms have responded to judicial findings about the integrity of their equity analysts with new safeguards. Do European houses face similar problems and if so how are they dealing with them?