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Deutsche snaps at Merrill's high-yield heels

Interviews with the front-runners in this year's Euromoney credit poll indicate a market in flux and efforts on the part of credit research teams to adapt to this. At a time when equity activity is subdued, the credit market stands out as lively but also highly volatile throughout the rating spectrum. This means that the top firms are doing their best to find new ways of presenting research to their varied customer base. Timeliness, focus and independence in their reports are crucial but they must produce this with staffing levels that are generally substantially lower than those of their equity colleagues.

Research teams are ruined if they lose their reputation. Read what some of the top analysts say about how they maintain independence from sales teams.

The US is in a flap about the transparency of company accounts. Maybe it should look at Germany, where far bigger liberties are taken with figures. CEOs of German corporates sometimes proudly draw analysts' attention to their methods of bumping up numbers.

Novelty names for special purpose vehicles in structured finance have all but disappeared thanks to Enron.

India

Russia

Credit Fund Management

China's securities markets seem to be on the verge of opening up to foreign houses working in joint ventures with local partners. The foreigners are divided on whether they should go for market share by taking on big partners or seek out smaller firms that bring the licences they need but are likely to have fewer skeletons in the cupboard.

The uncertainty that has permeated the Pfandbrief market in the past two years persists. Investors are getting more choosy about issues, competition is intensifying in the underlying lending businesses and new regulations are adding their own challenges, some of which offer opportunities for diversification as well as restrictions.

Issuer: General Electric Capital CorpAmount: $11 billionLaunched: March 15 2002Lead managers: Citigroup/SSB, JPMorgan, Lehman Brothers

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