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No respite seems in sight for India's equity markets. Reeling from a share price rigging scam in March and brokers' protests against new trading rules, the markets were felled once again last month by news of trouble at India's largest manager of mutual fund assets, the Unit Trust of India (UTI).

Despite having the backing of six of Europe’s leading investment banks, BondClick has bitten the dust. Though its mission to create an electronic platform for trading European government bonds seemed straightforward enough, just three months after it launched its trading operation it was already in big trouble. The whole episode is an embarrassment for the banks that backed the new venture.

It was a rare sight. He got onto the downtown F train at 23rd street, the edge of New York's silicon alley, a more sombre place now than it was 12 months ago.

If you're desperately trying to pocket a bigger bonus than you know you deserve, do as the Gesellschaftler in Berlin did. Approve some dodgy credits (take some political donations on the way, too, if you are in the right party) reduce the risk provisions for the loans, then wait until profits amass in the next year, and voila - the bonus is yours to collect.

The European leveraged buy-out market appears to have found its feet again after a nervous first quarter. But banks remain cautious about lending to highly geared deals. Can institutional investors such as collateralized debt obligation funds fill the gap?

The growing use of the internet in financial services provides a new challenge to banks' already stretched in-house technology teams. They must build new systems quickly at a time of rapid and fundamental developments in software and financial operations. The risk is that banks may spend heavily to develop proprietary systems that are already out of date by the time they are up and running. Application service providers may offer the answer, if banks can bring themselves to trust them.

Chief economist of Raiffeisenbank, Prague

Vice-chairman, Jefferies & Company

As the going gets tough for Europe’s online brokers, a new leader has emerged from Italy. Fineco’s success in attracting new business suggests that players in the European asset-gathering market must be wary of wedding themselves too strictly to a single business model. Fineco combines online broking with direct banking, branches and a network of financial planners. So far, it’s working well, but it takes two co-chief executives to run it.

David Komansky doesn’t step down as Merrill Lynch’s CEO until 2004 but he has recognized that his most important remaining task is to engineer a smooth succession. With the sector seemingly moving into a deep downturn this is all the more important. Antony Currie reports on the emergence of Stan O’Neal as Komansky’s anointed successor

The arrival of John Mack as CEO of CSFB was preceded by an execution that would have done "the Knife" himself proud. Credit Suisse Group chief executive Lukas Mühlemann hired Mack before he despatched Allen Wheat and after telling his old CEO his job was safe. But with CSFB mired in regulatory problems, struggling to digest ill-advised acquisitions and riven with in-fighting generated by Wheat's distinctive approach to growing the business, he had little choice. Mack has a formidable reputation, but can he dismantle CSFB's byzantine cliques and create a single culture?

Sporadically, the lights go out in Damascus, although power cuts tend to be short-lived and much less frequent than they used to be, say local businessmen. Nevertheless, Syria clearly needs to channel funds into its power sector. Today, it has installed generating capacity of some 3,600MW, and will need to add an estimated 2,200MW by 2006, representing an annual increase in demand of 6%, which calls for an investment of just over $1.6 billion.