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The best guess as to the eventual size of Chinese banks’ bad debts is that they will be many times larger than initial official estimates. In a desperate effort to clean up their balance sheets, banks have shifted bad debts to asset management companies. But there’s no sign that these can offload them to new money investors or engineer decent recovery rates. And there’s plenty more to come. Ministers may feel a little queasy when they get the final bill.

After a four-month absence from the market, Yann Gindre - ex UBS, BZW, Commerzbank and Chase - has finally resurfaced. But he's not going back to banking. Gindre was always one of the more colourful bond origination professionals, but he has decided to hang up his Euromarket hat and become, of all things, a headhunter.

Global head of corporate finance and recovery, PriceWaterhouse Coopers

April's budget proposals from UK finance minister Gordon Brown contained a few little noticed but significant measures that might benefit UK companies, notably the proposal to make purchases of intangible assets, including goodwill, tax deductible bringing the UK into line with the US.

Privatization has been the fate of all but a few of Europe's unquoted financial institutions. Demutualization is all the rage. Non-shareholder banking models are few and far between, but Spain is a notable exception. Here, the private savings banks are growing and consolidating and show no signs of letting go of their special legal status. The Spanish savings bank model has virtually no critics. It has proved itself a successful structure because of a number of features. Most notably, since the creation of these unique financial institutions over a century ago, there has not been a single default.

In the May Issue of Euromoney the result of the vote for hotels in Tokyo were omitted from the Business Travel Poll.

Western Europe: KfW

Is all that talk of looming recession and job losses getting you down? Sick of being told to look for bargains? Was last month's recommendation of Smith and Wollensky's Nasdaq special lunch just too depressing? Then perhaps the millionaire's margarita is for you. Yes, in a determined effort to appeal to the would-be obnoxiously wealthy in us all, Grand Marnier is trying to promote the millionaire's margarita as the drink to have to celebrate a deal or just simply spend your severance package.

European banks risk finding themselves outpaced by US competitors in the bid to protect and exploit their intellectual property.

Ecuador's finance minister, Jorge Gallardo, is a popular man on Wall Street. He's very bright, with a quick wit and a solid grasp of economic fundamentals and economists' concerns. But when he visited New York in May, his demeanour was visibly subdued.

After a hectic period of consolidation, Portuguese banks have fed heartily off rapid economic growth, building substantial loan books, particularly in the retail sector. The boom is continuing but credit quality worries are beginning to emerge and a slowdown in growth could seriously hurt banks’ profits.

Offered a rare chance to jump into the first rank of transition economies, the jewel of the Adriatic must choose between getting ahead and just getting by.