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Prescient, a pioneer of direct debt issuance over the internet, intends to expand into other products in the coming months, with the next target being certificates of deposits in the US.

The news coming out of Japan has for a long time been wholly discouraging. Its economy has been on the operating table for the best part of 10 years. The government, unsure, unable or unwilling to make use of the scalpel, resorts to placing band-aids over gaping wounds. The cauterizing effect of injecting trillions of yen into the ailing system is also wearing off. Intermittent signs of recovery often prove no more than false dawns. And the country is running out of its self-prescribed medicine. But there are going to be some winners – quite possibly the foreign investment banks. As companies take it on themselves to restructure, or are forced to, those familiar vultures are circling overhead.

Brazil's Novo Mercado is Bovespa’s latest attempt to bring the country's Brazilian equity markets up to western standards of transparency, liquidity and governance. It is modelled on Germany’s Neuer Markt, but so far hasn’t had any listings.

So far, Telecom Italia is the only telecoms company to make public plans to issue a securitized bond. It will raise up to Eu1 billion in the second quarter of 2001 by selling bonds secured on fixed-line customer bills.

In a new round of negotiations on state support for German public-sector banks, the European Commission and the German government are urgently seeking a solution. But they are not the only participants in the dispute. The stakes are high for the municipalities and federal states which fear the demolition of the whole public-sector banking system. They are not ready to give in without a fight that might yet widen into a complex legal dispute requiring years to resolve. As the conflict intensifies, the public banks still have the chance to become strong, independent institutions.

Portugal’s economy is in great shape, unemployment is low by European standards and government borrowing requirements are steadily falling. That is the good news. Less auspicious is the fact that Portugal is saddled with structural imbalances and competitiveness vis-à-vis other economies with relatively low labour costs is steadily deteriorating.

Accounting for some 90% of dealer-to-customer trading in US government securities, TradeWeb is the most successful internet bond dealership yet established.

They started by trying to update the crude minimum capital requirements for international banking established in 1988. But the Basel Committee have been seduced by a new idea: let banks regulate themselves and get the market to police the banking system. Can we rely on the models banks use to calculate their capital? And do the regulators really understand what the banks are up to?

In the past Euromoney’s country risk ratings have been reliable lead indicators of dips and surges in the world’s economic cycle. Six months ago the global economy looked in fine fettle, underpinned by favourable commodity prices and strong growth in developed countries. Financial markets are fearful this is about to change. Analysts’ forecasts for economic performance are noticeably lower than in September’s survey. But it’s not all doom and gloom. Research by Damon Ivanics and Andrew Newby

One of the great gainers from falling global interest rates will be emerging market financial assets - though not everywhere. I've just visited one emerging market that should outperform this year: Brazil.

On January 30, UK water regulator Philip Fletcher finally gave the go-ahead to Glas Cymru's purchase of the assets of Welsh Water, in exchange for assuming £1.8 billion of the debt of Welsh Water's owner, utilities group Hyder. Glas Cymru - "the people's company" is to have what amounts to mutual status and become fully debt financed. Technically, it will be owned by nobody but guaranteed by 200 members - ranging from Welsh dignitaries to hospitals - whose individual personal liability will be capped at £1.

A joint venture that can only be described as a success, Nikko Salomon Smith Barney is a rare creature, and other banks in Japan are green with envy.