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London law firm Allen & Overy is a major participant in JP Morgan’s Trinity risk collateral management product.

The number of banks seized by the government in Turkey has recently risen to 10 but foreign banks still manage to elude having their fingers burned.

In e-finance developments the day of the independent entrepreneur capturing a chunk of the market is over – and maybe the notion was never a runner. Banks and other financial institutions now dominate the e-finance cutting edge through direct and indirect investment. Britt Tunick reports

Vice president, operations, Atlas Ventures

This year’s ranking of the top 50 biggest banks in Japan shows few changes from last year, though continuing consolidation will result in the formation of at least four major banking groups. In the meantime, profitability remains dismal – blame continued lending to ailing companies in construction, property and retail; low interest-rates; disintermediation; and falling revenue from equity and bond portfolios. By Andrew Newby, tables from Moody’s

The financing of the Julietta goldmine project in Russia's far east has been handled by commercial banks thanks to careful work by law firms

There's a bully in Monaco's playground, and he's brought his gang along for support. Out to spoil the fun in the sun on the Côte d'Azur, France has announced it is cracking down on Monaco's money-laundering, tax-haven culture.

Even a year ago US bulge-bracket firms refused to acknowledge that a foreign bank could come within striking distance of having a decent US bond business. That's no longer the case.

Banks around the world have browbeaten their regulators into accepting so-called hybrid tier one securities issued by special purpose vehicles. Now the investment bankers who arrange capital issues are looking for the next challenge of finding new issuers for these securities.

The Chinese have a heavy historical load to shrug off. It's the financial system. The need for restructuring is recognized and a start has been made on dealing with banks' non-performing loans. Privatization will then be possible. But for all the bankers' adoption of western business suits, it's far from clear whether the government can bring itself to leave Chinese banks free to develop truly commercial lending policies. And then there's the stock market - the most hedged about with restrictions on foreign access in all Asia. Opening it up will mean grappling with weighty corporate accounting issues. More worrying still, it raises the scary prospect of unrestricted currency convertibility.

Efficient linkages between stock markets should eventually enable global investors to trade shares easily on local markets removing any need to use such instruments as depositary receipts. But such linkages are far from complete. American investors still prefer to deal in dollar-denominated paper. Foreign companies are building up their ADR programmes as a currency for US acquisitions. With the trade in ADRs in 2000 exceeding $1 trillion by September, and expected to top $1.3 trillion by the end of the year, the depositary receipt market looks set to prosper.

Several banks are benefiting from the slew of former DLJ bankers who have decided that their new owners, CSFB, are not for them. Lehman and Salomon Smith Barney have done particularly well in the US, and UBS Warburg and Deutsche Bank are not far behind. But in Europe another name has joined the list, and it may be a surprise to some: Bank of America.