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Next year the Middle East's sovereign bond markets look likely to expand in scope, with new issuers coming in longer maturities and larger amounts

When it comes to floating state-owned enterprises, the Chinese authorities have learnt fast. More discriminating in what they offer to the market, they have also recognized that pricing is crucial and that investors are attracted by big issues because of the liquidity they provide. For their part, western banks leading issues have learnt - sometimes the hard way - that the Chinese are increasingly choosy about who they work with. That doesn't make bankers any the less determined to establish a presence in a massive market that is at last beginning to restructure.

It's hard to imagine a worse news flow for markets. As I write, the US is without a winner in the presidential elections. The lawyers argue in the courts about whether various counties in Florida can conduct manual recounts. And people spend their time giving opinions on chads - those little round bits of paper hanging by a thread from the punch hole on a Florida ballot paper.

Issuer: Government of Malaysia Amount: €650m Type of issue: Eurobond Date of issue: November 16

A walk around Chicago can be a rewarding experience. It has its skyscrapers like most other US cities, including the tallest, the Sears Tower. But it also has stunning main shopping streets and there's a deceptive and disarmingly quiet pace to life in the Loop, the main financial district. Then there's the city's reputation as the home of blues music, and its overall location on the shores of Lake Michigan. All this gives the city a more balanced air than the bustling, cramped streets of Manhattan.

Few in the financial sector would doubt the benefits of having an independent central bank, where governors are free from interference or threats and responsible for targeting inflation, controlling money supply and interest rates and supervising the sector, without needing to heed advice from political masters.

Turning money and small-value payments into digital form doesn’t interest the banks – it’s against their interests and too expensive. Into the vacuum have stepped hundreds of payment schemes, many of them claiming they have found the Holy Grail. These boasts are premature. Some ideas are elegant but don’t have critical mass. Worse still, they rely on those indifferent beasts, the banks. Find your way through the Darwinian jungle with the help of David Shirreff

Greece’s entry into the eurozone from the start of 2001 is bound to have a profound impact on local banks. Already the country’s successful convergence campaign, characterized by sharp drops in inflation and interest rates, has fuelled competition and accelerated consolidation. There is little doubt that competition will intensify from 2001 onwards, forcing Greek banks to re-think their long-term strategies and consider foreign partners.

Asia is set to become the new battleground for online brokers. A nascent market with huge potential is incentive enough for the big guns from the US to invest heavily in developing Asian operations. Hong Kong offers a gateway into the new markets, particularly China, for international firms that look set to put many local brokers out of business. Julian Marshall reports

The technocrats who climb their way to the top of the greasy pole of international finance tend to be surrounded by sycophants who are unwilling to tell them just how insignificant they are.

Among all the many new online marketplaces for trading, issuing and offering research on bonds, none is as ambitious in its scope as BondBook, the alternative trading system launched this summer by Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Salomon Smith Barney, which Deutsche Bank also joined in September, as a founding equity partner.

Although initial international trades have been struck, the financing of commodity trade online is not as easy as many first thought. The requirements of commodity importers and exporters are complex and financiers must come to terms with the logistics that are an essential part of the commodity trade chain. Jonathan Bell, editor of Euromoney’s sister publication Trade Finance, examines the issues