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The guaranteed bonus, like the jumbo shrimp and military intelligence, is a bit of a contradiction in terms. A bonus implies something given as a reward for exceptional performance. Guaranteeing it makes it more of a right, like a normal salary. But the business appeal of this catchy oxymoron is in high vogue on Wall Street as firms respond to the lure of dot coms. In years’ past only a few firms would be paying guaranteed bonuses, often during a rapid build-up and to compensate new hires for the risk of joining from established firms. Such guaranteed pay-outs were regarded as a sign of weakness. Now they have become commonplace. James Smalhout reports

By adding strategic advisory and outsourcing capabilities to their core services, banks are dressing up traditional cash management and treasury offerings as ‘e-business solutions’. Are these pioneering moves into the new economy enough to win in a web-enabled world? Rick Butler reports

While US asset managers continue to be seen as the world’s biggest players, European institutions are catching up. Intersec Research Corporation’s latest ranking of the top 250 non-US asset managers shows who is growing fastest

Author: Mark Mulligan Chile’s parliament is close to passing a law that started life as a proposal to protect minority shareholders but now covers everything from stock options and share buy-backs to control of the country’s banking sector.

Author: Nigel Dudley

The explosion in M&A and restructuring activity across Europe has triggered a transformation in the types of financing structures employed. Law firms are already restructuring themselves to take advantage of the shift. By Nigel Page

Author: Philip Eade

The first major online retailer to go from dot com to dot gone, sports clothes site Boo.com blunted the eagerness of venture capitalists and internet incubators to back virtually any start-up that crossed their paths. European private-equity investors remain in the race to spot and back the most promising new entrants in the dot com arena, but they are treading much more carefully. Many have given up on business-to-consumer start-ups entirely and only back business-to-business ventures. Other specialist investors are searching for opportunities in internet infrastructure and wireless technology. Crafty internet entrepreneurs are redrawing business plans to fall in with the latest investment enthusiasms. Plenty still dream of making internet fortunes, but most recognize the need to embrace old-economy business disciplines. Britt Tunick reports

A piece of Hans Dalborg’s Nordic jigsaw is missing: the Norwegian one. His bid for Norway’s Christiania Bank is taking time to process. But MeritaNordbanken, the region’s biggest bank, is on a roll. It already has 9 million customers and 1.5 million of them are online. No wonder the big banks down south are eyeing his operation greedily.

Author: Rupert Wright

The merged UBS found itself with two brand name asset managers: Brinson Partners and Phillips & Drew. Trouble was both were performing badly looking for value in markets that only rewarded growth. Investors lost their patience and finally star managers Gary Brinson and Tony Dye quit. Where do they go from here? UBS is merging the operations but keeping the names. The philosophy also stays on a bet that the pendulum has swung back and value investing will again produce results. Julian Marshall examines the chances

As investors load up on European high-yield bonds they are faced with problems in every direction. Credit portfolio models are unreliable because of the lack of data on everything from default rates, rating downgrades, recovery rates and correlation between assets. Only when European corporates have been through a severe crisis will the required performance data be available. Anja Helk reports