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Insurer Allianz has a headache in the wake of the scrapped merger between Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank. The deal, which Allianz did much to engineer, would have given the Munich group the dream solution to its strategic problems in its home market. It still has plenty of strings to pull in the inevitable round of banking M&A moves to come. Allianz harbours a secret wish to resurrect the deal but is more likely to get an inferior version: Dresdner-Commerzbank.

The nature of bond trading is changing, with more emphasis on good credit advice and the need to provide liquidity for clients. But the usual suspects still rule the game, with a few notable improvers, according to Euromoney’s annual bond-trading poll.

Is Robert Fleming worth $7.78 billion? Possibly, but at this price its new owner, Chase Manhattan, is going to have to work hard to extract value from the UK-based asset management and investment banking firm.

For 20 years, ever since Euromoney began its annual foreign exchange surveys in 1979, Citigroup came top. Now Deutsche Bank has dislodged it by a convincing margin. While critics accuse Deutsche of buying its way into the business with huge salaries, the real reason is its global markets model that brings together commercial and investment banking. Over the past year interbank forex flows fell while M&A and institutional business grew, favouring investment banks and those that combine both functions. Philip Moore reports; research by Andrew Newby.

Leading European technical analyst Graham Bishop has blasted off from his Salomon Smith Barney launchpad into cyberspace. After 17 years with the US investment bank in London, GrahamBishop.com goes online this month with a website providing analysis of economic and structural developments in the European financial markets.

Chief executive, EO

Euromoney FX poll 2000: Deutsche topples Citi

Deutsche Bank has the biggest market share in Europe, and nearly took Dresdner Bank’s slice too. But the frontier of the custody market is a moving target, and so is the associated risk.

Moscow head, EBRD

The Russian economy has responded positively to Boris Yeltsin’s retirement and to a commodity boom. Can the bullish mood last or will reform get bogged down and Vladimir Putin’s “strong government” put a straitjacket on enterprise? And does finance minister Mikhail Kasyanov have the breadth of experience to control the economy? We also look at Alfa, the only Russian bank to come out of the crisis stronger than it went in.

Extraordinary scenes have unfolded as Asian investors rush to buy shares in new vehicles set up to profit from growing use of the internet. The police have even been called in to restore order among hopeful punters. Asia's new economy is changing the face of capital markets in the region. Hong Kong no longer sees itself as a property-based economy but as a centre for capital formation in the internet age. Growth estimates for internet revenues are mouthwatering, with the Chinese language market as the ultimate prize. But this is still Asia. The new economy entrepreneurs are the old economy billionaires minus their suits. Their plan might be to use temporarily overvalued internet shares as currency to grab real assets, reports Phillip Moore

The endgame being played out in the Polish banking sector is messy and aggressive and cuts to the heart of the attractions and the problems faced by strategic and portfolio investors in this emerging European market. The protagonists include three of the world’s powerhouse banks: Citibank, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank. Minority shareholder rights have been ignored in the scramble for market position. Ian Dawson reports on the fight for the last seats at the top table