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How could Jan Kalff keep from grinning? Announcing annual results for the last time before his retirement in May, the chairman of ABN Amro boasted that 1999 was the tenth consecutive year of profit growth for the bank, with an overall rise of 40.6%, the highest since the merger of the two Dutch banks in 1990. Kalff exuded pride as he discussed the future of the bank. "What we do is different from what other banks do. We are interested in a relationship business," says Kalff.

Is Japan heading back into recession? The news out of the country's Ministry of Finance is that Japan's national output probably fell in the last quarter of 1999, after shrinking by 1% in the third quarter. Technically that's a recession. Will this new downturn continue and what does it mean for the Nikkei and the yen? You can answer these questions if you understand the plate-shift movements taking place under the surface of Japan's seemingly stagnant economy.

Egyptian Banking

Issuer: Heidelberger ZementAmount: e1 billionType of issue: Corporate bondLaunched: Launched February 7 2000

Online offerings present new challenges to financial lawyers, not least issues of security, jurisdiction and accuracy.

If only LTCM had been quoted on the Bermuda Stock Exchange, UBS could have shorted the stock and properly hedged its $800 million long position. Well, here, only a couple of years late, is the answer to Mathis Cabiallavetta's nightmare.

Asian Brokers

Member of the managing board,Ceska Sporitelna

Brokers in Buenos Aires are in despair. Delistings by foreign companies of their Argentine subsidiaries have cut the market in half and trading has dwindled to a fraction. Despite this, a badly needed restructuring of the bolsa is being held up by conservatives who fear increased competition. While they argue, Argentine investors are clicking their mice and buying US mutual funds. Local companies are voting with their feet and listing on Nasdaq. By the time the traditionalists come to their senses the market could be dead.

Sex and scandal: it's just life as usual in Paul Kilduff's new financial thriller, The Dealer. Kilduff's second novel is set in the City, amid a multi-billion-pound takeover of a bank that unearths a handful of characters related through a web of corruption.

Why did Deutsche Bank gut Bankers Trust’s richest business – US bonds – and hire a new team from Merrill Lynch? Surely that’s no way to establish a new presence in North America. But such criticism ignores the tribalism that rules these amalgamated global banks, and maybe it was the quickest way to forge team loyalty.

Everybody wants a slice of the $1 trillion European M&A market. The secret of earning big bucks (or rather, euros) is to arrange the handful of mega deals. We profile the dealmakers who've done it, and those who hope to. Top investment bankers from 10 firms talk about industries or countries in which they have a particular strength. Also, the advisers on the struggle for NatWest Bank explain their tactics. And we reconstruct the key moments in the biggest European deal of all: Vodafone's takeover of Mannesmann (Article: "The bid that couldn't fail"). Marcus Walker, Luciano Mondellini, Phillip Moore and Nick Kochan report