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The Spanish have proved themselves masters of the bank merger. Successfully integrating two differing cultural entities, the merged Banco Santander Central Hispano has within a year become a European force to be reckoned with. Neighbours take note.

The contrast could not have been greater. Each of the two 40-somethings heads one of Thailand's largest banks, having inherited their family mantles. Both have managed to keep their banks afloat during a tough three years that has seen other institutions collapse or be taken over by foreigners. Both also have degrees in chemical engineering from US universities.

Largest banks by country

Largest banks by country

Largest banks by country

They're shark-infested investment waters out there. Nasdaq, the US tech sector index, continues to plunge and most indices worldwide are now well down for the year. The US March inflation figures started the rot, even though April's appeared more benign. Real GDP and employment cost data for the first quarter of 2000 show a red-hot economy with rising labour costs. It would have been difficult to invent a more bearish set of macro numbers. So it was no surprise that last month the US Federal Reserve hiked the interest rate by 50 basis points and indicated that it was ready to raise it again unless there were signs of a slowdown. There won't be, so expect another 50bp before the summer is over.

Wholesale financial services firms have made great play of their internet ventures in the last year, seeking to present themselves both as being internet-enabled and as pioneers in reshaping financial markets. Yet in reality few firms have done any more than take their traditional businesses and put them online. The true capacity of the internet to transform financial market structures has yet to be unleashed, although pure trading is changing fast. Maybe some of the self-styled pioneers want to hold this transforming power in check. They won't succeed for long, reports Antony Currie

Kazakhstan launched its comeback deal in September 1999. A Wve-year $200 million issue demonstrated that Kazakhstan, despite being rated single-B and a neighbour to troublesome Russia, does have access to the international markets. The bond was, in fact, the Wrst issue from the Commonwealth of Independent States following the Russian crisis of August 1998.

The US high-yield market has been in retreat for the past 18 months, some would say even longer, since the near-meltdown in the credit markets after Russia defaulted on its domestic debt in August 1998. Issuance so far this year is 49% down on 1999 levels, and it's been one of the longest periods of a Xat to negative performance in the asset class since the US market's revival in the early 1990s.

Denver-based Level 3 Communications set new records in the high-yield market in late February with a $2.2 billion bond deal that included the largest ever high-yield offering in euros. Not only did Level 3 raise e800 million, the largest ever non-dollar high-yield bond issue, it went on to raise more than $5 billion on the same day through parallel equity and convertible bond issues. "This really was a windfall deal for the borrower," says one of the co-lead managers. "I think Level 3 really surprised themselves with how much they could raise in the markets. This is certainly a landmark for them."

In March 2000, Indonesian company Asia Pulp&Paper (APP) was the Wrst Asian bond issuer to return to the markets after the Asian Wnancial crisis, with a $403 million 10-year bond deal issued in the name of APP China, but guaranteed by the group. Just weeks before the bond launch, another APP subsidiary, PT Indah Kiat, was also the Wrst Indonesian borrower to tap the international loan markets after the crisis in early 2000 with a reWnancing of a $400 million bank facility that was also guaranteed by the parent company.

Edgar Ancona and Bruce Foster were in Japan last month. This is nothing unusual for the treasurer and his vice-president of Household Finance, although a casual observer might wonder what a largely domestic US consumer Wnance company is doing over there.