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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.

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.

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.

KBC Bank of Belgium and Dutch ABN Amro have not had an easy time in Hungary. After KBC took a strategic stake in Kereskedelmi és Hitelbank (K&H) in 1997, the bank lost Ft8.3 billion ($12.58 billion) in 1999. ABN Amro's Hungarian subsidiary was in the red by Ft19.8 billion last year despite a $96 million capital injection.

A bank called the Bank for Foreign Economic Affairs of the USSR does not at first glance appear to have a very promising future. Even its chairman describes it as an ugly animal that probably has no equivalent anywhere in the world. All the same Andrei Kostin, boss of Vnesheconombank, as it is better known, has high hopes for it.

Still think that you've got time to get ready for the internet? Still sure that you've got a few quarters of easy revenues to make?

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

Why are journalists and politicians still sniping at the European Central Bank? Except for the euro’s gentle decline, it hasn’t put a foot wrong. Apart, that is, from bad public relations, grand plans to eclipse the national central banks, and a still crazy auction system. What could be better than that? David Shirreff reports

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

Euromoney polled 80 big investors on which firms they rated for credit analysis, and for which sector. The poll showed that credit investors rely extensively on banks' research. They want high quality, timely and independent analysis and access to the analysts. Euromoney's poll shows which firms investors rank highest across various sectors

One Russian bank not only survived the rouble crisis. It came out stronger.