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Deals of the year - Top quality issuers succeed in demanding markets

E-commerce - Redefining exchanges

Deals of the year - Top quality issuers succeed in demanding markets

Bad vibes in Bishopsgate

Bad vibes in Bishopsgate

It's a case of eat or be eaten for banks in Greece. With stiff European competition on its way after the country joins Emu, banks are shaping up for the challenge with a string of M&A deals. But some purchases are easier to absorb than others. By Michael Peterson.

John Grisham got it wrong of course. Grand Cayman is not a place where private aircraft land at night and men in dark glasses deliver bulging suitcases of banknotes to dummy banks sporting no more than brass nameplates.

The World Bank's mission is to alleviate poverty by channelling resources to developing nations - but without displacing the private sector. Instead, over the last seven years, it has concentrated on heavily subsidized financing for countries with ready access to private capital. 70% of its non-aid resources went to 11 nations - equal to an insignificant 1% of private sector flows. Funding for countries without international ratings dropped from 40% to less than 1%. Adam Lerrick argues that the Bank must transform itself from a capital-intensive lender into the designer of an intellectual infrastructure for the emerging world.

Bad vibes in Bishopsgate

Deals of the year - Top quality issuers succeed in demanding markets

Two crucial meetings this month may settle the uncertain future of Bavarian giant HypoVereinsbank, in turmoil since chairman Albrecht Schmidt and merger partner Eberhard Martini had a very public row. Auditors, former board members and the Munich state prosecutor are embroiled in a high-octane war. It was born in the euphoria of German unification, brewed in the property slump of the late 1990s, and exploded into a battle of numbers that no-one can win. David Shirreff reports.

Asia's best companies 1999