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Tentatively at first, then in a growing rush of enthusiasm, the first corporate bonds in the new single currency began to appear in January. Before long, scores of companies were clamouring to reach this broad, new investor base. Then came confusion in pricing and growing investor disenchantment. But the restructuring of Europe should mean that the continent's corporate bond market is here to stay. And as investors learn to tell the good deals from the bad, it is beginning to acquire depth and maturity. Rebecca Bream reports

From cement makers to oil companies, from first-time issuers to regular borrowers, corporates big and small are targeting European investors with bond issues. How have they fared?

Asset Management: A derivatives approach to index tracking

Riding the tiger of volatility

Another one bites the dust

Some swap counterparties of defunct Hong Kong investment bank Peregrine are claiming a double discount on what they owe its liquidators. Ridiculous? Perhaps, but uncertain enough for an appeal to a UK court. The implications, for swap documentation and close-out netting with poor-credit counterparties, could be huge. By David Shirreff.

Euroland finally seems to be accelerating. Price stability has been achieved and few question its sustainability. The bond market is a clear success for the euro and a broad range of borrowers have emerged. We should not view these developments as a flash in the pan. The European Commission has come up with a plan, Graham Bishop considers its implications.

Alex Seippel, Founder, the Roundstone Group

Ruggero Magnoni, Vice-chairman, Lehman Brothers (Europe)

Ruggero Magnoni, Vice-chairman, Lehman Brothers (Europe)

Hope, fear and wonder as a new market opens

In the first of a series of articles examining the businesses of foreign banks in the US, Antony Currie looks at UK bank NatWest's investment banking and treasury operations. He starts with a day trip to Greenwich Capital, the fixed-income boutique bought in 1996 that has survived NatWest's investment-banking retrenchment and is now leading from the top. He then returns to New York, to a stellar performance from the treasury group, Global Financial Markets.