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Operas at the Arena, day-trips on beautiful Lake Garda and romantic walks under Juliet's balcony. These could be the new pastimes for IMF staff and officers in a few years, if the mayor of Verona succeeds in getting the organization's HQ moved there from Washington.

Macquarie Bank is a rare type of investment bank. It has made returns on equity of over 20% for 10 years by constantly moving into new business areas such as property securitization. Steven Irvine meets its managing director Allen Moss - a man who eschews ostentation and wears pens in his pocket - and head of infrastructure and asset group Nicholas Moore.

Mix telephone evangelism with telephone banking and you have... Bank of Scotland's latest direct banking venture. The bank already has a UK operation in partnership with a supermarket chain, J Sainsbury, but it has chosen a more controversial partner for the US in the form of Marion "Pat" Robertson.

So farewell, then, Max Chapman, the banker who got closer to the top of a Japanese financial institution than any other westerner, and who resigned last month to spend more time enjoying his Arizona ranch and his personal fortune estimated to be $100 million.

Taiwan's stock market paused for breath when local finance house, Pan Asia Bank, released its grim 1998 financial results. Pan Asia is too small to affect the Taiwanese banking sector at large but investors and analysts are worried that the size of Pan Asia's losses, NT$6.2 billion ($194 million), combined with an 8% overdue loan ratio, indicate that the Taiwanese banking sector could become the next victim of the Asian downturn. A total collapse is not forecast but deterioration in the sector's overall health is on the cards.

Our ground-breaking annual European credit research poll ­ appearing for the second time and based on responses from an ever-growing number of investors ­ continues to generate fascinating results. Investors are embracing corporate, high-yield and asset-backed bonds. And they read analysis from a broad range of banks. Merrill Lynch does notably well in high yield. Research by Rebecca Cicolecchia.

Turkey: Sustaining the unsustainable

Talks on the restructuring of GKOs - Russian treasury bills on which the government defaulted last August - have once more been cast into disarray just days before a deadline imposed by the Russian finance ministry was due to expire.

Bond Trading Poll: Emu shuffles the rankings

Brazil's economy is weak but the banks are strong. That is the popular belief among investors. The banks are well-capitalized and liquid, with high profits. Brazil's banking sector has been restructured and balance sheets cleaned up. While investors fret over the government's failure to sort out public finances they can rest assured that the financial system is solid. Right?

Never one to rest too long on my posterior, I jet in from Hong Kong to Sydney, and arrive rather the worse for Qantas at the airport. A chirpy customs man asks my occupation. When told "journalist" he asks what I intend to write about in Australia. When I reply "financial markets" he says: "Well that'll be pretty dull for you." This does not bode well.

Adventurous investment banks are starting to look beyond central Europe's emerged "golden triangle" - Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary - to opportunities in such countries as Bulgaria and the Slovak Republic. By Alex Mathias