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After so many months of nervous promises that the euro would herald a new era of bond issuance and credit awareness, bankers can hardly believe it. Volumes in the first quarter have been huge. Europe's investors are forsaking the safety of government bonds and placing big orders for corporate paper. In this new market everything is up for grabs. Market practices are ill-defined, pricing is uncertain and the league table results are wide open. Peter Lee reports.

Public Pfandbriefe sold by German mortgage banks are a familiar sight in international capital markets. But less well-known is what's swimming around in the underlying pools of collateral - and how the issuers earn their money. Another Orange County in the making? Marcus Walker investigates.

Pfandbriefe: Germany's secret gamblers

Last August's banking crisis in Russia had a differential effect. Big players heavily committed to the government bond market were hardest hit, smaller banks with less exposure not only survived but have picked up new clients. Ben Aris reports

Most people who meet Alexandra McLeod, Bank of America's new European head of corporate banking, have trouble placing her accent. Americans think she's British; the English assume she's from North America. In fact hers is the perfect transatlantic background for the bank's senior officer in Europe.

The Philippines began to woo a new set of investors in February with the launch of a euro-denominated bond. The issue is not without its critics and it was made amid mixed reviews from bankers of the country's efforts to pull itself out of the Asian crisis. Gill Baker reports.

The EBRD's shareholders demanded that the bank be big in Russia. The investment bankers running the place responded by making deals. The result? €261.2 million ($284 million) of losses last year more than half due to provisioning against the Russian portfolio. New president Horst Köhler says that strategy not volume must drive programmes in future - corporate governance, institution building and lending to small enterprises are his top priorities. But below him not a single head has rolled even though EBRD bankers sat on the boards of Russian banks that went under. Only in a public institution would they get off so lightly. Brian Caplen reports.

Euroland Municipal Bonds: New city states

Privatization: Keep the state out of business

It's just over two weeks since Márcio Cypriano was named president of Banco Bradesco, Latin America's largest private-sector bank. He's relaxed about it, often chuckling as he formulates an answer. Márcio Artur Laurelli Cypriano's laid-back attitude should be helpful in an environment in which currencies and the rules of the game change frequently. Referring to the Brazilian government's disastrous attempt to make an 8% controlled devaluation of the real on January 13, followed by the currency's collapse when it was allowed to float on January 15, Cypriano says: "In 50 years, we've had 19 currencies and indexers. Many times the indexers are confused with a currency."

Portuguese Banking: Carving out a new role

Euroland Municipal Bonds: New city states