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The Dutch stock market underperformed its European peers in 1998 and 1999 will be a difficult one too. However, concepts of shareholder value are well established in the Netherlands and the small-cap sector looks like an outperformer.

Don't knock it. Warburg Dillon Read, the investment banking arm of UBS, comes out the clear winner in this January's poll of polls. Its virtue is consistency and coverage world-wide. While the US houses have their strengths at home, not one can consistently outperform WDR in every market. WDR may have benefited from the effects of the merger on poll results. But that doesn't detract from its commanding position in every major category: underwriting, trading and advising. It's only major weakness is mergers and acquisitions. Merrill Lynch, last year's number one, is let down by results in Euro-commercial paper, foreign exchange and risk management. Deutsche Bank continues to rise overall, but its weaknesses are equity research, Asian equity and advisory. Citigroup with its Salomon addition looks good on paper, but its low-scoring departments are Eurobonds, equities, and credit and equity research. Last year's second half shuffled the pack and we look forward to a wildly different pecking order next January. David Shirreff reports.

A strange side-benefit of the Asia crisis: Hong Kong becomes less brash, and the service improves. "I've always preferred living in Hong Kong during a recession," says John Manser, the great taipan of Robert Fleming, from the comfort of his London office.

The end of Jardine Fleming

Romania will default on its foreign debt without assistance from the IMF and World Bank. This is unlikely to be forthcoming unless a politically induced log jam on economic restructuring and privatization is overcome. At last the government has recognized the crisis. Rebecca Bream reports.

Chicago Exchanges: Working against the grain

Ulrich Gygi is the driving force behind Swiss privatization. He was the chief architect of the Swisscom offering, Europe's biggest initial public offering (IPO) last year, which succeeded when most other deals were being pulled. As head of the Swiss treasury, where he's spent most of his career, Gygi has also had the task of deciding how much gold the central bank can afford to give away to good causes in the aftermath of the Nazi gold controversy. He is thought to have designs on the top job at the central bank.

When Frank Quattrone left Morgan Stanley in 1996, nearly everyone thought Morgan's technology franchise would go with him. But the Wall Street firm's edge in California wasn't blunted. Quattrone's magic has now faded, and all competitors bar one seem to be floundering. Michelle Celarier reports

Citicorp's chairman, John Reed, is now 59. Though he looks likely to remain in place while the merger with Travelers Group is work in progress it won't be too long before his succession is again debated. When it is, one name certain to figure prominently is Victor Menezes, who with Michael Carpenter now has the job of knitting together the corporate banking businesses of Citicorp and Travelers' Salomon Smith Barney.

At the end of December a select group of Euromarket veterans gathered under the shadow of Credit Suisse First Boston's tower at Canary Wharf. There were there to watch Bank of England governor Eddie George unveil a monument to perhaps their most outstanding colleague. Michael von Clemm, former chairman of CSFB and Merrill Lynch Capital Markets died on November 6, 1997 at the age of 62.

In a period of mega bank mergers, how can smaller players compete? Through unparalleled regional expertise, say Austria's three leading financial institutions. They are carving out a niche as the experts in eastern Europe. Market downturns haven't put them off this approach. Each has a distinct strategy for expansion. But can they live with the big boys? Marcus Walker reports.

Proving that you don't have to be a heartless mercenary to be an investment banker more than 100 staff from the London office of Merrill Lynch last month volunteered to help Crisis, a UK charity, in its Christmas campaign to house London's homeless.