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Deals of the Year

Turkey: Business must come before family

Whenever JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs in London manage to poach staff from each other, it usually leads to a bout of cheering and high-fives in the relevant office. No doubt much of the rivalry comes from the close proximity of their headquarters, which are less than five minutes' walk from each other near Blackfriars Bridge.

Leveraged syndicated lending has become hotly fought over in the past few years. Investment and commercial banks are keen to make their names in leveraged buy-outs and investment banks - long leaders on the advisory side as well as in bond and equity finance - seem to be closing the gap on commercial banks in senior lending as well. Firms pride themselves on being able to offer "one-stop shopping" - for loans, M&A advisory and bond underwriting - to their clients.

What do real tennis and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro have in common? Not a great deal, you would think, but Vincent Purton, the 39-year-old managing director of Daiwa Europe's debt origination desk is spending the first week of February heading towards the summit of the Tanzanian mountain, inspired, as he puts it, "by the rather arcane game of real tennis that I play. The professional who coaches us at Hampton Court suggested it last year, and I didn't need much persuading."

Telecommunications: Ways to survive a sea of troubles

Poll of Polls: Warburg's excellently average performance

Poll of Polls: Warburg's excellently average performance

Asset Management: Allianz wants other people's money

If the systems changeover for the euro turns into chaos, then the proprietor of a greasy spoon café in the City of London might know why.

Another euro-related operational issue has cropped up. Banks have tended not to charge each other for the provision of intra-day liquidity, but the euro payment systems will change all that - at least that's what bankers are predicting.

While all eyes are on the birth of the euro, a region not so long ago written off is quietly rebuilding. In Thailand, interest rates are falling 25 basis points a week. The Republic of Korea looks likely to be upgraded as its current account swings from a 1997 deficit of $8.2 billion to a projected surplus of $40 billion in 1998 - a change equivalent to 16% of GDP. Even in Malaysia - where the situation is complicated by the regulatory environment - the stock market is booming. What they said could not happen is happening. Asia is exporting its way out of trouble.