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It was before the wave of strikes that hit France in December that I glided into the Gare du Nord on one of France's ultra-smooth, ultra-expensive (to the taxpayer, not the traveller) TGVs. I had two questions begging answers. First, would the Franco-German axis in Europe hold? And second, would France meet the Maastricht criteria for a European single currency by the end of 1997?

Allianz has a 100-year history of managing insurance assets. Internationalization of capital markets, fierce competition in asset management and the arrival of the euro have prompted the company to set up a third-party investment firm. Is Allianz Asset Management ready for the challenge ahead?

The end of Jardine Fleming

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.

Ukraine is at the cross-roads. Too limited reform has left it on the brink of default, opposition parties demanding a return to central planning. Either the country embraces market economics, and wins IMF support, or it rejects them, and invites economic collapse. Reunion with Russia might then be the only option.

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.

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

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.

The Asian crisis, globalization and John Manser's desire for order have all conspired to end the independence of Hong Kong's last serious investment bank. Once the cornerstone of profitability at Robert Fleming and Jardine Matheson, Jardine Fleming is to be merged with its UK-based parent. It is the end of an era.

To open a bank at any time is brave, especially in Russia. To have started trading in 1993 aged 23 while still at university, takes something special. Andrey Melnichenko studied physics at Moscow State University before starting up his own bank with four friends.

Many of South America's business families are weary. They have survived wars, military dictatorships and debt crises but the arrival of foreign competition is proving the final blow. Lacking an heir both willing and able to take on the modernization task, they are selling out - often to private equity funds in deals brokered by corporate financiers. The latest to start the process is Bunge International, the giant soyabean to branded foods conglomerate, started by European immigrants to Argentina at the end of the last century. So far it's been a painful retreat in which shareholder disputes long hindering Bunge's performance have carried on over a recent asset sale.