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Hong Kong's financial secretary Donald Tsang, who successfully used market intervention to see off speculators, has warned his peers against overreacting to the threat posed by hedge funds.

Just a handful of finance and securities companies in Thailand remain independent after a year in which foreign players have virtually taken over. "It still takes some time for acquirers to get their feet under the table, but change it will," says Philip Adkins, research head at Seamico Securities, one of the few remaining independent brokers.

There have been four changes of government in Italy since 1991 but Mario Draghi has rarely seemed threatened as director general of the republic's treasury. While treasury minister Carlo Ciampi - who also appears certain to keep his post in the new administration of prime minister Massimo d'Alema - has concentrated on reducing Italy's budget deficit in readiness for the European single currency, Draghi has emerged as the most powerful figure behind wide-ranging financial reforms. He and Ciampi were also central to the planning and implementation of the "euro tax" and a major deficit reduction, which enabled Italy to meet the criteria for entry to the first round of Emu.

Publicity-shy Investcorp has spent 16 years channelling Middle East wealth into property and corporate ventures in the US and Europe. Nemir Kirdar, the firm's head and founder, explains the Investcorp philosophy to Peter Lee.

From his unassuming manner you would never guess that Alberto Albertini is one of the most influential figures in Italian finance. But when he decided to study economics at Milan's prestigious Bocconi university in 1974 he was embarking on a well-worn family path. His father had been a prominent stockbroker since the 1950s and in the early 1970s started the family business, now called Albertini & Compagnia, one of Italy's most well known and successful independent brokerages.

The near-collapse of several hedge funds, including Long-Term Capital Management, was a symptom of increasingly reckless market practices, particularly in the handling of collateral. Perhaps the shock will send banks back to revise their repo agreements and to look less at mark to market, more at potential future exposure. By Michelle Celarier.

Those wiseacres who say there is no such thing as systemic risk have been proved right again. Look, no global meltdown, no market chaos of Herstatt or even Black Monday proportions.

Russia will probably default on its Eurobonds. Other sovereigns may well do the same. That's not such a big deal, say the markets. It's all in the price. But are they ready for the consequences? The Euromarkets have grown up with the idea that Eurobonds are immune from rescheduling. But every debt crisis in history has been messy; the instruments involved have been discredited for years. What happens when international bond default becomes normal again? Antony Currie reports.

Since the beginning of the international financial crisis the Turkey premium has gone up and the availability of credit has declined, leaving many banks with liquidity problems. Foreign investors in Turkish stocks and bonds have fled, joining the general stampede from emerging markets.

Article 64 of Turkey's banking law, which can be invoked to supervise ailing banks, provides sweeping authority over shareholders, including firing the general manager and the board and making demands for a capital injection. But in practice article 64 interventions have ceased to have any meaning. The government cannot or will not get the shareholders to improve the balance sheets of their banks. And the banks have no qualms about being placed under article 64 since the identity of banks affected is not made public.

Russia's freeze on payments to creditors overseas raises the usual questions asked when a country defaults. Christopher Stoakes gives some answers.

Shielded from the full force of international competition, suckled by a government with a voracious appetite for debt, banking in Turkey has long been a very profitable business. But the country's big family-owned banks know this state of affairs can't last for ever. They are investing in technology and broadening their business mix. And any foreigner with a $2 billion appetite for Turkish risk might find a welcome in at least one bank boardroom. Metin Munir reports.