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This is a brief and highly selective history of the international financial markets over the past 30 years. Who were the heroes, who were the villains and who made a difference? It's the story of hopeful financial centres that flourished, showed promise but ultimately lost out to London, of banks and bankers with vaulting ambition who made it big, came a cropper or laid waste the markets around them. It's a story of creativity, excitement, success and spectacular failure. By David Shirreff.

Australia: After the gold rush

The race towards a pan-European exchange speeded up on March 11 when Borsa Italiana, the Italian stock market, agreed to cooperate with the Paris and Swiss bourses in their effort to create a single market for the new century.

The Germans are at it again. Amid a big diplomatic punch-up, the Basle Committee on Banking Supervision failed to release its long-awaited consultation paper on credit risk control and capital adequacy on April 9.

Sicily's wait for money is over. The regional government found itself nearly L1.7 trillion ($1 billion) late last year and over 40 banks refused to lend. Nor was there interest in a local bond issue.

Who is Alice in euroland? Is it the average euro-punter watching his assets disappear down a deflationary rabbit hole? According to Willem Buiter, Cambridge economics professor and a member of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, the white rabbit is the European Central Bank (ECB). It's operating on flawed principles, he says in a paper, Alice in euroland, published by the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). Hoping that his criticism will be constructive, he recommends the ECB should have greater accountability – publishing its minutes and answering to a parliamentary/judicial committee – and a smaller governing council and executive board, so it can act more promptly. Above all it should have the role of lender of last resort, so that, like the US Federal Reserve, it can stand behind the currency and, implicitly, support the major credit institutions when they're strapped for cash.

Arab banks used to be content to stick to their lucrative national markets. But with oil prices low, times are getting harder in the Middle East and banks are positioning themselves to go regional. Darren Stubing reports.

Is the tide about to turn for the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE)? With major companies trading at very low P/E ratios, and with prospects of greater political stability, surely this is an emerging market that has been too long overlooked? Nigerian Bottling Company managers seem to think so. In March NBC did a N3.5 billion ($38 million) rights issue, Nigeria's largest ever.

Middle East: Arab banks lay regional plans

FX Poll: Life after execution

There could be few clearer indications that foreign banks are smoking out the locals in the Japanese capital markets than Citibank's success in syndicating a $5 billion loan for Japan Tobacco.

Issuer: Jazztel