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ABN Amro's ebullient new chief financial officer was known by colleagues at the Dutch central bank as "Turbo Tommy" for the speed with which he got things done. "His greatest strength is his social intelligence," says a senior central banker. "He's also always open to new concepts and new approaches. If he has a weakness, it is that when he delegates, it is often to himself."

In the 1980s, John Gutfreund was the "King of Wall Street". The soberly dressed former municipal bond trader would arrive at work each morning with a reputed readiness to "bite the ass off a bear".

Former head of the European Monetary Institute Alexandre Lamfalussy has lent his name as chairman of EuroMTS, the euro benchmark government bond trading system that started trading on April 10, because he strongly believes in what it is trying to achieve: a liquid, efficient and transparent market in euro government bonds. The ultimate prize is the establishment of the euro as a reserve currency to match the dollar. "We've seen an accelerated move to a market-centric system from the bank-centric system that has tended to prevail in Europe," Lamfalussy said in London last month. "I have no doubt that a market-centric system is more efficient, but there's a question whether it is stable." The key to stability, he concludes - for the pricing of corporate as well as public debt - is a liquid and transparent government debt market.

Edson Mitchell is usually credited with Deutsche Bank's rise up the debt-capital markets league tables over the past four years, and not without reason. He was brought in because of his earlier success in turning Merrill Lynch from an also-ran of the US bulge-bracket banks in the mid-1980s into the undisputed leader by 1994, and has turned Deutsche into a leading contender in just four years.

Turkey: Sustaining the unsustainable

EBRD: Losing other people's money

The Nuovo Mercato is "a new market for small and medium-size companies [that] can help to develop a real market culture in our country." Thus Massimo Capuano, chief executive officer of Borsa Italiana - the company that runs the Italian stock exchange, introducing Italy's new equity market. The Nuovo Mercato - literally the New Market - will be the Italian equivalent of Germany's Neuer Markt and France's Nouveau Marché: a stock market especially designed to give high-growth companies access to funding.

The problem with anything Japanese is that it all depends on your point of view. Three Japanese groups fail with more than $10.4 billion worth of debts. Tokai bank has just announced that it will forgive more than $3 billion worth of debts. Shareholders - other banks - in LTCB will get nothing from last year's forced nationalization. And Nomura - once the flagship of Japan's financial services industry - has recently announced losses of $4.6 billion, has been downgraded to junk status and has said goodbye to Max Chapman, the chairman and chief executive of Nomura Securities International.

Euromoney has once again ranked the world's best hotels, airlines and airports according to the preferences of senior executives across the globe. Which are the world's favourite hotels for business travellers? And which airlines should you fly with and which should you avoid? Research and report by Carolyn Dowd.

To paraphrase American satirist PJ O'Rourke, if you buy yourself something with your own money, odds are that you'll spend time making sure you get exactly what you want. If you spend your own money on something for someone else, you won't be quite as careful. But if you're given money by one person and told to buy something for someone else, you're likely not to be careful at all.

Poland is about to force large numbers of its citizens to make private pension contributions. That should boost its capital markets. Peter Bennet reports

Big country, small - but beautifully formed - financial market. Why is Kazakhstan so different from its neighbours. David Shirreff The meek shall inherit the earth - or at least what's left of the Russian financial sector. Smaller banks with little exposure to government debt are flourishing. Ben Aris Private pension contributions are becoming mandatory in Poland. This should boost capital markets. But by how much? Peter Bennet Foreign players are fighting over the rich pickings on offer in Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Beyond this golden triangle there are many gems to be found for the most adventurous investment banks. Alex Mathias Bank privatization alone will not save Romania's economy. What else will it take to stabilize it? And is the government up to the task?