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Choudri Mueen Afzal, Pakistan's new secretary of finance, talks the language of reform - thinner government, improved tax collection and a sharper financial sector. People like him will carry Pakistan to the next stage of development

Mergers and acquisitions continue to transform the asset-management business, as the latest InterSec Research Corporation ranking of the largest 250 non-US asset managers shows. The table provides a snapshot of the industry at year-end 1998 and many of the most eye-catching changes from the year before - both in terms of managers' positions in the ranking and the value of assets under management - are the result of industry consolidation. UBS rises from third to second position, leapfrogging Groupe Axa of France. In 1997, the old UBS had a total of $485.5 million under management. By the end of 1998, following consummation of the merger of Swiss Bank Corp and UBS, the new UBS had $1,144.5 billion under management, putting it closer to perennial ranking leader Kampo of Japan which had $1,685.4 billion under management at the end of 1998. In a recent interview with Euromoney, UBS chief executive Marcel Ospel underlined the bank's appetite for expanding in private banking, an asset management-type business, both by building and through acquisition.

With its tall ancient trees and exquisite lawns studded with marble antiques, the Nakkastepe headquarters of Koc Holdings look like an Ottoman aristocratic home from which the lord of the manor is absent on a prolonged journey. Situated on a tall hill on the Asian side of Istanbul, far from the madding crowds of Europe's noisiest city, the walled compound exudes an old-world peace.

What species of bank will fill the ecological niches of the new Europe? Noel Gordon describes the type of creatures - value capturers, optimizers, consolidators and innovators - who may survive.

Is Mathis Cabiallavetta the Othello of the financial markets - a man who loved "not wisely but too well"? Dirk Schütz, author of the first history of the SBC/UBS merger, (Der Fall der UBS published by Bilanz), certainly blames Cab's loyalty for the quality of people he collected round him as he rose to the top of UBS.

Our annual survey of asset managers outside the US, in conjunction with InterSec Research Corporation, shows the continuing dominance of Japanese and Swiss institutions. But industry consolidation is propelling firms such as Credit Suisse and Zurich up the rankings. Report by Jim Sirius.

Asia's currencies may be worth less than they were, but in two Asian city states a new currency is on the rise - the electronic variety. As Steven Irvine reports, central bankers want to encourage e-cash but they are nervous about its implications.

In-house banking is out of fashion - except in Munich, where industrial colossus Siemens has set up its own financial institution. It even aims to attract outside customers. Does the company know what it is doing? And can it make any real money in banking? By Laura Covill.

Propelled by a new breed of dynamic managers, Italy's banks are homing in on shareholder value. Consolidation is the battle cry, with three large mergers already announced. But choosing partners may prove the easy part. The real problems will start when the banks try to integrate. By James Rutter.

It's not often investors buy stock for reasons of charity, but Jardine Fleming achieved this feat on June 16 when celebrating its inaugural day as a member of the Singapore stock exchange. It decided to give half of its commissions to charity.

Why should a UK bank become a tax collector for the Germans? That is the not-so-hidden agenda that international bondholders see behind a proposed EU directive on taxation of savings.

"Just ask Sunil about his record collection," was the advice of a Hong Kong-based Citibanker, "you won't be disappointed." Sure enough, this question draws an enthusiastic response. "I think I have more CDs than certain record shops in Kuala Lumpur," laughs Sunil Sreenivasan.