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Decision time for Brazil's top bankers

Euromoney's latest poll of Eurobond and government bond trading comes at a time of change, with the advent of the single European currency set to affect both the size and structure of the market. James Rutter reports. Research by Rebecca Dobson.

No more panic waiting for that dollar payment to come in: the solution is at hand. Within three years the world's leading banks expect to have a mutual bank in place that will accept and digest the bulk of their foreign exchange deals, reducing settlement risk to zero. So where's the catch? By David Shirreff.

Decision time for Brazil's top bankers

The Grand Duchy's bankers don't seem too worried, but Luxembourg's point of difference as a financial centre is fast disappearing. James Rutter finds out how its bankers intend to fill their time after the introduction of the euro.

Banks are building up their European credit research in the run up to Emu. Teams are being bolstered and specialists hired. But who is getting it right? The first ever poll of European credit research gives investors the chance to decide. SBC Warburg, Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan all did well, writes Brian Caplen. The poll was conducted by Rebecca Dobson.

Just how much intense hard work can the market's leading traders pack into one three-day conference? Consider the schedule for the International Securities Market Association (Isma) conference in Prague.

They wear well-cut suits, shun bodyguards and are fluent in the language of the IMF. As Africa regains its capacity for growth, we profile five of the men who are leading the renaissance. Ex-guerrillas or veterans of industry, the reformers share a pragmatism born of a desire to see their countries succeed.

The bad-loan troubles of Japan's banks are no secret. Western vultures have been circling Tokyo for months knowing that at some point the banks would go through their pain threshold. When that happened they would start offloading problem loans at the best prices they could muster. For many Japanese banks that point has been reached and the market in Japanese distressed loans is getting into full swing. US banks especially are expanding distressed trading operations in Tokyo - Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch have all recently expanded their operations.

At the end of April, Thomas Renyi, chief executive of Bank of New York, and several senior colleagues set off across America to persuade institutional shareholders in Mellon Bank of the value in the merger proposals Bank of New York first made public on April 22 in a letter to Mellon's directors. By appealing over the head of Mellon CEO Frank Cahouet - who swiftly rejected the proposal - Bank of New York has come within an ace of that rarest of things in the recent tumble of bank mergers: a hostile deal.

The grass, they say, is always greener. In a rapidly consolidating industry a handful of global custodians control the clearing, settlement and reporting of the bulk of the world's trading. They're no longer satisfied with that. They want to execute the trades too. Andrew Capon reports.

Sitting on the balcony of his plush Bangkok apartment building, sipping his gin and tonic and watching the city's pollution-enhanced sunsets (the fumes make for some spectacular pink and orange evenings), one of Bangkok's most prominent farang investment bankers is amused to see a poignant sign of the times.