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Selling state assets to foreign investors raises popular opposition throughout the region, but privatization is likely to remain the main source of Nordic equity offerings

Walter Schubert has set himself a big goal - to take Wall Street onto the net and gays out of the closet. Schubert, the first openly gay member of the New York Stock Exchange, aims to empower the gay and lesbian community financially and spiritually with his Gay Financial Network (www.gfn.com).

After spending four months trying to hammer out project-finance strategy at the new UBS/SBC, Chuck Zabriskie, global head of the business at UBS, thought he'd finally struck a deal with the SBC-dominated board. He had, colleagues say, managed to retain his business structures and staff numbers, even though SBC pulled out of project finance three years ago. It looked like a small victory for the demoralized UBS footsoldiers.

The star performers of Nordic stock markets are not forestry, engineering or shipping companies, they are Internet, biotechnology and service-sector start-ups. But will they stay with the local markets when their capital needs grow?

The Asian Development Bank still has the best balance-sheet of the major multilaterals - on paper. But turmoil in the region and slowness by its major shareholders to pump in fresh capital could change the picture. Steven Irvine reports.

Japan's stock market has problems enough but the country's convertible bond market faces challenges of historic proportions. Once a premier source of funds for capital-hungry Japanese companies, the market has shrunk to a mere capital-markets sideshow, with the market index staggering ever downwards. Now the sector is returning to unwelcome prominence. The market faces colossal redemptions in fiscal 1998, amounting to ¥4 trillion ($30 billion). Efforts by some lowly rated issuers to scrape together the necessary funds to repay maturing convertibles - a burden they never expected - may become quite desperate, since these companies are already feeling the effects of a Japanese credit crunch.

Greeks have a high tolerance of political risk, which should give them an edge when competing for business with their volatile neighbours. Hoping to enter monetary union in the second wave, Greece is set become a powerhouse in "its natural backyard". Rebecca Bream reports.

European investors are discovering what their US counterparts have known for years. Technology companies can provide spectacular returns. Venture capitalists and small-cap stock markets are working hard to accommodate the sector. Meanwhile, US investment banks, which honed their hi-tech skills financing the development of Silicon Valley, are making a big push across the Atlantic. Brian Bollen reports.

Bank atlas 1998

The Philippine Stock Exchange has resisted previous attempts at reform. But this time it's different. A missionary's son is in charge of the clean-up. Tired of brokers' shenanigans, he has threatened to revoke the exchange's licence. So far, he has the upper hand. But for how long? Steven Irvine reports.

The Annual Euromoney/Fitch IBCA ranking of the World's leading banks by shareholders' equity shows the big Japanese banks continuing to fade. The most dramatic change is the rise of ING to third place. HSBC remains the biggest bank by own funds but, as our table based on market capitalisation shows, the market values Lloyds TSB and Nationsbank more highly.

South African banks were once regarded as introspective followers rather than leaders. But in the last six months, Investec, the independent Johannesburg-based investment bank, has broken the mould to become the foremost symbol of a financial services sector that is belatedly waking up to the pressures of globalization.