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A reserved young man in a business better known for exuberant individuality, Nicolas Rohatyn perfectly embodies the JP Morgan of the late 1990s.

A year ago Deutsche Morgan Grenfell was set to challenge the US global investment banks. Then Frankfurt jammed on the brakes. A bank-wide restructuring has left DMG - now just the global corporate and institutions (GCI) department of Deutsche Bank - a pale shadow of its former self. Did the Deutsche Bank board lose its nerve or does it truly believe it can have an investment-banking culture without the investment bankers who inspired it?

Awards of Excellence

Gardening leave for overworked bankers is perhaps one of the more agreeable spin-offs when one bank buys another. A recent beneficiary is Carol Barazzone, the former head of global equity syndicate at BZW, who quit in April four months after the sale to CSFB.

A SUPPLEMENT TO EUROMONEY/JUNE 1998: PORTUGAL

Chinese shares listed in Hong Kong have a habit of surprising investors. The latest issue is whether funds invested in high-interest deposits with Chinese banks are completely safe. The so-called H-shares are more used to reporting to the central planners than to shareholders - their workings can be mysterious. Pauline Loong 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.

Some issuers seem to have a natural talent for tripping up syndicate banks. In this respect few borrowers rival Germany's Länder, who recently issued their fifth joint Eurobond. No Länder-Jumbo has ever been a notable success, but this deal seems to have made everyone a loser.

Suddenly the search for higher yield goes out the window and investors, we are told, are clamouring for greater tradeability. The bond salesman's answer is super-jumbo bonds upward of $4 billion and market-maker commitments to dealing spreads of a few basis points. Big tickets, reversible short positions and hefty benchmarks are the result. Does this mark a sea-change in the bond markets or is it just a fin de siècle fad? The search for greater and greater liquidity hasn't yet been tested in a bear market. Peter Lee kicks off our 82-page report on the biggest, brightest and best of Euromarket names.

Central America has come a long way in a short time. It has developed a surprising degree of political stability, a consensus in favour of economic liberalization and a real thirst for economic progress. Jennifer Tierney reports on a region that is growing in confidence and that may soon become a coherent and outward-looking trade block

The military dictatorships are gone and the civil wars are over. Now, as Central America's governments overcome their suspicion of foreign borrowing, the region is opening up to foreign investment. James Rutter reports.