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Trade finance used to be a less glamourous part of the business. But times have changed. Banks have seen there's money to be made if deals are intricately structured and widely traded. That means building teams with the required expertise. When a trade financier's phone rings now it could well be a headhunter offering a better package. Rupert Wright reports on the new dynamism.

"Why Walter?" asked even senior staff at Dresdner Bank when Bernhard Walter was designated as the bank's next chief executive. From outside German banking came a simpler query: "Who is Walter?" So far, Walter has made no attempt to shed light on either mystery.

Following currency devaluations and stock-market crashes, Asia now faces its biggest challenge: a full-blown credit crunch. No big bond issues will be done for the rest of the year, spreads on outstanding bonds have gone haywire and trading has ground to a halt. Local sources of credit have also dried up. Corporate borrowers can expect little help from their bankers; devaluation has blasted a hole in many local banks' balance sheets and they have no money to lend even if they wanted to. Peter Lee reports on the likely shape of things to come.

There's going to be ferocious competition in the European bond markets post-Emu. Domestic players still have a stranglehold but global houses are making inroads. The best opportunities will be in countries where capital-market deregulation has been slowest, as Gavin Gray reports.

Financing China's mega-dam

Dawn raiders turn into gentlemen

Pulling away from the pack

What do Dresdner Bank and the Republic of Romania have in common? Both are trying to enhance their public image, battered by recent reports of high-level infighting and financial impropriety by senior officials.

Two years ago, sitting in the traffic jams with their bmws and mobile phones, Bangkok's brokers knew which side their bread was buttered on. Now things are looking pretty grim for erstwhile brokers in the Land of Smiles, with sandwich-making and taxi-driving among the new-found occupations for former employees of the finance and securities companies, 58 of which have had their operations suspended by the Bank of Thailand.

It is always with a dubious sense of national pride that you announce your capital city has the most expensive rents in the world. According to a recent survey by international estate agents Knight Frank & Rutley, Seoul now holds the honour.

Last National Bank of Boot Hill

Blue chips are ripe for conversion