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Russia will probably default on its Eurobonds. Other sovereigns may well do the same. That's not such a big deal, say the markets. It's all in the price. But are they ready for the consequences? The Euromarkets have grown up with the idea that Eurobonds are immune from rescheduling. But every debt crisis in history has been messy; the instruments involved have been discredited for years. What happens when international bond default becomes normal again? Antony Currie reports.

Oyak Bank is unusual in two ways. It is one of the few banks in the world wholly owned by an army and it is the only Turkish bank run by an American. But that American, Mark Foley, considers himself to have gone more than a little native.

While taking flak over job losses and cost-cutting, senior bankers claim their measures will provide shape for future growth. It's now becoming clear how this will look with emerging-market operations closing while the euro and private equity take the limelight. Peter Lee reports.

Malcolm Turnbull - lawyer, writer and, more recently, investment banker - seems to have the knack of profiting from difficult times. In 1987 he co-founded an investment bank four months before the world financial markets collapsed. The crash had caused much of corporate Australia to become disillusioned with their existing financial advisers, leaving the door open for Turnbull. "A new bank like ours, which had given no bad advice (only because no one had asked for it) was able to offer a fresh prospective. We got off to a good start."

It's a tough time for issuers in the Eurobond markets. So tough that only the big agencies and supranationals are getting much of a look in. Even they, though, are having to bend to the wind, issuing at wider spreads, making quasi-private placements and reopening existing bonds. Are nervous investment bankers offering them poor value? Marcus Walker reports.

Just a handful of finance and securities companies in Thailand remain independent after a year in which foreign players have virtually taken over. "It still takes some time for acquirers to get their feet under the table, but change it will," says Philip Adkins, research head at Seamico Securities, one of the few remaining independent brokers.

The sale of ABN Amro's merchant banking subsidiary, MeesPierson, has long been expected in the Netherlands. Selling it to the Dutch-Belgian group, Fortis Investments, has raised a few eyebrows, but is it part of a wider strategy that Dutch financial institutions are following to position themselves for the coming of the euro? Antony Currie reports.

Global interest rates are falling, and will fall dramatically. Alan Greenspan has already cut rates by 0.5%, with one surprise cut in between meetings of the Federal Reserve. And the Fed is going to cut some more this month.

Since the beginning of the international financial crisis the Turkey premium has gone up and the availability of credit has declined, leaving many banks with liquidity problems. Foreign investors in Turkish stocks and bonds have fled, joining the general stampede from emerging markets.

Article 64 of Turkey's banking law, which can be invoked to supervise ailing banks, provides sweeping authority over shareholders, including firing the general manager and the board and making demands for a capital injection. But in practice article 64 interventions have ceased to have any meaning. The government cannot or will not get the shareholders to improve the balance sheets of their banks. And the banks have no qualms about being placed under article 64 since the identity of banks affected is not made public.

Many market participants in Asia reckon the region is overbroked. Nomura is more sanguine, continuing apace its recruitment drive. Its latest hiring is veteran research star Bill Overholt to head Asian strategy.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, skills were short and contacts were everything. Putting together what they could of both, two young Russians, Vladimir Potanin and Michail Prokhorov, built from scratch Unexim, the country's largest private bank, as well as Interros, a leading financial-industrial group. This rapid growth has led rivals to accuse Unexim of acting unfairly and to wage a propaganda war against the bank. Despite Unexim's success little is known about its inner workings or about the style and strategy of its founders. Recently the bank agreed to open its doors to Euromoney in a way it has never done before. Brian Caplen reports.