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French banks are starting to restructure and consolidate. But they remain obsessed by the domestic market and are more concerned with market share than return on equity. All that will change with the euro. Rebecca Bream reports.

For Latin American corporates the doorway to international bond markets is now locked and bolted for the foreseeable future. But what about the loan market? According to Eugenia Wilds, head of the Latin American loan syndication group at JP Morgan, the key bank lenders will hold fast in a storm.

With markets in turmoil and attention switching from returns to credit quality, new ways for assessing counterparties are needed. Our second emerging-market bank (Emba) ratings bring a temperature-taking approach to credit. While rating agencies pore over accounts and spend hours interviewing managers, we use the raw financial ratios that drive much of the ratings process. The results are always provocative. This year Emba highlights island paradises in the Caribbean and the Mediterranean where economies and banks have stayed clear of the fallout from global markets. Those seeking banking peace and pina coladas should read on. Brian Caplen reports.

Beware the legal pitfalls of receivables financing if you are new to the game, says Christopher Stoakes.

A falling stock market, a dearth of new deals and a faltering privatization programme: on the face of it the Egyptian securities market seems to be in trouble. But look deeper and the picture is not so bleak. Stock prices are holding up better than elsewhere and there is strong government commitment towards broadening and deepening Cairo's capital markets. Philip Moore reports.

On 24 September, Deutsche Bank announced it it had bought a stake of 4.5% in Banca Commerciale Italiana (BCI) for L700billion ($420 million).

Suddenly merger mania has reached Scandinavia's most insular banking market. But as Chris Wright reports, in Norway banks that want to merge have to make some strange moves.

Some of the bigger players in European equities reckon the single currency isn't a major driver of the sectoral approach - they were heading that way long ago and the real goal is to look at sectors globally. As Emu approaches, though, smaller local brokers will have to adapt to the new ways or go under. Some will sink but others will survive on specialist knowledge, particularly of small and mid-cap companies. Julian Marshall and Sudip Roy report.

High-yield bond analysts usually resign themselves to a constant treadmill of visits to engineering firms, chemicals plants and pet food factories as they tirelessly assess the worth of the world's corporates.

It is rare that the interests of investors and issuers coincide exactly, and when they do they have generally been forced to. That is what has happened in the European convertible market. Right now, this halfway-house hybrid does make sense as a defensive outperformer for investors, and a cheap, flexible funding tool for corporates and privatizing governments. Simon Brady reports.

We are dominated by ideals: perfect tax systems, monetary discipline, level playing fields and - above all - unambiguous lines of ownership. In the real world, though, financial systems and ownership structures are never quite what they seem. The governance of a US joint-stock company is not that far removed from a Chinese village-owned enterprise. And this may not be the best time to impose our ideals on Asia, argues Harrison Young.

Leading banks, academics and regulators spent two days stress-testing themselves and the latest in credit risk models. David Shirreff reports.