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"Five years from now, financial services will be virtually unrecognizable. The industry, like airlines and aerospace before it, will be dominated by a handful of national and global giants that will dwarf even the biggest players we know today." Although that's how consultants McKinsey predict developments in banking and insurance, it only echoes what every bank CEO is saying, in public or private. And they have very little time in which to answer the questions this trend raises: What is our role? Do we have the management talent to be a buyer? Should we give up and sell to the highest bidder?

Who's to blame for Asia's crisis? And what happens now? Nine of the region's movers and shakers give their views on the pace of change across the region, the part played by the Japanese banks, the future of Hong Kong's currency peg and the role of China.

I expect the US equity market to fall 30% to 40% this year. The catalyst for the turn in sentiment will be static (or falling) corporate profits, rising inflation and higher interest rates. Mania will drive the collapse. When the dust settles, the US economy will slide into recession. Consumers will retrench to pay down debts. The dollar will fall. It will be the dawn of a two-year bear market.

Leaders of Africa's new deal

Next time your bank appoints a law firm to conduct a piece of litigation, ask the firm to explain what it understands by "regret" and "the theory of the matter" By Christopher Stoakes.

When there's not much left to merge in an industry the stakes rise and the government gets edgy. That's what Bear Stearns has found since it cornered the market in US defence M&A. Now, as Michelle Celarier reports, contractors and investment bankers are looking abroad for opportunities.

Dennis Doherty is looking for an underwriter for the private placement of his new investment fund. If all goes according to plan, he will raise $250 million from institutional investors in the first two weeks of June. Then he can go and blow it all on paintings.

Leaders of Africa's new deal

Learning to play around with loans

A single European currency should mean a single market for capital. That may create an opening for a borderless stock exchange such as Easdaq. But Europe's national exchanges don't plan to fade away. Their survival strategies are based on cross-border alliances and new technology. Their secret weapon, though, may be sheer momentum. James Rutter reports.

Are today's issuers in Ecu paying over the odds? Borrowers and their bankers argue that it pays to establish a benchmark this year, before the latecomers crowd into the market next January. No, say the contrarians: borrowing in other currencies is cheaper. Mooyaart Consult, an independent bond consultancy, examines recent issues in Ecu and major currencies, comparing the levels they would have achieved by swapping the proceeds into US dollar Libor. Brian Mooyaart weighs the evidence.

Hotel Cipriani,