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Richard Wood's agreeable daily commute consists of a stroll across Prague's Charles Bridge while he looks at the castle and swans and thinks about what he has to do that day. "It beats the tube," he says.

At the top end, Russian banking still revolves around lucrative government business and political influence. But with T-bill yields falling below 20% this summer and alleged corruption in the banking system, which acts as a surrogate government treasury, Russian banks face some big challenges. Charles Piggott reports on whether the time has come for Russian banks to get their hands dirty doing what their namesakes elsewhere do - lending money.

Even pension funds are showing an adventurous streak and investing in Russian equity. A tremendous inflow of foreign capital and an increasing foreign ADR market has made Russia the world's best performer so far this year and left some fund-managers waiting for a correction.

How can Russia's small and underfunded equity brokers break into the more lucrative areas of investment banking? By joining forces with foreign institutions, according to the conventional wisdom. But one local broker may have found a different way to turn itself into a major player. In mid-August, details emerged of a deal that brings together Russia's largest securities broker, Troika-Dialog, and the city of Moscow, likely to be one of the country's major sources of financing business over the next few years. The Bank of Moscow, in which the city of Moscow holds a majority stake, will form a strategic alliance with Troika-Dialog. After completion of a share purchase for an undisclosed sum, Bank of Moscow will own 20% of Troika and Andrei Borodine, the Bank of Moscow president, will have a seat on its board of directors.

As it tried to fend off speculative attacks against the baht this summer, the Central Bank of Thailand played every trick it knew, from the conventional to the heavy-handed, to prop up the currency. This included raiding firms suspected of spreading negative rumours and black-listing investment banks that lent to hedge funds. James Sinclair reports.

International investors this summer gained their best chance yet to invest in Transcaucasia, the region of the CIS separating Russia and the Middle East, with the start of voucher privatization in Azerbaijan. The country's programme is more open to foreign investment than almost any other in the CIS and lets investors take exposure to an economy that is growing at more than 5% a year.

Asset privatized: Svyazinvest

Finance Minister and Central Banker of the Year: The regional winners

Rather than demonizing George Soros as the prime mover of the run on their currencies, Asian central bankers need to ask themselves hard questions. Why did the hedge funds go on the attack, and who provided the funding? Do they realize what banks are up to, have they decided which of these activities are legitimate, and are there any effective means of restraint? Laura Covill reports.

We've called them the big-game hunters - the men who track down the juiciest debt deals and clinch them. How do they do it in the burgeoning Asian market? Sure, they need to know what their banks can deliver and what their clients need. And they must be able to convince borrowers that transactions will fly in the market. Beyond that there's a whole slew of intangibles that can be summed up as establishing relationships. Having friends in high places helps, but you may have to do more than play golf with them - chess, pinball and even the odd bout of karaoke can be required. It also pays to be able to talk about anything, from Japanese ethnohistory to Korean youth soccer. Steven Irvine spoke to some of Asia's finest exponents of talking on their feet.

Asian brokers: The old hands fight back

Intersec 250: Clash of the titans, once again