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If a major bank based in euroland, such as ING or Deutsche Bank, had liquidity problems, which central bank, if any, would help with temporary funding? Would it be the European Central Bank or one at the national level?

In these acquisitive times, a bank needs to find a cost-efficient means of funding its ambitions. In the recent takeover squabble for Belgium's Générale de Banque, ABN Amro suggested that it would issue $1 billion worth of preferred stock in order to help fund its, ultimately unsuccessful, bid.

Ace Greenberg, the 70-year-old chairman of Bear Stearns, is one of the biggest of Wall Street's Big Swinging Dicks: his 1997 pay cheque was comfortably over the $20 million mark.

Crossing capital market boundaries

This autumn, after the annual IMF/World Bank meeting is over, the men and women responsible for raising money for six of the smaller states in the euro zone will hold a private meeting in Portugal to discuss ways of ensuring that their interests are given as much weight as those of the area's largest sovereign borrowers. They will try to build a coordinated approach on issues such as a euro-zone borrowing calendar and establishing common standards for primary dealers. In the longer term some bankers believe they will be able to plan joint bond issues for more than one country in the same way that German Länder have made joint borrowings.

As the largest and most sophisticated capital market, the US remains the breeding ground for new products. Borrowers are demanding ever more flexible approaches to capital raising. A new wave of hybrid securities is emerging. James Rutter reports.

"I must confess to you that at times the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] is misunderstood, misreported and statements are quoted out of context," says India's new finance minister Yashwant Sinha.

Hans de Gier, chairman and chief executive of Warburg Dillon Read, didn't mince words at the grand opening of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in Canary Wharf on June 1. Batting third in an impressive line-up of speakers, he warned that the FSA's approach to regulation risked "embodying the worst of both worlds: high-level principles interpreted and applied separately from detailed rules designed on a one-size-fits-all basis".

Awards of Excellence

Awards of Excellence

What will futures exchanges be like in the next millennium? As electronic markets bring end-users ever closer, will we need them at all? Exchanges could eventually be replaced by giant clearing houses. But traditionalists say there will always be a demand for the intensity of the trading pit, and none argue with more passion than Pat Catania. David Shirreff reports.

Awards of Excellence