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The biggest money-laundering investigation ever carried out by the US authorities cast its net wide. Operation Casablanca uncovered trails in Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela and indicted some highly respectable banks. Some have now launched internal investigations into what went wrong. But how much are banks to blame when money laundering goes on under their roofs? Michelle Celarier reports.

The financial markets have never stood still. But rarely have they moved as quickly as they do today. The winners of all our awards by product sector are facing the same forces. Globalization is driving the market and firms are responding by consolidating. Take a careful look at the winners. They are sure to be very different next year.

A year ago Deutsche Morgan Grenfell was set to challenge the US global investment banks. Then Frankfurt jammed on the brakes. A bank-wide restructuring has left DMG - now just the global corporate and institutions (GCI) department of Deutsche Bank - a pale shadow of its former self. Did the Deutsche Bank board lose its nerve or does it truly believe it can have an investment-banking culture without the investment bankers who inspired it?

A SUPPLEMENT TO EUROMONEY/JUNE 1998: PORTUGAL

Chinese shares listed in Hong Kong have a habit of surprising investors. The latest issue is whether funds invested in high-interest deposits with Chinese banks are completely safe. The so-called H-shares are more used to reporting to the central planners than to shareholders - their workings can be mysterious. Pauline Loong reports.

South African banks were once regarded as introspective followers rather than leaders. But in the last six months, Investec, the independent Johannesburg-based investment bank, has broken the mould to become the foremost symbol of a financial services sector that is belatedly waking up to the pressures of globalization.

The Annual Euromoney/Fitch IBCA ranking of the World's leading banks by shareholders' equity shows the big Japanese banks continuing to fade. The most dramatic change is the rise of ING to third place. HSBC remains the biggest bank by own funds but, as our table based on market capitalisation shows, the market values Lloyds TSB and Nationsbank more highly.

Some issuers seem to have a natural talent for tripping up syndicate banks. In this respect few borrowers rival Germany's Länder, who recently issued their fifth joint Eurobond. No Länder-Jumbo has ever been a notable success, but this deal seems to have made everyone a loser.

Suddenly the search for higher yield goes out the window and investors, we are told, are clamouring for greater tradeability. The bond salesman's answer is super-jumbo bonds upward of $4 billion and market-maker commitments to dealing spreads of a few basis points. Big tickets, reversible short positions and hefty benchmarks are the result. Does this mark a sea-change in the bond markets or is it just a fin de siècle fad? The search for greater and greater liquidity hasn't yet been tested in a bear market. Peter Lee kicks off our 82-page report on the biggest, brightest and best of Euromarket names.

Central America has come a long way in a short time. It has developed a surprising degree of political stability, a consensus in favour of economic liberalization and a real thirst for economic progress. Jennifer Tierney reports on a region that is growing in confidence and that may soon become a coherent and outward-looking trade block

The military dictatorships are gone and the civil wars are over. Now, as Central America's governments overcome their suspicion of foreign borrowing, the region is opening up to foreign investment. James Rutter reports.