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Issuer: ITT Promedia

Nordic borrowers are inconsistent users of capital markets and when they do use them tend to concentrate on price above all else. With the advent of Emu likely to shift investors' attentions towards credit quality and away from currency arbitrage, this short-term approach to the market could hurt Nordic government and corporate issuers. Jules Stewart reports.

Commerzbank used to be content pushing along as Germany's number-three bank. As local rivals merge and grow, this bank is too proud to downsize. In equities at least, it wants to be a global player. Laura Covill reports.

It seems to be Ugur Bayar's fate to be a civil servant. It's the third time in five years that the 33-year-old bachelor has quit his job in the private sector and moved back to his mother's house in Ankara to start working for the government. This is a rare phenomenon. There are droves of ex-bureaucrats in Istanbul who have left the privations of the civil service for fat salaries in the private sector; the reverse rarely happens. Ankara, a dull, characterless city whose only industry is politics, is easy to leave but notoriously difficult to return to.

The Kalff interview

Take a trip to Moscow and you might come away with the impression that AKA Bank is one of Russia's largest financial institutions. A huge advert for the bank bears down in passport control outside Sheremetyevo airport and also appears on the back of cloakroom tags at the Bolshoi theatre, accompanied by the slogan "the customer is king at our bank" - a concept new to anyone accustomed to the Byzantine ways of Russian banks.

The first time I come to Hong Kong I check myself into the Mandarin and go out to meet this promising young shipowner called CH Tung, I sell him on a new way of financing his fleet, and this is the original Junk Bond.

MeesPierson never sat happily within ABN Amro, and nobody was surprised when the venerable Dutch merchant bank was put up for sale last year. Now new owner Fortis faces the challenge of accommodating the bank - and motivating its restless managers before the current trickle of departures turns into a flood. Antony Currie reports.

The world's economic and financial leaders at this month's IMF/World Bank meeting will preside over a strengthening global economy. Real GDP will be stronger next year than this. But the reasons differ by region.

Hong Kong is always a party town. The IMF/World Bank meeting can only add to its renown as the city that never stays sober. Delegates will be faced with over eight cocktail parties on Monday 22 September and at least 10 the next day. But which are the ones to be seen at?

Mahathir Mohamad, prime minister of Malaysia, shows an increasing tendency to talk rubbish. Commenting in early September on foreign investor selling of Malaysian stocks and the ringgit, he said: "They are racists. I say it openly. They are not happy to see us prosper."