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Only the best will survive

They are two of Asia's premier fixed-income investors. They are also former investment bankers. Euromoney invited Brian Lippey of Tokai Asia and Albert Cobetto of Prudential Asia to dinner to chat about dressing down in Hong Kong, how it feels to switch to the buy side and which houses have survived the stock market crisis best. Steven Irvine poured the wine and asked the questions.

You ain't seen nothin' yet

When the Asian crisis struck this summer one investment bank was destined to appear more exposed than others - Peregrine. The Hong Kong-based firm employs 1,700 people in 15 Asian countries. After Asia's currencies began to slip in July so did Peregrine... at least if its rivals' rumours are to be believed. With confidence waning it looked as if the "fast and agile" bird had gone into a terminal tailspin. Then, as ever, its wily boss Philip Tose pulled something out of the bag. Steven Irvine reports on Peregrine's riposte to the gossip, interviews Tose about Zurich's new stake in the firm and looks into the unravelling of the firm's regional operations.

Just about anything. China could launch economic warfare against the west, the US could start raising trade barriers against imports, South Korean banks could dump their Russian bonds, the IMF could run out of money, European monetary union could start amidst economic turmoil. Brian Caplen explores the financial shocks waiting to happen.

...and what of 1998? Most of 1997 was a borrower's market in Latin America but the October market upheavals took the shine off bonds. Structured deals fared least badly and may prove the best way upwards in the new year. Michael Marray reports.

Michael von Clemm, former chairman of CSFB and Merrill Lynch Capital Markets, died on November 6 at the age of 62.

Forget forced devaluations, plummeting stock markets and widening bond yields, south-east Asia's greatest headache is its weak banking sector. While central bankers looked the other way, the region's banks lent heavily to finance stock-market speculation, overexposed themselves to property and made dubious loans to their own shareholders. As Maggie Ford reports, it is time for the reckoning.

Trade finance used to be a less glamourous part of the business. But times have changed. Banks have seen there's money to be made if deals are intricately structured and widely traded. That means building teams with the required expertise. When a trade financier's phone rings now it could well be a headhunter offering a better package. Rupert Wright reports on the new dynamism.

"Why Walter?" asked even senior staff at Dresdner Bank when Bernhard Walter was designated as the bank's next chief executive. From outside German banking came a simpler query: "Who is Walter?" So far, Walter has made no attempt to shed light on either mystery.

Ranjan Marwah is by no means low profile. One of the first things to catch the eye in his penthouse office is an oil painting of him in an eighteenth century wig, sitting on a horse with his wife beside him. It has the unlikely look of a Mogul emperor painted by Thomas Gainsborough. Marwah is a kind of emperor in his own way. He founded, built and still runs Executive Access, one of Asia's biggest headhunting firms, which derives 72% of its revenues from banking and finance.

A crinkle in the English law of security has been more or less ironed out - but don't ask for an opinion on it yet. By Christopher Stoakes.