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The foreign exchange business is entering a period of rapid change. The lack of volatility in the market over the past 12 months has forced the big commercial banks, which have long dominated the business, to close offices and cut staff. In their place, our annual poll reveals, investment banks are winning a larger share of the business. The biggest surprise: Merrill Lynch, which jumps into the top 10 at number three. Antony Currie explains why.

Are banks facing a rough ride on the information superhighway?

Sweden's participation in Emu is primarily dependent on domestic politics. Generally speaking, public opinion is negative on Emu and the governing Social Democratic Party (SDP) is deeply split. For this reason we do not expect Sweden to participate in Emu from the outset in 1999.

Rarely has a deal triggered such animosity: joint lead managers who couldn't bear the bookrunner; unreturned telephone calls; alleged breaches of a gentleman's agreement. That's if you believe the members of the syndicate. But if you believe the bookrunner, the other banks are "squawking" in their own dream world. Amid such squabbling, the $1 billion debut by the central bank of the Philippines had to be pulled at the last moment - leaving behind recriminations that will sour the Asian capital markets for years. Steven Irvine reports.

JP Morgan won plaudits for altruism when it donated RiskMetrics, a market volatility matrix, to the financial world in 1994. RiskMetrics also proved a superb way of marketing the Morgan name. Now JPM is at it again with a release of CreditMetrics for global consumption.

Wall Street is competing with an 800-pound gorilla. That's the label attached to Chase as it wrestles investment banking mandates from traditional players. Even by US standards Chase is noted for being aggressive. And its great strength is the lending capability that helps it win both bond and M&A deals. Will it eventually be king? By Michelle Celarier.

On February 28 NatWest Markets announced that it was suspending a trader after a £50 million loss on interest rate options. Two weeks later the bank suspended four more people, including two risk managers, and the hole had grown to £85 million. What went wrong? And what are the lessons for risk managers everywhere? By David Shirreff.

Dresdner Bank's roving diplomat Hansgeorg Hofmann struggled for 18 months to keep Kleinwort Benson intact after its takeover by Dresdner. But rival board members in Frankfurt were forcing a tortuous management structure on fledgling investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Benson. That led Kleinwort's long-standing chairman Simon Robertson to quit in February. Now the gloves are off, and Dresdner's board, including Hofmann, have turned authoritarian. Expect some bloodshed. By Laura Covill.

Searching for the missing link

Players in the yankee market heaved a collective sigh of relief when the fed funds rate was increased. Following a near-record year in 1996 there were just 11 public yankee issues in February and March. The reason they had been waiting for the Federal Open Market Committee move which came at last on March 25.

"10,000 by 2000!" That's the latest prediction for the millennium opening on the Dow Jones Industrial Average from Ed Yardeni, chief economist at Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (DMG). Yardeni who might be described as the most optimistic man in the world will surely see his prediction tested now that US interest rates have started to rise. If he is proved right, investors worldwide will rejoice except perhaps those in the UK.

International demand for Russian equity has grown steadily over the past year. But the supply has not kept up pace as companies struggle to cope with confusing laws and accounting muddles. Sophie Roëll reports