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"Much may be made of a Scotchman if he be caught young." So Dr Johnson had it. In the case of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, an institution founded by Scots and still governed by one, it has grown to be the world's most profitable financial group. The unique international officer culture that has driven it – young men caught young, trained up, messed together, posted, reposted, in the bank for life and rarely back in the UK – will have to change, but it's bending and adapting rather than breaking. Steven Irvine reports on its fitness for the 21st century.

With the economy recovering from the recession incurred by the peso devaluation, Mexican companies are poised to sell between $1 billion and $3 billion in equity to overseas investors in the next 12 months. After two years of stagnation, observers expect renewed domestic consumption in 1997 to revive expansion projects placed on the backburner since the 1994 crisis. If the markets are adequately bullish, more companies will feel comfortable enough to issue equity as a cheap way to retire expensive debt.

In 1996, the convergence rally on high-yielding European government bonds was one big, premature Emu party, staged in the belief that all the governments that said they'd be ready for first-round entry to the eu's single-currency system would be. Market enthusiasm was based on taking note of contender countries' political commitment to European economic and monetary union rather than their economic fundamentals. This year bullishness will be replaced by a more cautious approach, as the markets become increasingly volatile.

Last year the international markets raised a record $113 billion in new equity and equity-linked instruments. Judging by rising secondary markets and heavy trading volumes in January, and an ambitious privatization calendar, investment bankers should be in for another busy year. But are hectic new issue schedules a recipe for mistakes? Peter Lee asks if the equity bonanza could end in disaster

This year, expect liquid loan markets, structured deals and credit derivatives, securitization, merger and acquisition fever, rapid privatization, and growing numbers of mtn programmes

Bond markets face one of the biggest changes yet as bankers prepare for the coming of the euro and with it the creation of a huge, pan-European capital market. It's going to change the way a lot of borrowers raise capital and broaden the outlook of European investors. In the meantime, borrowers, particularly corporates, have been taking advantage of liquid markets, low interest rates, and investors' increasing appetite for risk. By Peter Lee

The world's top 20 borrowers raised more than $250 billion in the international markets last year. Euromoney talks to the top borrowers to find out how they plan to meet their funding requirements for this year

Equity boom or bust?

As the fear of interest rate rises threatens virtually every market in the world from sovereign bonds to high-tech stocks to emerging market securities investors may no doubt be wondering where they can seek refuge.

It will be hard to beat last year's crop of deals. Here are some of the best.

The Bank of England's discussion paper released in November on the supervision of credit derivatives rather dampened market enthusiasm reflected in a report by the British Bankers' Association (BBA). But the effect should be only temporary.

Asia's two leading financial centres, Hong Kong and Singapore, are competing as gateways to the region. They're also learning to cooperate to keep their markets clean. But maybe they're acting too tough. Some bankers fault Singapore's Monetary Authority for responding more like the Delphic oracle than a regulator. Even Hong Kong's once laissez faire regime is getting over-paternalistic, say others, although the local vice of "rat trading" is not quite dead. David Shirreff reports.