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Japan's public-sector institutions have the luxury of borrowing with a guarantee from their government. But they waste the opportunity, paying as much as 10 basis points more than they should for funds. The reason: lack of professionalism and bureaucratic meddling. Garry Evans reports.

The Spanish government is expected to open at least two new markets this year to provide the fixed-income sector with greater depth and liquidity. Jules Stewart reports on the interest generated as the treasury casts off its cumbersome traditional approach to borrowing.

The jumbo Pfandbrief was designed to attract international investors to what had been largely a domestic German debt instrument. Until recently, though, it was being marketed as if Germans were the target. Non-Germans want clearer pricing information, conventional credit ratings and more warning of upcoming issues. Some issuers are responding, not least because the Pfandbrief looks like being Germany's main contender in European debt markets when a single currency is instituted. Antony Currie reports.

As the world enters the fifth year of economic growth, regulators, shareholders and creditors of international banks must be starting to wonder what horrors are building up on the banks' balance sheets. Disturbingly, the problem loans if they exist will probably be hidden from public scrutiny in the form of bilateral lines. No doubt they are being justified to the banks' internal credit committees by that well-worn excuse that they are essential to maintain relationships with clients that offer other, more profitable business.

In their desire to get a head start over each other in India, Wall Street investment banks have forged joint ventures with local partners. Three US banks JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs have adopted this strategy. Surprisingly, all three have agreed to remain minority shareholders in the ventures even though the law permits them a majority holding. Pressures may be building, though, for the US banks to buy out their local partners.

A Hong Kong for eastern Europe?

Gimmick, party trick or great leap forward in the international capital markets? The Euro-Asian bond has no shortage of detractors. Those who have promoted its benefits usually those who have lead managed the deals maintain it has the best features of the Dragon bond, which was the first attempt to create a bond specifically for Asian investors.

The Russian equity market came of age in 1996. Prices doubled and the range of investors broadened to include some of the world's largest institutional investors. Will the boom continue in 1997? Peter Lee reports.

It's 2003 and European monetary union (Emu) has gone badly wrong.

Poll of Polls: The rise of DMG

Late last year the fledging market for syndicated loans to Russian banks witnessed its most ambitious and successful deal to date. Tokobank, in its first syndication, raised $85 million at a spread of 4H% over Libor. This was the first loan for a Russian bank at a spread below 5% and more than twice the size of any other such deal.

Why is it that some banks have such incredibly irritating music, the sort that gives you that brain-damaged feeling, while other banks and financial institutions have music that is much better. BT Business Systems, a subsidiary of British Telecom, must have had the same thing in mind when it conducted a recent survey of "music-on-hold".