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Greek banks will need to consolidate if they are to be competitive in the European single-currency system. Much as their officials dread the prospect, it looks as if the big state-owned banks will also have to privatize to get fighting fit. Privatization in Greece has not been undertaken at break-neck pace, but the second tranche of telecoms company OTE's float will be a big step forward. Philip Eade reports.

Despite disappointing emerging market performance relative to the US and Europe over the last three years, investors are generally confident about the rest of the year. Euromoney's survey of 33 equity investors, many of whom run dedicated emerging market funds, asked them where they intended to start, stop, increase and decrease investment in the next six months. An overall ranking of each country (see table) was established by subtracting the number planning to decrease from the number of increases and doubling the scores for stops and starts. Predictably, investors found Russia and Brazil attractive, while concern about the property markets of Thailand, Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines dampened enthusiasm for Asia. Egypt and sub-Saharan Africa were popular candidates for new investment. Most investors maintained that risk in emerging markets is compensated for by their prices. Only one among the 33 polled was dissatisfied with recent emerging market performance and planned to decrease overall exposure. "I'm aware of the attractions of emerging markets," he said, "but they're good maybe one in four years. The rest of the time you're ultimately better off with the S&P 500 or the FTSE."

Back with a vengeance Mexico has put the peso crisis behind it and is attracting a wide range of investors as well as wooing back the ones it lost. Jennifer Tierney reports

A special report prepared by Pünder, Volhard, Weber & Axster

A special report prepared by Deutsche Morgan Grenfell

Coming to a screen near you soon, the all-singing, all-dancing dealing room. Gone are the days when dealers shied away from the prying gaze of television cameras.

Business leaders keep a close eye on rivals in Russia. "If your competitor buys a Mercedes, you'll buy a Mercedes," says Yuri Kotler, spokesman for the Federal Commission for the Securities Market. "If he hires a western chief financial officer, so will you. And if he issues a Eurobond..." Since the Russian Federation's debut $1 billion Eurobond last November, many companies have said they'll follow suit. So far none has. The state Eurobond "had the gestation period of an elephant", as one banker put it (it took nearly a year to launch the deal) so there should be little expectation that Russian companies would be right behind it. And the City of Moscow only managed to launch its $500 million debut Eurobond at the end of May. St Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod are due to come to market by the end of this month.

Can Ujiie clean up Nomura?

Contrary to the pessimists' view, Europe will show economic recovery this year and next. And that will ensure monetary union stays on track for 1999. In core Europe, super-cheap money has been complemented by weak exchange rates. And those easy monetary conditions are likely to win out over Europe's Maastricht fiscal masochism to produce economic recovery.

Thailand in mid-1997 has an economic fight for survival on its hands. Can things get worse? Gill Baker examines the market

A special report prepared by Frankfurter Hypothekenbank Centralboden