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Mortgages issued in 1994 and 1995 are showing higher rates of default than anyone had previously suspected.

Having arrived from Merrill Lynch four years ago to join a "European bank", she was said to be upset by her feeling of déjà vu.

A special report by Euromoney

A special report prepared by the GiroCredit Bank Group

The banking sector has been at the leading edge of economic reforms throughout the economies of central Europe. For most of the more developed markets, striving to join the European Union has given them a focus to get their banking sectors in order, and fast. The majority of countries in the region have created sound legislative frameworks based on international banking principles and double-tier banking systems around the core of a broadly independent central bank. However, the hard work is by no means over. The difficult task has been to make sure that the banks that have been created are able to survive and operate according to commercial principles and, ultimately, to stand on their own feet.

A special report by Euromoney

...and sensible Germans

The French government has found a novel way of paying off its social security debt - a bond issue that will be paid for out of an earmarked tax. It's not exactly state-backed but there is an implicit guarantee. It may prove popular when investors get a clearer idea of the details. Daniel Evans reports.

New supply forces in the capital market The second-tier and other lesser issuers are driving the market. Albert Smith reports.

The Japanese government bond market is laughably old-fashioned and inefficient. Settlement, for example, takes place only on dates ending in five or zero - a practice derived from the 19th-century rice market. At last, the Ministry of Finance is looking at wide-ranging reforms. With combined new bond issues for FY1995 and 1996 expected to reach almost ¥100 trillion, it has little choice. Andrew Horvat reports.

There are still offshore banking centres that cater for the sleazier end of the market, but most of these are new. The others would have us believe they've grown respectable in their old age. Jules Stewart reports.

Telecoms deregulation has hit the land-of-the-free local call. Danielle Robinson reports on the rich pickings for bankers from the freeing-up of US telephone and broadcasting services as the players fight for a share of integrated markets.