Finding a place in the euro market

Has the market in euro-denominated bonds been mostly hype?

Ayesha Shah, head of funding, European Bank for Reconstruction & Development: The only hype we see is in the name. There is no substantive difference between a euro-denominated and an Ecu deal. We issued an Ecu deal, with the same one-to-one redenomination clause as a euro-style deal, in July 1996. It's a matter of semantics when "euro" became the term for deals with this clause, but probably the market judges it to be the beginning of 1997.

Mario Gonzalez, manager of financial resources, Telecom Argentina: This has been the first stage of the euro which has been used mostly by governments and supranationals to set benchmarks.

But we've also seen a certain appetite from investment banks to keep their position as leading underwriters in that market, which has meant that they will try and hurry you into the market. We don't see...