Mix telephone evangelism with telephone banking and you have... Bank of Scotland's latest direct banking venture. The bank already has a UK operation in partnership with a supermarket chain, J Sainsbury, but it has chosen a more controversial partner for the US in the form of Marion "Pat" Robertson.

There aren't many real ex-rocket scientists for hire, but another area investment banks might look at is nuclear engineering - a skill that's becoming less sought after these days. Merrill Lynch's affable new hire Dante Roscini spent five years designing nuclear power plant before dwindling enthusiasm for the nuclear industry prompted a rethink. After business school he ended up at Goldman Sachs in 1988.

The EBRD's shareholders demanded that the bank be big in Russia. The investment bankers running the place responded by making deals. The result? €261.2 million ($284 million) of losses last year more than half due to provisioning against the Russian portfolio. New president Horst Köhler says that strategy not volume must drive programmes in future - corporate governance, institution building and lending to small enterprises are his top priorities. But below him not a single head has rolled even though EBRD bankers sat on the boards of Russian banks that went under. Only in a public institution would they get off so lightly. Brian Caplen reports.

Most people who meet Alexandra McLeod, Bank of America's new European head of corporate banking, have trouble placing her accent. Americans think she's British; the English assume she's from North America. In fact hers is the perfect transatlantic background for the bank's senior officer in Europe.

The IFC and World Bank have spent much of the last two decades at each other's throats. The appointment of Peter Woicke as head of the IFC and a managing director at the Bank should change that. It should also help increase emphasis on private-sector funding. James Smalhout reports.

Public Pfandbriefe sold by German mortgage banks are a familiar sight in international capital markets. But less well-known is what's swimming around in the underlying pools of collateral - and how the issuers earn their money. Another Orange County in the making? Marcus Walker investigates.

Ex-JP Morgan banker Peter Woicke is the new chief at the International Finance Corporation. He will also be responsible for guiding the World Bank's work with the private sector. He talks to Euromoney's James Smalhout about his plans.