For years, overbanked Austria has been a byword for murderous competition and razor-thin margins. Now there are indications that it is becoming a more benign environment for bankers. Austrian banks are belatedly focusing on the business of making money, both at home and through energetic expansion in the central and eastern European region.

The citizens of Hamilton, Bermuda, are well used to seeing expensively dressed business executives drifting in and out of their gleaming glass and metal towers. But they may not be aware that their small island in the mid-north Atlantic - 22 square miles in size with a population of just 65,000 people - is increasingly viewed as the capital of the global insurance industry. How has this happened?

Convertibles

Russia

Introduction of euro notes and coins involves complex decisions on the part of bankers on how to deal with legacy currencies in contracts.

The past 12 months have been tough for online wholesale finance. Banks are ditching their e-commerce divisions, having finally realized that keeping them separate from the business lines is ridiculous. Some multibank sites have closed. But online analytics have come into their own, transparency is improving and banks generally have a better idea of what the internet can and cannot do. Even so the web is still not fulfilling its potential. Despite all the talk about the net making the markets more open, politics and secrecy are damaging web-based trading. Banks know that they have not found the perfect way to trade online but some of their individual products excel.

Co-chairmen, Eulia

Argentine

Argentina was brought down, ultimately, by the miscalculations of its own leaders. But others must share the blame, including the IMF. The international financial community, especially the large sell-side banks, do not come out of the debacle smelling of roses either.

Barclays - The Business of Banking 1690-1996 may not be everyone's idea of a page-turner. On the surface it looks as if it might appeal to the select few for whom interim company reports are favoured leisure reading.

There may only be two surviving Beatles, following the death of George Harrison, but their influence continues to stretch throughout the world, even into financial services.

E-Finance

The IPO of Dentsu, the world's fourth-largest advertising company, was supposed to mark UBS Warburg (Japan)'s entrance as a serious name in underwriting in the Japanese market.