It has taken three years to rein in costs and regulatory risks at CSFB. Now, at last, CEO John Mack is looking forward and wants to double profits by the end of 2006. Does the Swiss-American investment bank have what it takes?

There is rarely much middle ground between deluge and drought in Hong Kong's IPO market, which is powered by a powerful but fickle wall of retail money. The failure of several high-profile issues has started to claim victims. With mainland China's increasing reliance on Hong Kong to absorb issues from its frantic restructuring efforts, a market closure could have a serious impact.

Barclays’ announcement last month that it had agreed to outsource cash management services for its larger UK corporate clients to Deutsche Bank is remarkable. Maintaining account services, domestic and international payments and collections, liquidity management and electronic banking are bread-and-butter banking activities. The provision of such unglamorous but vital services is an essential part of the cement that binds corporate customers to their relationship banks. So it can’t have been easy for Barclays to admit that its customers would be better off using Deutsche’s products and services than its own.

M&A activity in Australia, which has the largest M&A market in the Asia Pacific ex-Japan region, is set to grow by 20% this year, according to JPMorgan.

Sandra Manzke is something of a legend in the hedge fund industry. The founder of Tremont Capital Management, she was an influential figure from the outset, with the knack of spotting talented managers such as Peter Lynch, founder of the Magellan fund, before they became famous.

Portuguese banks got through last year's recession remarkably smoothly. But despite their strength, there's still talk of further consolidation. Quite how this would be achieved is not clear, particularly as the government is likely to resist further foreign involvement.

Glittering skyscrapers, air-conditioned malls, manicured lawns, litter-free boulevards, and a law-abiding population... It is hard to believe that 200 years ago Singapore was a disease-ridden backwater populated by fisherman and pirates. And just 40 years ago the island state was racially divided, lacking in resources and reliant on unfriendly neighbours for food and water. Singapore?s transformation into a thriving global financial centre, however, is not a result of natural evolution. Rather, its leaders have approached it as a carefully thought-out project. What Singapore has lacked, it has simply created ? it?s ?a man-made miracle?.

Of all the global investment banks, UBS has perhaps the most unlikely provenance, rooted as it is in private-banking skills. After transformational acquisitions a new UBS has emerged that means business. Group CEO Peter Wuffli outlines its ambitions in Asia.

Euromoney celebrates its thirty-fifth birthday this month. We look back on the capital markets of 1969 and forward, through the eyes of pioneers of that era and those born in that year, at today's markets and looming challenges.

The European high-yield market ran into volatility last month on fears of US interest rate rises. But it is not life threatening. Fundamentals look good: fewer defaults, more diversity in issuers and buyers, and landmark deals.

The promised crisis never came and instead last year turned out to be a good one for most banks. This year is set to be even better as banking becomes structurally ever safer, though it will never be entirely risk free.

Development bank AFD's issue offered government-style risk with enhanced yield. That was a winning formula with investors, whose interest rapidly took the e300 million deal's book to e1.2 billion.

The family's toilet seat hangs on a nail in the shared bathroom. The man in the big room at the end of the corridor is always drunk. No-one cleans the kitchen properly. And the baby next door always cries in the middle of the night. Tens of thousands of Russians still live in communal apartments (komunalka) in buildings confiscated from the rich and given to the workers immediately after the revolution. Entire families are crushed into each room, with six or seven families to an apartment. The irony is that some have decent jobs but are unable to borrow from a bank, so moving remains beyond their reach.

Appointed and paid for by issuers but charged with protecting investors' interests, bond trustees are in an ambiguous position. And with bondholders expecting more activism, trustees are coming under closer scrutiny.

Free money and a profligate fiscal policy in the US have achieved the near impossible - job creation. But don't count on a sustained upswing and meanwhile look to equities as the asset of last resort.

If you ask a trader to explain the emotional relationship he has with his positions, you will usually be met with a gruff rebuff.

Seeking funds for a US acquisition, Royal Bank of Scotland filled the book for a £2.5 billion equity placing in one day. The money raised will part fund the purchase of US bank Charter One Financial.

It has been more than seven months since Bank of America bought FleetBoston, and almost six since JPMorgan Chase and Bank One announced their deal. But still Citigroup hasn?t pounced, confounding those who were sure that the world?s largest bank would feel compelled to join the rush to build a national retail franchise in its home market.

Investment banks are bulking up their presence in mortgage lending, once the exclusive domain of their commercial and retail brethren. For some, such as Merrill Lynch, the advantage lies in being able to offer yet another financial product to its wealthy private clients.

Continuous Linked Settlement (CLS), the electronic settlement network for foreign exchange, is handling a growing proportion of transactions globally, according to a new report.

There was great potential for confusion at Deutsche Bank?s London office one day last month. Standing in the grand reception area was a large sign bearing the words ?Welcome to Marks and Spencer?.

Investors panicked last month as fear spread that the US Federal Reserve would soon hike rates. Momentum players of the global reflation trade rushed to unwind positions in high-yield markets. Borrowers were forced to pull deals. The panic subsided as quickly as it arose and the sell-off failed to engulf global markets this time. What happens next?

Of the 10 countries to join the EU last month, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic have been identified as offering the most opportunities for wealth managers. According to a report by Datamonitor, the relatively high national savings ratios in the three countries offer an encouraging sign to banks looking at entering the wealth management sector in central and eastern Europe. "In comparison to the UK, with a national saving ratio of 13.1%, individuals in all three countries save, on average, a far greater proportion of their disposable income," says the report.

When WestLB put the venerable but slightly dishevelled corporate broker Panmure Gordon up for sale in January 2004 it was probably rather surprised to find 35 bidders competing for the toy it had got bored with.

Six years of haggling came to an end last month when Russia and the EU finally signed off on a bilateral trade agreement that clears away a major obstacle in Russia?s efforts to join the World Trade Organization.

The publication of Turkey's first set of corporate governance guidelines and plans for a new index on the ISE measuring compliance are encouraging. But the high level of family ownership is an impediment to good practice.

It all looked propitious for FDI. The World Bank/IFC was touting it, reforms favouring foreign investment had been put in place and the opening of talks for EU accession seemed assured. Enter the element of destabilizing surprise that Turkey specializes in.

It seems Bank of England governor Mervyn King?s love of football is catching on at the UK?s central bank.

By Fiona Maharg Bravo

Economic recovery in Japan is not expected to be accompanied by a rush of corporates to the bond markets. Many companies are still paying down debt and those that are borrowing can do so relatively cheaply through bank lending. Nevertheless, there are signs of growing activity from Japanese credits both domestically and in international markets.