STEVEN IRVINE

While rising oil prices are easing Saudi Arabia's immediate economic problems - a deep budget deficit and depleted foreign reserves - the country needs to make structural changes, cut spending and create new jobs to reduce its dependence on volatile oil. Norman Peagam looks at the task confronting a new team of western-educated technocrats

A handful of the world's top financial institutions have not one regulator but many, spread over diverse products and markets. These regulators, scared by Barings, Daiwa Bank and other disasters, are trying to plug holes in the supervisory net. But it's a tough job to coordinate oversight and to ensure that at least one supervisor has the full picture. David Shirreff reports

Securities regulator the CSRC was set up in 1992 to bring order to China's new and frenetic securities markets. But its attempts to impose discipline have met with mixed success. Turf battles with other authorities, political agendas that take precedence over market-based listing criteria and high-profile departures have made the regulator as raucous as the markets it was supposed to tame. Sophie Röell reports

Although the law on what a lead manager can and cannot say about the success of a bond issue is reasonably settled, it still causes banks and, in particular, their compliance officers, difficulties in practice. By Christopher Stoakes

Edited by Brian Caplen

Edited by Peter Lee

Edited by Steven Irvine

The Bankers' Club, 7 Lothbury, London EC2

Every time a scandal hits the international financial markets, politicians and the press scream for tighter regulation.

by David Roche

The Italian market is springing to life. Recent successful high-profile issues and a well-managed privatization programme have whetted investors' appetites. Small and medium-sized companies which have gone to the market have seen spectacular gains. But while Italy's stock market is ready to boom, problems remain with Italy's banking structure and corporate governance. Peter Lee reports

German repo-traders are besieging the Bundesbank with complaints that its minimum-reserve requirement is killing their business. But, asks Laura Covill, will things get any better if the Bundesbank relents?

...when it's perfectly transparent, but not very liquid. The rise of electronic trading systems in the forex market has had some unexpected consequences.

In the space of a few years, the Californian boutiques helping high-tech companies come to market have seen their profitable niche invaded by major Wall Street firms. Now banks and investors from across the Atlantic are threatening to get in on the act. But are the Europeans buying into a maturing industry - or a market reaching its top? Michelle Celarier investigates

Liechtenstein's ruler, Prince Hans-Adam, was so sure of the benefits of closer economic ties with the rest of western Europe that he threatened to abdicate if his subjects rejected EEA membership. The principality's bankers and lawyers are more sceptical. Their concern is that limited changes to secrecy laws may deter the high-net-world

The London Metal Exchange, the world's top copper exchange, rode out the drama of Yasuo Hamanaka and Sumitomo's losses. But is it crying out for reform, and is it an efficient means of price discovery? Christopher Spink reports

When in Rome, don't count your chickens Komarovsky and Ingersoll go surfing and rediscover the lost art of global whingeing JJ Ingersoll, our head of global focus, is talking incessantly about technology because he says "that's where the kids are at". I don't look convinced, so he double-clicks on his mouse, and tells me to watch this. A whole series of windows peel like bananas before my eyes.

Senior executives tremble when McKinsey and Co comes in to examine a bank - its consultants' fixation with the bottom line is legendary. But is there as much myth as substance to the reputation? Michelle Celarier examines the performance of those high-flyers who've left the consultancy to occupy top positions in banking and the McKinsey philosophy they bring with them.

Nine months of takeover madness in the Czech Republic has left foreign and minority investors bewildered. Their rights have been ignored frequently by voucher funds trading blocks of shares privately among themselves. Now new regulations are in place to try to curb excesses in the Prague equity market. But their calming effect on one of the wildest emerging markets will at best be limited. Brian Caplen reports

Chief executive, Credit Suisse Financial Products

This year, Euromoney's Awards for Excellence are broader in scope than ever before. A number of new categories have been introduced to reflect changes in the structure of international markets.

Twenty-five year veteran of the capital markets Hans-Joerg Rudloff and his 18-month-old investment bank MC Securities have given up their independence. Rumour had it that it was a consequence of disaster for the bank in Russian markets. Looking deeper, though, it seems more like a victory. Steven Irvine reports