Search results for

Corporate issuers to the fore

Meet the Don

On the surface the ADR market seems to be flourishing. However, a relatively small number of big issuers account for a disproportionate amount of the market by value. Emerging-market issuers seem to be returning, though, and ADRs are increasingly being used to fund mergers & acquisitions. Luciano Mondellini reports.

Meet the Don

Despondency and fear hung in the air at last year's IMF/World Bank meeting. The contrast with the prevailing mood of self-congratulation and complacency in Washington last month could scarcely be more stark. The oft-repeated view was that the worst of the emerging market crisis is past, that major emerging-market economies in Asia and Latin America are either well into recovery or poised for it and that growth in the developed economies of Europe and Japan will take the pressure off the US to be the world consumer of last resort.

Disgrace at the heart of Europe

Meet the Don

Meet the Don

Issuer: Republic of Lebanon

After nearly a decade of fanfare, the single European market for financial services is a ghost of what it should be. Turf battles, protectionism, and the inertia of Brussels decision-making conspire to frustrate cross-border financial business. There's still no Europe-wide bank account. But the euro and the pressure of electronic commerce have panicked EU mandarins. Things are moving - a decade too late. Behold the Financial Services Action Plan. David Shirreff reports.

Sistema: The power behind the phone

Global legal practice is on the point of going the same way as accounting - with a small number of dominant players. By Christopher Stoakes