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International investors this summer gained their best chance yet to invest in Transcaucasia, the region of the CIS separating Russia and the Middle East, with the start of voucher privatization in Azerbaijan. The country's programme is more open to foreign investment than almost any other in the CIS and lets investors take exposure to an economy that is growing at more than 5% a year.

Deals of the Year

The old guard remains in control at Gazprom, Russia's dominant gas producer. But can they fend off plans to liberalize the gas sector?

We've called them the big-game hunters - the men who track down the juiciest debt deals and clinch them. How do they do it in the burgeoning Asian market? Sure, they need to know what their banks can deliver and what their clients need. And they must be able to convince borrowers that transactions will fly in the market. Beyond that there's a whole slew of intangibles that can be summed up as establishing relationships. Having friends in high places helps, but you may have to do more than play golf with them - chess, pinball and even the odd bout of karaoke can be required. It also pays to be able to talk about anything, from Japanese ethnohistory to Korean youth soccer. Steven Irvine spoke to some of Asia's finest exponents of talking on their feet.

As it tried to fend off speculative attacks against the baht this summer, the Central Bank of Thailand played every trick it knew, from the conventional to the heavy-handed, to prop up the currency. This included raiding firms suspected of spreading negative rumours and black-listing investment banks that lent to hedge funds. James Sinclair reports.

Managing director Asia, BankBoston

At the top end, Russian banking still revolves around lucrative government business and political influence. But with T-bill yields falling below 20% this summer and alleged corruption in the banking system, which acts as a surrogate government treasury, Russian banks face some big challenges. Charles Piggott reports on whether the time has come for Russian banks to get their hands dirty doing what their namesakes elsewhere do - lending money.

Richard Wood's agreeable daily commute consists of a stroll across Prague's Charles Bridge while he looks at the castle and swans and thinks about what he has to do that day. "It beats the tube," he says.

Oriental Hotel,

Deals of the Year

This is the game to beat all games. And it has a purpose: to give bankers and regulators experience of a financial crisis without the pain of losing their money - or their jobs. Euromoney (with PA Consulting Group and CSFI) set the conditions for a financial meltdown and invited 50 experienced professionals to come and play it out. The tension and the rivalry were real. Most agree they learned something about crises, and perhaps how to prepare better for the next one. By David Shirreff.

Finance Minister and Central Banker of the Year: The regional winners