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In which Ingersoll and Komarovsky are sent on a course to learn that "ethics" is not just a county to the east of London.

Banco de Poggibonsi e di Colle Pottine,

In their desire to get a head start over each other in India, Wall Street investment banks have forged joint ventures with local partners. Three US banks JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs have adopted this strategy. Surprisingly, all three have agreed to remain minority shareholders in the ventures even though the law permits them a majority holding. Pressures may be building, though, for the US banks to buy out their local partners.

Who is going to end up in control of Russia's leading industrial companies when the period of restructuring that has followed privatization finally draws to a close? More evidence emerged in December that it's likely to be the 46 financial-industrial groups (Figs) that have sprung up over the past three years. Last month two of them, Most Bank and Alfa Bank, came forward as the leading contenders for a large stake in a new holding company that will control the telephone sector. The Figs already link together over 60 banks and 20 other major financial institutions as well as 650 industrial giants including Norilsk Nickel, the world's largest nickel producer, and oil company Yukos.

Gimmick, party trick or great leap forward in the international capital markets? The Euro-Asian bond has no shortage of detractors. Those who have promoted its benefits usually those who have lead managed the deals maintain it has the best features of the Dragon bond, which was the first attempt to create a bond specifically for Asian investors.

After months of delays, the Mexican privatization progamme has sprung back into life. In December, the government raised $1.8 billion from the sale of its northeastern railway line, by far its largest privatization deal since the devaluation of the peso in late 1994. Congress has also dropped its opposition to the sale to foreign investors of a 49% stake in the country's down-stream petrochemicals industry, raising hopes that privatization will speed up in 1997.

Late last year the fledging market for syndicated loans to Russian banks witnessed its most ambitious and successful deal to date. Tokobank, in its first syndication, raised $85 million at a spread of 4H% over Libor. This was the first loan for a Russian bank at a spread below 5% and more than twice the size of any other such deal.

Why is it that some banks have such incredibly irritating music, the sort that gives you that brain-damaged feeling, while other banks and financial institutions have music that is much better. BT Business Systems, a subsidiary of British Telecom, must have had the same thing in mind when it conducted a recent survey of "music-on-hold".

Emerging market strategists looking at making a New Year foray into Chilean stocks would be best advised to adopt a strategy of "Buy into heavy rain" and "Sell on prolonged sunshine". In a new twist on the term "market barometer", the Chilean market is being dragged down by the weather, as the country endures one of its worst droughts this century.

Boca Juniors, Argentina's most famous football club, is to break with its working-class traditions by becoming the first team to list on the local stock market. The club, supported by an estimated half of Argentina's fanatical football fans, last month won authorization from the Buenos Aires stock exchange to launch the Boca Juniors Closed Common Fund, with the aim of raising $20 million to buy a much-needed batch of new players.

It's 2003 and European monetary union (Emu) has gone badly wrong.

After helping to put NatWest Markets on the map in his native Australia, Peter Hall was planning in 1994 on retiring from the investment banking business. Then 45 years old, he intended to devote his time to other interests, including Buddhism, which he defines as the "science of mind and consciousness". Although unable to take the week-long silent retreats that the study of Buddhism requires, he believes understanding its tenets have helped him a great deal. Far from the ego-driven mentality that seems to drive most investment bankers, Buddhism calls for a type of detachment. "It's about having a calm and receptive state of mind," explains Hall, who says he meditates for an hour a day.