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Cover Story

Cover Story : Reform, On the Kremlin’s Terms

The business climate turned sharply colder in Russia during the second half of 2003, and it’s not gotten much better in these first few months of this year. But a second-term Putin is unlikely to jettison the reform project entirely. ...

Cover Story : Stars of the New Russia

BEST BANKS IN RUSSIA 2004 BEST DOMESTIC BANK MDM BANK In a tight field, this bank’s independence, allied to its commitment to genuine intermediation,wins it the prize.MDM is a money-gusher, too, achieving a return-on-investment for the first three quarters of ...

Features

Features : Central Europe’s

Hyundai’s choice of Slovakia as the site for its first European car plant attests to central Europe’s allure to foreign investors. While Hungary and Poland were the darlings for most of the 1990s, the Czech Republic has attracted the largest ...

Features : Custody Buyer’s Guide

For the global custody industry the contrast between this year and last could not be starker—or more heartening. A majority of the custodians covered in our survey last year had seen their custody assets decline or remain static over the ...

Features : Security and Fraud Become Top Tech Issue

Even as they increase corporate efficiency, Internet banking and e-commerce are heaping additional burdens on the financial services industry. As a result, security has become the number one spending priority for many companies. You’ve seen the worrisome stories. Viruses and ...

Features : Turkey Inches Closer to the EU

Turkey’s efforts to comply with EU accession demands appear to be paying off. Yet while the country is gaining praise for its hard work, some say they want to see more evidence that Ankara is walking the talk. In the ...

Features : World’s Best Treasury Providers

Global Finance selects the best in the world. The big international banks make it look easy, sweeping up dollars and euros and various other currencies from remote corners of the world and investing the resulting cash pile in the highestyielding ...

Emerging Markets

Cover Story : Stars of the New Russia

BEST BANKS IN RUSSIA 2004 BEST DOMESTIC BANK MDM BANK In a tight field, this bank’s independence, allied to its commitment to genuine intermediation,wins it the prize.MDM is a money-gusher, too, achieving a return-on-investment for the first three quarters of ...

Features : Central Europe’s

Hyundai’s choice of Slovakia as the site for its first European car plant attests to central Europe’s allure to foreign investors. While Hungary and Poland were the darlings for most of the 1990s, the Czech Republic has attracted the largest ...

Features : Custody Buyer’s Guide

For the global custody industry the contrast between this year and last could not be starker—or more heartening. A majority of the custodians covered in our survey last year had seen their custody assets decline or remain static over the ...

The World's Best Treasury and Cash Managers

Features : World’s Best Treasury Providers

Global Finance selects the best in the world. The big international banks make it look easy, sweeping up dollars and euros and various other currencies from remote corners of the world and investing the resulting cash pile in the highestyielding ...

Milestones

Milestones : Economic Recovery Leads To Argentine Amnesia

ARGENTINA Argentine consumers are celebrating their country’s recent economic recovery by going out and spending some hard-earned cash—or at least plastic. Visa, MasterCard and local credit card issuers, who saw credit and debit card sales take a 40% dive in ...

Milestones : European Ipo Market Shrugs Off Anxiety

EUROPE Market jitters as a result of the terrorist attacks in Madrid in March failed to knock the European IPO market off course, according to bankers in the region. With pricing due shortly on bellwether deals such as Belgacom’s €3.91 ...

Milestones : M&A Uptick Becomes A Frenzy

GLOBAL It’s official: Merger madness is back. Preliminary figures for the first quarter of 2004 indicate that this is already shaping up to be a blockbuster year. The dramatic increase in activity may come as a surprise to some. Earlier ...

Corporate Finance

Corporate Finance : Comcast’s Hostile Offer Puts Disney in Play

THE AMERICAS Comcast, the biggest cable-TV operator in the US, made an unsolicited offer to buy Walt Disney, the American entertainment icon, but was swiftly rebuffed by Disney’s board. The $67 billion hostile stock-swap transaction, if successful,would create the biggest ...

Corporate Finance : Companies With ADRs Gain Research Following

SOUTH AFRICA South African companies that find themselves ignored by analysts in developed countries can get noticed by issuing American depositary receipts, bankers say. US and European companies have significantly higher price-to-earnings ratios and a stronger research following than South ...

Corporate Finance : Weak US Jobs Data Trigger Bond Rally

THE AMERICAS Bond prices soared and yields slumped in early March, as the US employment data surprised market participants once again with a smaller-thanexpected rise in payrolls. “We probably need as many as six months of unequivocally solid labor data ...

Newsmakers