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This section features the 2004 'Euromoney' Best Bank Awardees. HSBC wins the best bank for the year. Customers value its long-term approach to relationship banking and the fact that it has not been involved in the scandals that have enveloped so many of its peers. UBS has achieved what once seemed impossible for any European investment bank: it has entered into the front rank in the U.S. market. In the 12 months ending in April 2004 it doubled its shares in announced U.S. mergers and acquisitions deals, working on transactions such as the sale of WellPoint Health Networks to Anthem Inc. and merger of Regions Financial and Union Planters Corp. J.P. Morgan has been innovative in the field of best equity-linked bank in Europe as well as in the U.S. and Australia. Deutsche Bank is a dominant player in each area of risk management that has kept corporate treasurers, hedge fund traders and more traditional investors stable. UBS Wealth Management was voted as best global private bank. A global presence in wealth management has become a necessity for those wishing to capture the growing market in Asia and Europe, and no institution has managed to broaden its reach like UBS Wealth Management.

When UBS scored a rare victory over Citigroup to be recognized in the poll in 2003 as the bank with the largest market share in foreign exchange, some rivals sought to convince themselves it was a statistical error. In 2004, though, not only has UBS won the top spot again, it has also increased its market share. What is more, Citigroup has been shoved squarely into third place in the market share rankings by Deutsche Bank. After over 20 years of consistently leading in this poll, Citigroup has seen its dominance of the market crumble. Deutsche Bank is understandably disappointed to have missed the top spot by such a narrow margin, and indeed the firm's global head of foreign exchange and commodities, Jim Turley, offered to lend Euromoney's research team a calculator to re-count the results. But Deutsche's jump in market share of nearly 2.5 percentage points is impressive by any measure. UBS and Deutsche Bank share a lot of clients and compete directly for a large proportion of their trades. The result is that UBS and Deutsche are breaking away from other banks and consolidating their global role. Predictably, and unlike other firms, they welcome this concentration of liquidity.

This article discusses Commerzbank's strategy, prospects for consolidation, and complaints about its bonus payments. Retail, corporate and asset management services are all more firmly at the front of Commerzbank's thoughts at the moment, and the deal to buy the branch network of SchmidtBank gives lots of clues about the bank's strategy. The structure of the deal and the messages that Commerzbank is sending reflect a sense of confidence that the worst of the bad times are over. Large loan-loss provisions, personnel cuts and a string of branch closures have been characteristic of Commerzbank over the past two years, and it is keen to put that painful period behind it. While Commerzbank is increasing its lending facilities for small companies, and it has started a mezzanine financing project for them, it views its relationship with big international corporates with a more questioning eye. The bank says it aims to make a 10% return on large corporates and multinationals over the next year. Where it can't, it will have to cut off relationships with some clients. Commerzbank now wants to integrate its corporate and investment banking divisions.

On November 14, 2003, an article appeared in the newspaper 'Handelsblatt' containing unofficial preliminary Standard & Poor's ratings revealing a worrying prospect for German Landesbanken. If they lose their state guarantees in July 2005, their ratings, which now range from AAA to AA-, and start to issue on ratings between A+ and BBB, this will be more costly. This news should not be a surprise to the German banking community. After all, the European Commission outlined its plans to abolish state guarantees on Landesbank debt back in 2001. Ten days later, on November 24, Standard & Poor's published its official report on the Landesbanken, saying that it was too early to give ratings on unguaranteed debt because the banks were still in the crucial stages of deciding their future business models. The rating agency has good reason to assess the banks' unguaranteed debt. Such debt is already in the market, and derivatives are already traded based on those bonds. Landesbanken can still issue guaranteed debt until July 2005. However, the debt must mature by the end of 2015. This has given them the opportunity to issue plenty of bonds and protect themselves in advance of 2005 but has prevented them from issuing very long dated bonds.

The article discusses several business deals of 2003. The British banking group HBOS issued the first British covered bond in July 2003 as part of a €14 billion program. The acquisition by the U.S. orthopedics firm Zimmer of Swiss rival Centerpulse was full of disagreements, accusations and drama, but it was one of Europe's biggest merger and acquisition deals of 2003. Spanish hotel group Sol Meliás issue was not the largest of the year's equity-linked transactions from western Europe. But it stands out because apart from being a rare Spanish issue, it illustrates several key themes in the European equity-linked market. The perfect conditions for emerging-market bond issuances resulted in a large number of sovereign deals coming to the market and many deals performed very well. Turkey's 10-year issue in September 2003, lead managed by Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, was the high point of a great year for the sovereign. Poland also deserves praise for its debut samurai, which came to the market in June at levels flat to the sovereign's euro curve. Meanwhile, Gazprom's 10-year issue was the runaway success in emerging-market debt in 2003, and remains the largest emerging market corporate bond ever.

This article focuses on trends in private banking in Asia. Behind the challenges and dramatic changes faced by a private banker lies a fundamental shift in the private-banking business model. From being of peripheral importance for many wholesale and retail banking organizations, it has become a core strategic business unit. According to "World Health Report 2003," prepared by Merrill Lynch and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, the financial wealth of high-net worth individuals globally between 2001 and 2002 grew by 6.3% compared with growth in Asia-Pacific of 10.7%, the highest of any region. Many of the world's largest private banks are already established in Asia yet are actively hiring as new markets open up. Newcomers will have to adopt more aggressive strategies as they seek to gain a foothold in the world's fastest growing private-banking market. Onshore or offshore, there are several issues on which private bankers agree. With a more sophisticated client comes greater product diversity and complication, more attentive and labor-intensive service and, as a result, escalation of costs. INSETS: Singapore's Swiss finishing school;Man Group: blue chip with a long track record;Noriba: a Shariah-compliant approach;UBS: connecting with clients' emotions

This article presents the results of a survey of top providers of investment advice such as private banks and other financial firms. A key aim of the survey of the private wealth management industry is to establish which providers industry participants themselves believe to be the best in each country and region and at the financial services wealthy people use. It has been found that private bankers are working at about 85% capacity in terms of clients they could handle. Some chief executives will privately admit that they are still burdened by the excess capacity they built for the bull markets. Others are already worrying about how to scale up. Private bankers will have welcomed signs of stabilization and recovery in the underlying base of wealth on which they earn fees, but they will have been less pleased with another report, from Booz Allen Hamilton and Reuters. Also published last June 2003, this suggested that many European customers are dissatisfied with the performance of private banks at a very basic level. They are angry not so much at poor investment performance as many banks' failure to profile and understand them. INSETS: Methodology;UBS Wealth Management: reaping rewards of European growth;Sarasin: a stress on sustainability;Bordier & Cie: a quality niche player

This article reports on Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, which changed its name to KfW as of March 2004. The capital markets are producing new ways for banks to create a profitable business from lending to Germany's small and medium-size companies, and KfW is playing a leading role. KfW has spun off its project- and export-finance division, keeping it within the group but allowing it to operate autonomously under the brand name of KfW Ipex Bank. And it has incorporated DtA, which was a specialist development firm for start-up businesses, bringing it closer to KfW's existing small and medium-size business operations. Those operations are also run under a separate brand name--KfW Mittelstandsbank. The final two main areas of business are KfW Förderbank--the promotional bank that promotes the housing industry and environmental and social development, and KfW Entwicklungsbank, which is the development bank that promotes economic development in poorer countries. However, when KfW raises funds in the capital markets, and it raises about €50 billion a year, it does so under the umbrella name of KfW. That means that, as before, despite the new brand names and organizational structure, investors cannot choose the areas of business they are financing by buying KfW bonds.

This article reports that Continuous Linked Settlement (CLS), the electronic settlement network for foreign exchange, is handling a growing proportion of transactions globally, according to a new report as of June 2004. The survey shows that CLS is becoming an increasingly established and integral part of the foreign exchange markets. But some of the network's earlier plans, such as adding money market instruments, have been delayed. The report by TowerGroup found that two-thirds of the member banks of CLS now use it to settle at least 50% of their daily foreign exchange volumes. TowerGroup predicts that by the end of 2005, nearly 90% of CLS members will be using the network that extensively. Banks feed trades into the system and CLS matches and settles both sides of each trade simultaneously at fixed points through the day. Jonathan Butterfield, executive vice-president of marketing and communication at CLS Bank, says he is pleased but not surprised at the findings of the TowerGroup report. The creation of CLS was the result of a protracted period of consultation with banks and central banks. The next step for CLS is to develop market data services based on the flows it observes, which will make the system more relevant to the front office at banks rather than catering predominantly to the back office.

When Italy joined the€ 70 billion European inflation-linked bond market in 2003 with a five-year issue, investors welcomed the move and banks highlighted it as a trigger for a wave of new interest in the instruments. But the success of the deal was not driven by demand for five-year inflation in itself. Rather, because so many market participants had been using inflation-linked derivatives, they needed to hedge their exposure with five-year paper. That meant that derivatives desks were among the most active buyers of the bonds. This relationship between inflation-linked bonds and the related derivatives is peculiar but, thanks to the relatively good development of the long end of the curve, it is unlikely to spark issuance at other maturities. So while very few issuers would be interested in launching structured products such as the ones that were so popular in Italy, some are happy to issue inflation and swap out of it. Up to now it has been feasible for smaller banks to offer inflation-related products to their clients and to complete trades back to back with the biggest banks in the field. But banks must be careful not to promise too much to potential investors in inflation-linked products.

Agence France Trésor was nervous about becoming the first issuer of euro-denominated inflation-linked bonds but it is pleased with the results. Now its regular linker issuance schedule is helping to bring certainty to the developments of the curve. Inflation-linked issues have become such an established part of the European bond market, and such an advantageous way for funds to match assets and liabilities, that investors now need a good reason not to use them, rather than a good reason to buy them. Even in a period of low inflation, new types of investors are coming to this asset class with every issue. The level of demand has prompted Japan, a country that famously has no inflation, to join the rush to issue linkers. But in 1998, when France's state funding body, Agence France Trésor (AFT), became the first institution to issue euro-denominated inflation-linked bonds, it felt it was taking something of a leap into the unknown. Greece joined the market in 2003, issuing a 22-year eurozone inflation-linked bond, and Italy's similar five-year offering, also from 2003, demonstrated how important the asset class is now becoming to European sovereign issuers. The decision of AFT to pay both French and eurozone inflation opens the opportunity for investors, particularly hedge funds, to arbitrage between different bonds and create proxies for European inflation in countries that have not yet issued linkers, such as Germany, Spain and the Netherlands.

This article presents news briefs on investments and financial institutions as of March 2004. Great Britain Prime Minister Tony Blair visited the office of Goldman Sachs in London, England in March 2004. Citigroup Private Bank has signed up golf legend Gary Player to act as an informal ambassador. Thomas Duetoft, head of European loan trading at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, and his colleague Tom Johannessen were spotted one lunch hour visiting directional men's outfitters Richard James in shopping emporium The Royal Exchange in London. Political donations of financial institutions can be seen on the Web site fundrace.org. Talking to investors in Singapore in February, Citigroup CEO Chuck Prince was reiterating his stance on future acquisitions. Last month, at Hong Kong's biggest party, the annual Rugby Sevens festival, an unusual trend emerged among Hong Kong's investment banks, displaying their softer side.

The article reports on Great Britain's avoidance of adding an extra layer of complexity to merger & acquisition transactions after a legal ruling that the British Office of Fair Trading (OFT) can maintain a degree of discretion in assessing proposed deals. Under the country's two-tier merger investigation process, the OFT refers proposed deals to the Competition Commission when it feels that those deals could damage the competitive position of rival firms. Of the 414 cases it examined in 2002 to 2003, 21 were referred. The new ruling from the Court of Appeal arose after IBA Healthcare, a company that supplies software and systems to the healthcare market, complained that in November 2003 the OFT had decided not to refer a merger between two similar companies, iSoft and Torex, to the Competition Commission. Later that month, IBA appealed to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) to review the OFT's decision. The CAT overturned the OFT's decision, and ordered it to reassess it. The CAT also determined that among other tests for referral, the OFT should hand over to the Competition Commission cases where it thought that the Commission might disagree with its view that the merger could go ahead. The OFT feared that this extra test in its decision process could double the number of cases that it referred. In February 2004, however, the Court of Appeal ruled that while the OFT had erred in not referring the iSoft and Torex merger, it did not have to apply that extra test to its judgments. Even though the extra test has not been enforced, the case could encourage more firms that fear they are likely to be damaged by mergers to appeal against OFT decisions. But the case does encourage investment bankers to think more carefully about the competition issues surrounding M&A transactions.

The growing size of U.S. banks, as of 2004, is alarming, which makes acquisitions by U.S. firms of European banks increasingly likely. The recent Parmalat scandal in Italy provides a further timely reminder that it is useful for a bank to have large reserves of funds available. Scandals aside, the changing nature of European corporates sets challenges for European banks that few can meet. A research report by Citigroup dated January 8, 2004 notes that the top 15 European bank stocks outperformed the bottom 15 by more than 50% in 2003, which emphasizes widening divergence between the best and the rest in the sector. Further in-market, or domestic, deals would create national champions in Europe, but they are unlikely to happen because of the competition regulations governing consumer banking in each country. Domestic consolidation would not necessarily provide a solution to banking systems' or individual banks' ills. Europe offers plenty of examples of such deals, which defied economic and business sense and failed. RBS has already made a series of acquisitions. It completed its acquisition of the Churchill Insurance Group in September 2003, which it bought from the Credit Suisse group.

The Basle II capital adequacy rules have been approved by central bankers and regulators of the G10 group of nations but banks remain confused about how to implement the credit monitoring requirements. The regulations, which still require approval from political bodies, have won endorsement from the G10 after nearly six years of negotiations. They were immediately welcomed by the Institute for International Finance (IIF). But the IIF also repeated its concerns about how the rules will be enforced and their likely impact on banks. The IIF said much remains to be done for Basle II to deliver the full benefits of a level playing field and risk-sensitive capital adequacy regulation. Operation under the accord can become costly and perhaps difficult to manage if banks are subjected to inconsistent interpretations, duplicative requirements for information, or repeated validation exercises by regulators. A separate report, based on a survey of banks, echoed this uncertainty about how to implement. It found concerns about budgets, lack of confidence in risk management frameworks and slow progress in implementing credit-risk monitoring tools. Respondents said they expected Basle II to bring them benefits in terms of better capital allocation and risk pricing but many also said they had a lot of work left to do to satisfy some key requirements. Moody's KMV, which builds risk monitoring tools for banks, is encouraging firms to use the regulations to become more competitive lenders and to offer better transparency to shareholders. The firm adds that implementing new risk-monitoring software is simpler than banks imagine.

This article forecasts the expenditure of securities firms on information technology (IT) in 2004. The days of seemingly unrestrained excess in IT spending by banks might have ended three or four years ago but technology spending is still raising. Securities firms are set to spend $71.5 billion on it in 2004, marking slight increase of 1.4% over 2003, according to a new report from financial IT research firm TowerGroup. This is far lower than the $86.2 billion that firms spent in 2000 but it does indicate that as banking revenues and profits recover, banks and other securities firms are once again willing to make technology investments. Peter Beard, CEO of technology firm Apama, which makes trade strategy modelling software, says that banks have been reopening their IT budgets after a downturn that lasted several years. TowerGroup says that spending is likely to be particularly heavy among asset management firms. This is partly because they are being forced to move away from transaction-based models towards fee-based models, and they need the technology to support this. Institutional broker-dealers are expected to spend nearly $50 billion globally--a slight increase on the previous year. Beard says he feels that high annual levels of spending are sustainable, even though banks tend to make large system purchases only once; they then often add new smaller pieces of software later, either to meet a competitive threat or to adapt to new regulation.

This article claims that if you ask a trader to explain the emotional relationship he has with his positions, you will usually be met with a gruff rebuff. But one brave academic, Nigel Nicholson, has carried out an extensive study based on interviews with 120 traders in the City of London for a book that is scheduled for publication in October. Speaking at the Euromoney Forex Forum last month, Nicholson, who is professor of organizational behavior at the London Business School, offered some insights into the curious workings of a trader's mind. Nicholson found that people who work in finance tend to be more moody than the general population. People with illusions of control over the markets they trade are bad traders, he notes. And although there are few women traders, they are generally better at the job than their male colleagues. To seek to explain the odd behavior of your staff and colleagues, read 'Traders: managing risks and decisions in financial markets.'

This article reports that ABN Amro made a curious choice of words to announce the arrival of some new staff in its commodity derivatives division in May 2004. The firm, we were told, hired a leading energy market trading team. Could this be a team poaching to rival Barclays Capital's famous but unsuccessful attempt to lure 40 fixed-income bankers from CSFB back in 2001? Sadly not. It turns out that ABN Amro had in fact managed to snatch two people away from BNP Paribas. Wayne Harburn becomes the Dutch bank's global head of commodity trading, and Vincent Chevance becomes the global head of commodity marketing. This is undoubtedly a significant development for ABN Amro's financial markets business, but two people hardly constitute a team. Luckily, the Collins English dictionary is on hand to help. A team , it explains, is generally considered to be a group of people organized to work together. But it has another meaning: two or more animals working together to pull a vehicle or agricultural implement. So that is settled.

This article reports that there was great potential for confusion at Deutsche Bank's London office one day in May 2004. Standing in the grand reception area was a large sign bearing the words Welcome to Marks and Spencer. As our British readers know, M&S is one of the country's best-known retail brand names--a purveyor of cotton underwear, elasticated trousers and fine food since 1884. The store also has a long-standing reputation for accepting returned items. If your grandmother and great aunty Flo both buy you the same M&S sweater for Christmas, you can always take one back--no questions asked. The reaction could be slightly different if you tried to return a three-pack of panties to Deutsche Bank, however. No madam, this is the foreign exchange desk , could be the reply. Or the swaps desk, for that matter. It turns out that M&S was using the Deutsche office as a location to announce its preliminary full-year results. If, however, the bank does decide to start selling underpants, we will happily stand corrected.

UBS has sparked controversy in electronic trading by becoming Bloomberg's sole provider of dealer-to-client execution in exchange-traded derivatives (ETD). That means that over the next few months, other banks will have to migrate clients that use Bloomberg as an execution medium for ETD to their web-based tools. However, banks will still be able to provide order-routing services to their clients for exchanges of which UBS is not a member. The initiative went live in March 2004, after 18 months of negotiations, and it will take several months to assess the results, both for UBS and for Bloomberg. The bank also wins access to thousands of potential new clients through Bloomberg and both sides will promote each other as best provider of services. Although the bank cannot accurately predict whether it will achieve a greater market share in ETD trading, it is optimistic. To start with, the platform offers direct market access to contracts on Liffe, Eurex, and more, but it will be expanded to encompass all major fixed-income and equity exchanges.

The latest new name in European banking, Calyon, becomes fully operational in May 2004. It is the product of the 2003 merger of Crédit Agricole Indosuez and Crédit Lyonnais, bringing together their investment banking and capital markets businesses. The rebranding and relaunch are being kept relatively low profile, mainly because the new name is already well known among clients. Indeed it is backdated, having been used to refer to the bank since January. It will be interesting to follow Calyon's progress over the coming months. And one thing is for sure, whatever happens to its revenue and league table rankings, it is going to keep the local recruitment consultants busy.

This article reports on the denial by Baudoin Prot, the CEO of BNP Paribas, of some of the merger rumors involving his firm, using a results announcement in February 2004. He also sketched out plans for using the bank's excess capital. As he outlined the bank's 2003 results, which included an impressive 13.1% increase in net income from the corporate and investment banking division, he declined to reveal what BNP Paribas would do if a large US firm bought one of its European rivals. BNP Paribas, with its relatively high levels of excess capital, has been said to be considering buying AXA or even ABN Amro. However, Prot dismissed these ideas, saying they were stupid rumors. Prot is interested in making sensible acquisitions, in the US as well as in Europe. He said the firm would be able to deploy €5 billion to €6 billion in capital without leveraging the balance sheet. He is also looking for very specific capabilities from an acquisition target. He added that he would be more interested in buying firms that offer distribution capabilities rather than those that produce the instruments themselves. Prot wants to develop businesses such as these organically through measures including hiring. But in keeping with the firm's strategy of keeping costs low, he denied that this would involve radically increasing salary and bonus payments. Nonetheless, he is prepared to pay for the best staff.

The article reports on Lehman Brothers, which has finally finished moving its London headquarters from its slightly gloomy premises in Broadgate to its shiny new tower in Docklands, joining Standard & Poor's and Bank of America as new residents in what is now London's key financial district. The building is so new that the local cab drivers haven't worked out how to get to it yet. And the building is very striking. In keeping with the big banks' one-upmanship in glitzy foyer design, it is super sleek and modern. So it is a bit odd to emerge from the lift on the top floor for the meeting rooms to be greeted by antique wooden furniture and lush curtains. It all helps to give clients and visitors the impression that Lehman Brothers is a time-honoured, stable institution.

The article profiles Karl Schweizer, managing director of the art and numistics services of UBS. The team advises on both banking and art. Schweizer started out as a lawyer, writing a doctoral thesis on investment banking and capital markets. Then he worked in legal counsel and escrow at SBC. Later, he helped set up a regional brokerage for northern and central Switzerland. In 1997 he received an offer to set up an art banking operation and when SBC merged with Union Bank of Switzerland to form UBS, the new firm kept the department. His present team consists of 18 experienced specialists and two junior staff. Recruiting is not easy and Schweizer is adamant that this area of banking should apply the same standards and principles as other departments. The group advises on valuations for works of art. When the department was set up, a key policy was not to participate directly in the art market. The department also introduces clients to auction houses, art dealers, galleries and insurance companies. Furthermore, it analyzes the authenticity of works and handles inheritance issues. Advising clients on an emotional level is not part of the job description. Schweizer hopes to expand the service with plans to open in New York.

Dutch pension funds will be required to match their assets and liabilities better after the poor performance of equities over recent years under the new solvency regulations as of 2004. This means they will become keen buyers of long-dated government bonds with maturities of between 10 and 30 years. According the ABN Amro, the impact on the yield curve will make it even harder for pension funds to match liabilities. It further said that issuers and investors are often unaware of the scale of this issue and of the level of impact it might have. The new Dutch pension solvency requirements will be implemented in the first half of 2004, and the draft version will be published in March or April 2004. The impact of the mass migration will be significant because Dutch pension funds are large. They make up the second largest market of its kind in the eurozone, despite the Netherlands being a relatively small country. When similar solvency equations were imposed in Denmark in 2001, demand for the long end of the euro curve rose, causing long-dated forward rates to drop. As Dutch pension funds move into long-dated government paper, French and German occupational pension funds will be doing the same thing.

Over 9 billion euros have been generated by the European equity-linked market in convertible redemptions in January 2004. Redemptions came from companies including Carrefour, France Télécom, Suez/AXA and Vivendi Universal on January 1, 2004. They were followed by Hutchison Whampoa/Vodafone and Suez/Fortis exchangeables among others. The prevalence of French firms is due to the fact that French issues often mature on January 1 because of regulations that mean investors receive the dividend for the calendar year in which they exercise their option to convert. Only five European equity-linked deals had been brought to market in January 2004. Moreover, the Barclays Capital convertible cost index shows that although issuance costs are not at all-time lows, they are cheap. The index which has been produced since the summer of 2003, it combines interest rates, volatility levels and dividend yields to create a figure that represents the coupon that a new issuer would have to pay for a new equity-linked deal. Barclay's equity-linked origination team also reports that for a range of unrelated and generally internal reasons, the firms that would ordinarily be likely to bring new deals to market are not doing so.

This article focuses on the issuance of InterNotes by banks in Europe. In December 2003, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) was planning to become the first issuer of continuously offered bonds in Europe. LBBW was due to join Bank of America and FCE Bank in issuing InterNotes. InterNotes are fixed-income instruments that investors can buy or sell in denominations of just $1,000, £1,000 or €1,000. They have an all-in fixed par price and a flexible coupon structure, so the investor can select monthly, semi-annual or annual coupon payments. The bonds are offered every week. InterNotes were developed in the U.S. by specialist investment bank Incapital, which is 25% owned by Bank of America. With a typical bond, two or three banks earn a tidy fee for managing it, backed by four or five banks acting as co-leads. With InterNotes, however, Incapital structures the product for a small fee and then puts around 300 banks into the syndicate. As an incentive, those 300 banks earn a large fee for selling the instruments. Since January 2001, over $25 billion-worth of InterNotes have been sold to U.S. retail investors. Developing the European market has been tougher, but Incapital could have first-mover advantage.

This article reports on the merging of Goldman Sachs's business operations. Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein merged its debt and equity operations before Goldman, and encountered suspicions that it was a cost-cutting initiative. Staff at Goldman have been expecting this for a while. First, the human resources operations for the equities group and for the fixed income, currencies and commodities group were merged. Then teams started to relocate, bringing staff from both sides physically closer together. The bank's online research portal also combines research and data on any topic into customizable screens. The official statement is that the process will gain momentum in 2004, and while the two groups will continue to run separate profit-and-loss accounts, they will be working together far more closely and developing synergies.