German mortgage banks are campaigning to develop a common legal definition and standard for covered bonds. The dispute was sparked last year by three UK banks issuing covered bonds which do not legally qualify as this asset class.

India’s Congress Party will lead an alliance of political parties that will form the next government after it emerged the surprise victor in the country’s national elections in early May. Voters shunned the previous regime led by the Bharatiya Janata Party whose economic reforms appear to have left a large majority of rural Indians unmoved.
Manmohan Singh, the former finance minister, will be the new prime minister after Congress party president Sonia Gandhi turned the job down.

China is set to use medicine strong enough to cool down its investment fever, but not so potent as to bring the economy to a standstill. Banks are at the forefront of this austerity campaign, acting on the orders of the central government to choke off credit supply to overheated sectors.

The Ukrainian and Russian parliaments ratified an agreement, at the end of April, to create a free-trade Unified Economic Area (UEA). The pact, tying the two fast-growing economies more closely together, has forged the European Union of the east.

Ireland continues to be a magnet for foreign banks conducting international business, and some are now targeting the domestic retail market. Michael Imeson reports from Dublin.

A new generation of directors, bankers, economists and politicians are determined that Portugal will be completely transformed, writes Peter Wise in Lisbon.

Portuguese banks have proved themselves buoyant in a challenging economic environment, diversifying and cost-cutting to achieve good results. Peter Wise reports.
Recession? What recession? Despite six successive quarters of economic downturn, Portuguese banks are achieving robust growth. Most of them outshone analysts’ forecasts by a wide margin in 2003 and several recorded their best annual results ever.

Millennium BCP is emerging from a spate of troubles that hit its share value hard. Focusing closely on core business has helped the turnaround.

Portuguese banks wanting to expand into foreign markets are still searching for the right locations and client bases for making competitive inroads.

Fernando Teixeira dos Santos, chairman of the Portuguese securities market commission, tells Peter Wise what the commission is doing to keep Portugal aligned with best international practices while allowing the market to develop.