FxPro is planning to list on the Alternative Investment Market in October

The event driven hedge fund strategy has fared well during the global financial crisis and, despite a difficult second quarter this year, looks set to continue outperforming other strategies

Custodians have always been serious about post-investment risks in local markets, but they need to use their knowledge and influence wisely.

As more investors wonder how fund managers are weighing environmental, social and corporate governance factors in their investment decisions, the evidence that these factors can positively impact performance is growing.

Fund managers seem to have a blind spot when it comes to Japan, despite some unique investment opportunities. Charles Beazley, president of Nikko Asset Management (Europe) sets out the case for Japanese equities.

A wave of regulation following the initial impact of the global financial crisis has targeted the alternative investment sector, and hedge funds in particular. The industry is mobilising to influence and deflect some of the measures. Caroline Allen reports

Dubai's magic property bubble has burst. Years of unrestrained building, imaginative marketing and audacious financial leverage finally distended it to popping point. Industry veterans claim they have seen it all before – indeed, that they have seen it all before in Dubai – and that the whole metro-desert fantasy was only ever based on impossible ambition and a high oil price.

While Dubai quickly captures the attention of most investors looking at the Middle East region, other financial centres are moving to build sustainable market frameworks that will support further investment activity. Caroline Allen talks to Kuwait's Coast Investment Company.

A discussion of the macro picture in FX markets was overseen by Paul Bednarczyk, currency strategist at consultants 4CAST, with David Simmonds, head of FX strategy at RBS, Simon Derrick, head of the currency strategy team at The Bank of New York Mellon and Luca Bindelli, currency economist at Morgan Stanley, participating

Investment banks affected by the subprime crisis are facing substantial reorganisation, and in some cases, divestment of some of their businesses. Capco consultants Richard Watrasiewicz and Mark Jenkinson examine how, for example, a wealth management entity might have to be hived off from an investment bank parent

The most striking feature of the subprime crisis is how the failure by cash-strapped house buyers in California to meet their mortgage payments could have had such far-reaching consequences.

The Global Investor survey of hedge funds and foreign exchange finds that the biggest investment banks have strengthened their grip on the sector, writes James Norris.

FX banks may need to rethink the way they manufacture and distribute liquidity, entailing benchmarking their trading and revenue capture from clients.

Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH) has attracted currency market veteran Win Thin to the bank's currency strategy team.

Wealth managers will need to take account of a changing client base to sustain business growth in coming years. Caroline Allen picks out some details from the latest report from Barclays Wealth Insight.

Barclays Global Investors created the first index strategy in 1971, pioneered the first quantitative active equity fund in 1978 and has long dominated the market in index tracking, more recently through its iShares exchange traded fund products. Caroline Allen examines how the firm is now moving to secure the middle ground of the risk spectrum, developing its range of so-called 120/20 or partial shorting 130/30 funds.

Clearing and settlement in Europe is a complex and fragmented environment. But it is clear from the panel of experts gathered by Global Investor that progress is being made to break down the barriers to the creation of an efficient, streamlined process and a level playing field. Representatives from Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, Citi, SEB and Equiduct met at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Paris to discuss what progress has been made and what challenges lie ahead.

With the recent FSA authorisation of currency hedging for multiple share classes, UK fund managers face further opportunities to expand the distribution of sterling based funds. Hugo Cox examines the operational challenges.

Merrill Lynch is the latest to replicate hedge fund returns, this time in FX, reports Nick Fitzpatrick.

No longer on the fringe of the 'socially responsible' investment world, climate change issues are having an increasing impact on the profitability of companies, and how investors value them. Lynn Strongin Dodds sees which sectors are most vulnerable to downgrading.

Ron Pressman is one of a vanishing breed – the lifetime employee. In June he marks 27 years at General Electric. He's a fitting choice to head GE Asset Management, says John Keefe.

Surplus liquidity from the Gulf is finding its way into the Middle East and Africa, finds Paul Allen.

Another month, another deal. Corporate lawyers must have become airborne at The Bank of New York in recent months. Not that its rivals have been idle, but BoNY (the acronym, forbidden within the bank, still sticks in the market) has had a white-hot year of corporate activity. Caroline Allen looks at recent deals.

Baillie Gifford is one of Scotland's most respected investment managers, which has grown to over £44 billion of assets under management without ever leaving its Edinburgh base. It has not departed significantly from its equity focus and still sees plenty of opportunities in this sector, by providing overseas diversification for clients. Alex Callander, CEO, speaks to Nick Fitzpatrick.

In an increasingly competitive landscape, wealth managers are facing the possibility of losing clients to rivals unless they improve in several key areas. Shahnaz Mahmud reports.

Best execution is a concern for most fixed income managers. MiFID and other regulatory initiatives are causing managers to take another look at the way they operate in order to ensure that they work to their clients' best advantage. Will Goodhart interviews three leading fixed income managers to learn more about the ways that they manage and evaluate their trading performance.

Institutional selection criteria will continue to drive not only hedge fund compliance, but also the evolution and professionalisation of the hedge fund industry as a whole, argues John Webster of Greenwich Associates.

How do today's industry leaders see the next 20 years shaping up? Global Investor spoke to top CEOs in the US, UK and Continental Europe about the challenges facing asset managers in the coming decades. Here we present a selection of their responses on profitability and change.

One of the biggest changes for asset managers in the last five years has been increased regulatory scrutiny and greater compliance pressures. How will this impact the industry in the next decade?

Asset managers are appointing chief risk officers in response to increasing complexity and the breadth of competition in the market. But just how do CROs add to a company's bottom line? Keith Lovett of Insight Investment reports on how effective risk management will be a key differentiator.

This quarter Nick Fitzpatrick assesses data that suggest custodians are selecting which of their clients receive the best and worst rates on FX transactions

Few industries can claim to have seen as much growth as hedge funds can. The development of the hedge fund industry has led to a greater reliance on prime brokerage capabilities, and in the FX world, this is no different. Alternatives brings together people from both sides of the business to look at developments in FX, and to ask what impact FX has on hedge funds.

Foreign exchange trading volumes increased in 2005 thanks to a considerable boost from fund managers, pension funds and non-traditional FX traders like the so-called "aggregators" that facilitate retail trading, but the market could not maintain the 25% growth rate set in 2004.

Investment managers still have scaleability issues in their performance departments. This is despite increasing investment in new systems over the past few years, according to a new Performance & Risk Survey conducted by Investit, the investment management consultancy.

A CULTURE OF TRANSPARENCY What information do fund managers need to disclose to their clients about how their portfolios are managed? CFA's John Barrass reports on an issue troubling regulators.

This article appears courtesy of Global Investor.

In 2004, the Société Générale Group created a new division, Global Investment Management and Services (GIMS) to seek out synergies between asset management, private banking and securities services. Shahnaz Mahmud explores how successful the French bank has been at identifying these connections and the impact on SGAM.

Faced with the declining profitability of traditional fixed income, asset managers have sought to beef up their credit teams to enable them to compete in the higher margin world of credit derivatives. But just how well do asset managers know these instruments, and are pension funds aware of the risks? Claire Milhench talks to some of the leading participants in the market and assesses the benefits and dangers of using these complex instruments.

Hedge funds are squaring up to the fact that the next phase of their development will be more difficult, due to capacity shortages and low returns. In the second in a new series of articles based on the latest global research study carried out jointly by Create and KPMG, Prof Amin Rajan and Tom Brown examine the prospects for the hedge fund sector.

Infrastructure equity has been big in Australia and Canada for a while, admired for its low risk, long-duration appeal. However, the sector's early success has led to a flood of new entrants, who are already driving down returns – and more are on the way. Is the market over-sold before it has properly begun? Claire Milhench reports.