What does it take to be a pioneer in Corporate Social Responsibility?

There have been few signs of summer loving in the boardrooms of the bulge-bracket banks, with more and more senior executives being told by angered shareholders and directors "You’re the one that I (don’t) want" as post-sub-prime gloom spreads.

New regulations are always unpopular with bankers struggling to keep on top of increasing numbers of oversight and compliance rules. The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Mifid) is proving particularly unpopular with those working in the equity-linked structured note market, who say it is simplistic in its approach to derivatives-based investments.

Primary debt issuance out of Latin America is expected to pick up at the beginning of next year, according to bankers who work in the region.

Market remains open but substantial new-issue premiums return.

The withdrawal of liquidity that started in July has posed a challenge for the financial markets, not least credit investors. Solent Capital, a $7.4 billion credit asset manager, has experienced first hand what happens when markets dry up. Helen Avery reports.

The rapid uptake of exchange-traded structured notes in the US has got the country’s mutual fund industry on the offensive. Its trade association is lobbying Congress to change the tax laws to make the notes less attractive. But the structured products industry is fighting back. John Ferry reports.

The sub-prime mortgage market crisis in the US and the associated credit crunch has grabbed most of the headlines in the financial press in recent weeks but Investec Asset Management believes that the much less widely followed economic upturn in Africa merits greater attention in the light of recent global market volatility. Chris Derksen and Roelof Horne, managers of the Africa Funds at IAM and co-authors of a recent report – Why invest in Africa? – highlight the fact that Africa, far from being the investment basket case it was in the 1980s and 1990s, has experienced strong positive trends this decade, with GDP rising faster than the global average and growing free-market economic success.

Spain’s thriving cajas show the rest of Europe the way forward.

Rob Walker has become head of Africa debt capital markets at Standard Bank, South Africa’s biggest banking group. Head of DCM Africa is a newly created position, reflecting the bank’s decision to centralize its Africa DCM coverage in London. "The region deserves a focused approach," says Florian von Hartig, managing director and global DCM head at Standard Bank. Rob Walker moved to London from Gaborone, Botswana, where he led the DCM efforts of Stanbic, as Standard Bank’s branch network in Africa excluding South Africa is known. Also joining Standard Bank’s new London-based Africa DCM team are Gaelle Biteghe, previously a relationship manager at Citi’s corporate and investment banking arm, and Kojo Amoo-Gottfried, an analyst previously at RBS.

Citi has merged its equity capital markets and fixed-income capital markets divisions.

Rami Hayek has left his post as global head of equity and fixed-income investments at Deutsche Bank’s private wealth management group to join Credit Suisse. Hayek joins Omar Cordes in the role of co-head of Asia Pacific distribution for asset management, and will be based in Hong Kong.

Jackson Tai brought a determined pan-Asian strategy to Singapore’s DBS Bank. With Tai on the point of retiring as CEO, Chris Wright looks at the successes and failures of his approach.

Despite all the jawboning over the past few years about succession planning, banks seem woefully unprepared if they are forced to jettison a flailing chief executive because of cauldron-like shareholder pressure.

Foreign exchange history is littered with the corpses of institutions that have looked at the industry and then decided to enter the market and become significant players. Now the perceived wisdom is that it is harder than ever for someone new to break into even the top 20, let alone the top five.

Concerns about lack of transparency force regulator to make participants register directly.

DIC Asset Management – a wholly owned subsidiary of Dubai International Capital, the international investment arm of Dubai Holding; HSBC Bank Middle East; and Oasis International Leasing – has concluded the first close of its MENA Infrastructure Fund with commitments totalling $300 million.

After a pause prompted by US-inspired volatility in the global equity markets, Russian companies have resumed new-issue activity, helped by the belief that the strong economic environment in the country will help insulate it from the effects of the fallout from the US.

Next year a handful of top international banks might expand operations into Guatemala, according to analysts and bankers.

Without foreign institutional investors, Saudi Arabia’s equities market still has a long way to go before it can match the strength and sophistication of the Kingdom’s leading companies. But a more active foreign presence is expected. Dominic O’Neill reports from Riyadh and Jeddah.

A stream of new CLOs is hitting the market – but it is far from business as usual.

State-owned, cash-rich and increasingly influential, sovereign wealth funds have emerged as the most controversial players in the financial markets. All the constituents – banks, private equity, corporates, hedge funds – want a slice of their action. Just how powerful will the funds become? Sudip Roy reports.

A report commissioned by Deutsche Bank claims that the growth of 130:30 strategies will have a significant impact on the securities lending market. If the strategy attracts the forecast $2 trillion in assets over the next three years, an additional $600 billion in borrowed securities will be needed, says the report. It is hoped that the pressure on the market might transform the opaque and inefficient characteristics of securities lending.

The strong run of emerging markets equities looks set to continue.

Currency investment manager Record announced on November 9 plans to list on the London Stock Exchange, with the flotation scheduled to go ahead by the end of the month. The company, set up by former Bank of England economist Neil Record in 1983, was one of the first specialist currency investment management firms. Its decision to list on the London Stock Exchange is believed to be another first by an overlay manager.

Whether it’s Louis Hagen donning pom-poms and leading a Pfandbrief cheer or a University Challenge-style quiz during the lunch break, every conference needs its memorable moments.

It is one thing to want a sovereign wealth fund but to actually set one up is a long and challenging process, as countries such as Brazil are discovering. Key issues such as infrastructure, hiring people and asset allocation need to be addressed before the investing process can even be considered.

Goldman Sachs has appointed Beatrice Sánchez as regional manager for its private wealth management business in Latin America. She will join the US bank next spring from HSBC Private Bank. Sánchez will be based in Miami.

The London and Tokyo stock exchanges this November announced a joint venture to create a new junior market in Tokyo based on the LSE’s highly successful AIM model.

The Ibero-American summit in Santiago, Chile, on November 10 ended on a heated note after the Spanish king told Hugo Chávez, the president of Venezuela, to "shut up".