Vincenzo Pelosi explains why pension funds are catching the swaps bug.

Chesapeake is first US energy issuer to target euro investors this decade.

What’s bad news for the hard-pressed bean counters at financial institutions across Europe trying to curb the exorbitant expenses claims of their equity capital market teams promises to be good news for AirAstana, the leading Kazakh airline that’s one of the candidates for a stock market listing in 2007.

In October the Province of Buenos Aires issued its first international bond since the sovereign’s default in December 2001. The placement’s success demonstrates how far Argentina has since come. Hernan Lorenzino, the province’s under-secretary of finance, tells Chloe Hayward about this bond issue and its impact for Argentina.

Another record year for financial institutions suggests no end to the boom in financial markets. But a correction in the global imbalances that have so far sustained the boom threatens economic growth and could have painful consequences for global capital markets. Are we on the cusp of a downturn?

Uncertainty and opportunity as the central Asian republic prepares a currency float.

In spite of all the takeover talk among major global exchanges, and the heavy consolidation in eastern Europe’s banking sector, not everyone believes that acquisitions are the only way to expand business in the region. Florian Neuhof talks to Heinrich Schaller, joint CEO of the Wiener Börse, who outlines his vision of cooperation with the developing regional exchanges.

Dresdner Bank’s EUR medium-risk portfolio is one of six risk profiles the bank runs for high-net-worth investors looking for a balanced portfolio and accepting exposure to global markets.

The expulsion of Citigroup Private Bank from Japan in 2004 was merely the most dramatic of a string of failures among foreign firms that have too often misread the attitudes of investors and regulators. Now, as Japan’s economic recovery creates new millionaires and wealthy baby boomers prepare to retire, several foreign firms are trying again to crack this difficult but lucrative market. Lawrence White went to Tokyo to ask their CEOs what it takes to succeed in private banking in Japan.

London-based exchange launches derivatives on LSE-listed Russian stocks.

Corporate treasury bears the brunt of regulatory and technological change, and those changes are accelerating. At the same time, demands for performance increase, and it’s the banks who have to deliver.

"We’ve reduced equity market exposure by 10% – from Asia, Europe and the UK – but still view equities as the best asset class."

Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch’s US dollar, low-risk portfolio caters to high-net-worth clients who want to preserve their money over the long term but are also looking for performance.

Roger James reports on why the market might finally be ready for takeoff.

Volume and profits in the FX market have grown more consistently than in any other part of the financial markets. New entrants and existing users still cannot resist the promise of diversification and excess return.

Another record year for financial institutions suggests no end to the boom in global financial markets. But they may be ignoring underlying economic conditions that threaten global growth and might cause a severe correction in the global capital markets, says Clive Horwood.

It is traditional around year-end for awards to be received for deeds performed during the previous 12 months. We hereby announce Euromoney magazine’s inaugural awards for high-quality press relations. We did not ask for submissions as we are constantly bombarded with incidents from which to choose.

The wonderful world of financial PR

Corporates need to recognize that they need to care about their CDS investors and that the old attitude of concentrating on the requirements of bondholders alone will no longer wash.

Has anyone seen this man?

“I’m afraid he says he is unable to speak with you at the moment.”

The best agency players make attractive acquisition targets.

It could be that the bank is simply too large, and only disposals can change the culture. But the recent changes are, to date at least, a missed opportunity.

One market segment – banks – has been noticeably absent from the glut of Russian companies rushing to undertake IPOs in recent years. Is there now a danger that, after the long wait for exposure to Russia’s banking sector, investors will be overburdened with supply? Kathryn Wells reports.

Rising intra-regional trade and investment are helping to underpin the economic fortunes of the states that formerly constituted Yugoslavia. Guy Norton takes a look at three examples of a stock exchange, a fund manager and private equity.

Southeastern Europe is experiencing a retail lending boom. Although this credit expansion is helping the region’s economies to grow, there is concern that it is putting pressure on banking systems. Sudip Roy explores the dimensions of that risk and weighs up what the authorities are doing to mitigate it.

Car parks that rival Monaco for the quality of the marques, apartment prices that rival those in New York, but a stock exchange capitalization of only $50 billion. That’s Almaty. Kazakhstan’s government hopes to develop its capital markets and create a financial centre there for all central Asia. The buildings are going up. Will there be enough tenants to fill them? Chloe Hayward reports from Almaty.

Alongside the announcement that it was raising its key interest rates by 25 basis points last month, the European Central Bank released the latest set of growth and inflation forecasts prepared jointly by the staff of the ECB and the euro area national central banks. ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet is always at pains to emphasize that these “projections” – which are shown as ranges, rather than point estimates, to reflect the uncertainties associated with past forecasting errors – are published on the responsibility of the staff and are not formally endorsed by the ECB’s executive board or its governing council.

January is the month to purge the excesses of Christmas and New Year from the system. Detoxing won’t be so easy for the markets.

The influence of investors in credit default swaps has conspicuously failed to match the growth of the market itself. But a recent restructuring could be the watershed moment that changes the credit markets for ever. Has the ground shifted beneath corporate issuers’ feet without them even noticing? Louise Bowman reports.

Traditionally seen as great for service, but second best in investment performance, private banks have been polishing up their act, investing in research and third-party products to diversify portfolios and win back market share in asset management from other financial service providers. FTSE PriBIL’s Private Banking Indices show that high-net-worth individuals should be taking private banks’ portfolio management more seriously. Plus we profile three of the banks that outperformed it. Helen Avery reports.

Farouk Ramzan has joined Lloyds TSB as head of debt origination reporting to Mark Grant, head of DCM. Ramzan was a long-standing member of SG’s debt team where he was head of UK corporate DCM.

Hundreds pushed out at Dresdner just ahead of bonus round.

Abuse of information prompts worries about integrity in credit markets.

Wealth managers are muscling in on the fund of hedge funds business.

Marina Bay Residences: Singapore’s “first Über Penthouse”

Is it really likely that DK will now be able to persuade better-quality individuals to join the firm? It might be struggling to retain the ones that are left.

The May-June 2006 markets crunch was a dress rehearsal for liquidity implosion. And, in an alarming trend, the Eurasian savings glut is increasing, sustaining Goldilocks short-term but aggravating the potential global demand deficiency. Charles Dumas argues that a hard landing followed by poor recovery is the natural consequence of the glut.

The looming pensions crisis means individuals will have to take more responsibility, work longer and begin to save. If the US goes from a nation of spenders to a nation of savers, as it must, what will the impact be for the global economy, asks Gabriel Stein.

China is the world’s largest-ever catch-up economy. It will soon be the world’s largest economy, period. But policymakers in Beijing face some tough choices in the years to come to cope with the strains that industrial revolution brings, writes Diana Choyleva.

Major errors of concept and execution in the Iraq war have weakened the US: a sharp lesson in the limits of what seemed like limitless power. Its allies have been discredited, its enemies strengthened. Its real or wannabe rivals, China and Russia, are new global power centres. Its sway in Latin America and Africa has been compromised. The new Asian regional powers must steer a careful course in a complex world.By Charles Dumas, Diana Choyleva and Gabriel Stein.

India’s recent rapid growth masks the fact that it still lags far behind China in terms of its economic development. Its catch-up potential remains huge, and its growth could be even faster. By Diana Choyleva and Maya Bhandari.

Europe’s economies are split in two: the surpluses of the centre and the north, versus the deficits of the UK, France, and the Mediterranean and accession countries. As the imbalances become exacerbated, Charles Dumas asks if there is a get-out clause for the continent’s likely downswing.

Is the post-Goldilocks crash inevitable? Charles Dumas looks at an alternative scenario, where the bubble refuses to burst.

Banks have been profiting from a rising tide of consumer borrowing. As increasing bank intermediation offers plenty of loan growth, a mismatch in assets and liabilities puts pressure on banks to come to the international capital markets and make use of more sophisticated funding. Florian Neuhof reports from Kiev.

After some considerable time in development, Eurex plans to launch the world’s first exchange traded credit derivatives contract on March 27. The contract will be based on the iTraxx Europe five year series and – dependent on market demand and sufficient market maker support – Eurex might also list futures contracts on the HiVol and Crossover indices on the same date. The contracts will be cash settled.

Activity remained high into mid-December after the majors finally broke free of their narrow ranges.

Surprise suggestion to take Stansted out of the regulated asset base.

Moody’s threw a potential spanner in the works of the European hybrid market by announcing a consultation on possibly increasing the notching on securities with non-cumulative deferral features and cumulative deferral with stock settlement. Feedback was due at the end of December.

The first of several credit derivative product company (CDPC) launches widely rumoured to be in the works emerged just before the year-end.

New FX indices have been separately launched by the International Index Company (IIC), the company behind the successful iBoxx bond and iTraxx credit derivative indices, and JPMorgan.

Two major state companies will be partly privatized and up to 10 private companies are expected to undertake initial public offerings in Colombia next year.

The acceptance by Qantas’s board of an A$11.1 billion (US$8.7 billion) bid for the Australian airline cements private equity’s place in the country’s mainstream, despite a growing sense of unease among the public and some thorny remarks from senior bankers.

Investment bankers in Japan are confident that a hybrid securities market will be established this year, despite fears that the lack of a sizeable standout deal thus far is contributing to investor and issuer caution about the structure. The sector was extremely active in the US as 2006 came to a close, with overwhelming levels of investor demand for deals from Axa and Washington Mutual, and bankers in Japan say that treasurers and CFOs there are looking closely at how their counterparts in the US use the instruments to fund acquisitions and improve capital structure.

Five years after the economic crisis, concerns emerge about overheating.

The southeast of the region could be the star performer in 2007.

At the start of December, Ford Motor Co grabbed a liquidity lifeline with its first ever secured loan facility. All manufacturing and auto assets, plus some or all of its subsidiaries, are included. The move structurally subordinates unsecured debt holders, particularly in FMC, prompting one-notch downgrades to triple Caa1 for FMC from Moody’s, and to B from Fitch and a two-notch move from S&P to CCC+. Ford Motor Credit remains in Single B territory.

18,000,000,000 the dollar volume of ECM deals that was expected to be executed in December 2006 in the EMEA region, according to Dealogic. $244 billion was raised in the first 11 months of the year, up 9% on full-year 2005, making the amount of money raised in ECM deals in 2006 the highest on record.

“Hedge funds have trailed equities on a relative basis in 2006 because of the unusually consistent strength in the equity markets”

Asia’s nascent market in structured growth capital is hard to define and even harder to resist. Fat margins and tied clients are bringing more entrants and might engender greater risks.