Eurostat’s ruling that healthcare securitizations will be treated as on-balance-sheet debt has forced the Tesoro to concede that the country’s constitution actually prohibits them.

The Bank of England is planning to issue non-sterling medium-term debt to finance its foreign exchange reserves on an annual basis. The bank has mandated Barclays Capital, Citi, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan for the syndication. The first deal is likely to take place in the week of March 12: the Bank of England said, it will be a three-year US dollar transaction.

Status boosted by the February decisions of EBS to list it on its screens and of Euroclear to accept it as a settlement currency.

ABN Amro launched the third SME loan securitization under its Smile programme.

URBANE, INTELLIGENT, DYNAMIC and ambitious are just some of the qualities that characterize the up-and-coming generation of Turkish bankers who are driving the country’s banking sector towards a brighter, more prosperous future with all the power of the high-performance sports cars that adorn the car parks of the banking district in downtown Istanbul.

It’s best for investors to be cautious and not leap aboard a fad bandwagon.

Some dealers have already suffered from the widening of spreads on the ABX index. Will the problems spread?

In their rush to capitalize on infrastructure privatizations, lenders are pushing their risk criteria to the limit.

It might be cause for concern rather than enthusiasm when a hedge fund goes for a stock market listing.

Sberbank rights issue leaves the market dazed and confused.

In the month after populist leftist Rafael Correa took power in January, the market in Ecuador’s global bonds went crazy. Correa made noises about defaulting on Ecuador’s debt from the beginning of his presidential campaign, but bond traders generally discounted that rhetoric as political posturing, and Ecuador’s benchmark 2030 global bonds remained near par until after the inauguration.

Ruling on compensation to pension scheme members for failure or underfunding will have implications for regulation and bond markets across the EU, starting with the UK, writes Roger James.

One of Latin America’s most distinguished banking careers will come to an end this month. Eloy Garcia, treasurer at the Inter-American Development Bank, will leave the multilateral after its annual meeting in Guatemala at the end of March after 35 years’ service.

Is this the start of a new funding route for corporates?

Structured product providers aim to be all things to all people: risk reducers, alpha generators, beta replicators – you name the risk and return profile wanted and they will match it. However, some institutional investors remain distinctly wary of what is on offer.

Blackstone used a rapid-fire trading-style approach in its recent record-breaking LBO. But can we expect disasters comparable to those of the early 1990s?

Brazil specifically – not Latin America – is one of ABN Amro’s four core markets. And there’s every indication that the Dutch bank intends to keep things that way. Felix Salmon reports

Willy Zapata, Guatemala’s head of banking supervision, is not easily shaken. When Euromoney met him late in the evening recently, his offices were under siege from angry depositors in the second bank to collapse in as many months. Armed guards barred the gates.

The region’s rapid growth is changing the investment banking landscape beyond recognition as the fee pool grows. How are the major international firms tackling the opportunities, and which new products are creating the biggest buzz?

Row brews over sale of Japanese steel maker.

The huge growth in products and sophistication in global credit markets has been a boon for almost all participants – with one notable exception. Monoline insurers are contemplating a bleak future in the face of changing issuer and investor attitudes towards credit risk. Even their great hope – a return of risk with a turn of the credit cycle – might not be enough to save some of them. Louise Bowman reports.

International media coverage of the late-January elections in Serbia tended to lead on the fact that the ultra-nationalist Radical Party – headed by Vojislav Seselj who has been indicted by the international tribunal in The Hague – won the most votes in the poll. However, the more important and more comforting fact is that a coalition from what is known as the democratic bloc of parties will ultimately form the new government in the Balkan republic.

Turkey’s open-door approach to foreign investment is paying dividends, with international banks helping to boost balance sheets and widen the range of products and services in the sector. Guy Norton reports from Istanbul.

The shift in the balance of power in Citi’s debt group duplicates a trend seen in some other US investment banks.

The temperature in Moscow has plummeted to well below freezing in recent weeks but the battle to land the best available investment banking talent is raging white hot as firms snap up experienced personnel whom – they hope at least – will boost their share in one of the world’s most lucrative markets.

We are repeatedly told that financial markets are awash with liquidity. That is now less true and the ingenuity of modern finance means that liquidity is little more than a mirage.

A lack of comfort with the new product, and muted risk appetite for the asset class, resulted in thin market conditions for the newly launched ABX tranches – called TABX. The thunder of the much-anticipated start to TABX was stolen by the dramatic price falls in the ABX. Although the pace of innovation in the synthetic ABS sector has been nothing short of breathtaking – in a little over a year the market has developed indices, single-name CDS and now tranches – the latest innovation comes at a time when dealers’ view of the technology is far from clear-cut.

Central and eastern Europe used to be notorious for pollution-belching power stations and factories but the region could now be a key player in the fight against climate change through the use of renewable energy sources. That’s certainly the hope of Michael White, managing partner of EnerCap Capital Partners, whose EnerCap Power Fund is seeking to raise €100 million to invest in renewable energy projects.

M&A, privatizations and the emergence of a new group of investors have helped boost interest and liquidity in the Portuguese equity market. This is tempting some companies to raise capital on the stock exchange. However, some of the biggest potential deals from the government could go elsewhere. Peter Koh reports from Lisbon.