Fresh from big spending on China’s state lenders, global banks are lining up to buy into its securities industry.

BNP Paribas has filled its global head of securitization post. Former Morgan Stanley securitization syndicate and trading head Tim Drayson joined last month. Drayson left Stanley after 10 years in March and joins at a time when BNPP has advertised its intention to grow its securitization business.

Saudi and Qatari banks launch new investment products. National Commercial Bank has become only the second Saudi Arabian financial services provider to launch a Shariah-compliant mutual fund that will invest in the countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council.

“You ask a hedge fund manager how quickly can they do a deal. And they reply: ‘Is tomorrow quick enough?’”

Arab banks have sustained the recovery that began in 2002, with Gulf institutions in the forefront. Morris Helal reports. Research provided by Capital Intelligence.

Fears of oversupply fade in Europe.

Why CFOs should stop mistrusting hedge funds

Global M&A volumes are heading back up to levels not seen since 2000. This should give investors pause for thought: 2000 was, after all, a year of excess. Although the market is very different today, some things never change. Peter Koh reports.

In 2005, while issuers, underwriters, rating agencies and regulators have still been grappling with the question of covered bond identity, investor concerns have been more basic – spreads, yields, and the arrival of new investors. Mark Brown reports.

The European Union is introducing the first uniform covered bond legislation. The long-term effects could be beneficial, but some issuers still point to discrepancies between countries that could stifle the development of a cross-border European mortgage funding market. Mark Brown reports.

In the first of a series of articles, Euromoney examines the status of pension reform in two countries at the extremes of Asia’s pensions revolution, Taiwan and the Philippines. We ask the authorities charged with pension reform in these economies about plans and progress, challenges and expectations.

Zhou Xiao Chuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, tells Sudip Roy why the renminbi was revalued and what financial reforms are next on the agenda.

Hedge funds are overflowing with money, and margins on traditional strategies are shrinking. One solution to their search for returns is to offer their services to companies in need of financing. Some are nervous about taking up the opportunities but others are discovering just how useful these new financiers can be.

New US bankruptcy laws that came into effect in October will alter the way companies go through restructuring and might make it harder to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In addition the ability of companies to manage their own reorganization will be affected – giving creditors more say after a few months.

Airline is courting controversy with creditors after abandoning leased aircraft.

One of southeast Asia’s top finance officials says that the region must continue to harmonize if it is to stave off the threat of growing competition from China and other north Asian economies.

New loan programme re-establishes relations.

Leading presidential candidate promises orthodox finances.

Investors are offered first subordinated bond issue by a Middle Eastern financial institution, lead managed by Deutsche Bank and UBS.

Erste Bank launches The New Europe Blue Chip Index, covering the largest C&E European stocks traded on the Vienna stock exchange.

Germany is the new battleground for French banks, it seems, with BNP Paribas and Société Générale both making hires. BNPP has hired Menko Jaekel from Citigroup’s Frankfurt office for its DCM financial institutions group’s coverage of Austria and Germany. He reports to Razi Amin and Anthony Fane, co-heads of DCM FIG Europe. The move is the latest in a series of appointments that the bank has made in an effort to grow its covered bond business. In structured products and derivatives it appointed Ralph Heinig and Marc Steiner for the same region.

Just days after Refco announced what it termed “significant volume increases on its professional and institutional FX trading platform, FX ProTrader”, activity on the platform ground to a complete halt.

Three monoline insurers were used to credit wrap Scotia Gas Networks’ £2.22 billion ($3.9 billion) bond sale via sole arranger Barclays Capital, and lead managers Citibank, RBS and DrKW in October. This deal refinanced acquisition loans extended for the purchase of the Scotland Gas Networks and Southern Gas Networks from National Grid Transco in June (five out of nine networks were also sold). Although investors are hungry for stable investment-grade credit (BBB in this case), the lack of financial history – a requirement for an exchange listing – meant that arranger Barclays was required to bring in the monolines – Ambac, FSA and XL Capital. The structure was sliced into 11 tranches and sold to a wide variety of investors (euro and sterling, fixed, floating and index linked). SGN is owned by Scottish and Southern Energy (50%), Ontario Teachers (25%) and Borealis Infrastructure (25%).

Harvard University’s endowment fund has appointed as its head emerging-market legend and one-time candidate as IMF head Mohamed El-Erian. Formerly, El-Erian was running $30 billion in funds at bond investment manager Pimco. He takes over from Jack Meyer who, following complaints about his large compensation package decided to leave with some of his team to run a hedge fund. Meyer is likely to make a success of the new venture given that he has built up Harvard’s fund from $4.7 billion in 1990 to its present $25.9 billion.

Many investors fear October because it is associated with a number of market crashes. But according to research from ADVFN, a pan-European equity markets website, it is actually quite a good month for equities.

As the world awakes to the possibility of a bird-flu pandemic, analysts at CLSA have assessed the economic implications for Asia of an outbreak. CLSA has compiled an index of relative economic risk based on healthcare expenditures per capita, tourist arrivals per capita and total trade as a proportion of GDP. The results might surprise most readers. Based on these three measures, Hong Kong and Singapore emerge as the economies most at risk, followed by China, Malaysia and Thailand. Despite high spending on healthcare, both Hong Kong and Singapore remain highly exposed to the economic fallout from a pandemic by dint of their high dependence on international trade. Each country also has tourist arrivals roughly twice its population.

China’s inefficient economy is under threat because its capital costs are set to rise, but it is as likely to falter because US consumerism hits the wall. And there are signs that American profligacy cannot be sustained much longer

Wealth management arm put on course to “grow by multiples”. The appointment of Thomas Kalaris as chief executive of Barclays Wealth Management signals the start of a rapid build-up.

Two unconnected events in the Byzantine world of Japanese banking indicate some progress, albeit slow, in the reform of this troubled sector.

Turkey looks set to be the next great EU convergence play. Now foreign banks want a piece of the aciton. But the owners of the country's financial institutions are seeking to form strategic partnerships rather than relinquish ultimate control. Kathryn Wells reports.