Delphi’s bankruptcy shows that many of the imbalances remain in global structured credit.

Brokerage firm Refco steals the headlines but Samsung faces major fine. South Korean electronics conglomerate Samsung has pleaded guilty to price-fixing in a far-reaching probe by the US Department of Justice and has been handed down the second-largest criminal fine ever

Intrigue surrounds FSA views of an HBOS tier 1 deal. And the future’s not Bright for the bank’s funding chief.

San Francisco likes to think of itself as the most liberal US city. Every May, for example, the famous Bay to Breakers race takes place.

South Africa’s Standard Bank is poised to buy Bank of America’s Argentina business, although an agreement is unlikely before the end of the year. Standard Bank is leading a group of buyers for BankBoston Argentina, including two wealthy Argentine families. The acquisition would consolidate Standard’s Argentine presence after it announced that it was also waiting for regulatory approval for its purchase of ING’s local unit. Bank of America’s decision to sell is another indication of its retreat from the region. Last year it sold its commercial banking unit in Panama and has also said that it intends to dispose of its businesses in Colombia and Peru. The bank has also announced that it is selling its asset management business in Mexico.

Kyrgyzstan’s central bank governor, Ulan Sarbanov, has been placed under house arrest in the course of a government investigation into funds he transferred to the previous president, Askar Akayev, in 1999.

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.

Equal opportunities mean that the City of London is no longer just a boozy boys’ club – and rightly so. But plying punters with alcohol and beautiful women is still a great way to promote your product, even in these politically correct days. Just ask Threadneedle Investments.

Hurricanes don’t just destroy cities: they can also destroy sovereign finances. Hurricane Ivan, for instance, wiped out so much of Grenada’s infrastructure in September 2004 that by the end of the year the country was in default on its debt. Things were not helped when Hurricane Emily struck Grenada in July.

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

Agency’s rating action places extra focus on bank’s securitization of first-loss positions.

“I have 18 proposals from different banks all offering the same type of deal. When you pile them one on top of the other they stand over a metre high. I am suffering from lead harassment”

At long last the first big refinancing of German multifamily residential units is starting to happen. The €1.55 billion Immeo Residential Finance is in effect a new asset class – multi-family residential. The underlying asset is a portfolio of 48,000 units in the Rhine-Ruhr region formerly owned by Thyssen Krupp purchased by Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund (MSREF) and Corpus. This will be the benchmark for other German multi-family real estate refinancings that will take place in the coming months.

Increasing numbers of pension funds in Europe are making the choice not to use hedge funds in the region since returns have dropped off.

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

Why CFOs should stop mistrusting hedge funds

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.

It’s good to see that the world’s leading finance ministers slum it on the same flights as us mere mortals to the IMF/World Bank meetings. For who should be on the Virgin flight from London Heathrow to Washington, DC, than UK chancellor Gordon Brown?

47 The percentage contribution of equity capital market revenues to overall capital market revenues at investment banks in the third quarter. The contribution of ECM revenue to overall capital market revenues rose from just 38% in the second quarter, according to Dealogic estimates. 79,400,000,000 The volume of Asia Pacific (ex-Japan) ECM deals in the first three months of 2005. The figure is the highest for the first nine months of a year on record.

Montgomery & Co is known for its M&A advisory services. Now, it's pushing into equity research, institutional sales and trading. It will offer specialist research in key areas for growth companies: medical devices, biotechnology, speciality pharmaceuticals, wireless technology, digital media technology and semiconductors.

Sovereign has shown it retains access to the capital markets despite political and economic woes.

Banco Central de Chile president Vittorio Corbo is arguably Latin America’s most respected central banker. He tells Euromoney how he is keeping a lid on the region’s biggest economic danger – inflation. Sudip Roy reports from Santiago.

During the IMF/World Bank meetings in Washington at the end of September, some of the leading names in global finance gathered at the Hay Adams Hotel to witness the presentation of Euromoney’s minister of finance and central bank governor of the year awards.

The bankruptcy highlights the CDO market’s continued inability to price in potential credit events.

Dismissing the official charged with setting up a debt agency sends the wrong signals at home and abroad.

Investors want growth and are impatient to get it. Bank CEOs are feeling the pressure, so expect more M&A activity.

Hybrid corporate bonds might be the new hot product of the Eurobond market but originators’ hopes for a deluge of new issues have not been fulfilled.

The sovereign should deepen its domestic market, not issue local-currency debt abroad

Sales of non-performing loan and real estate portfolios to foreign investors have stirred controversy in Germany, with the buyers being described by a senior politician as “a plague of locusts”. But the medium-term benefits could go beyond a much-needed injection of liquidity and balance sheet repair and provide a fresh impetus to the German economy.

CDP’s latest issue shows the benefits of looking beyond the usual suspects to banks that offer strong secondary market support and enhanced distribution.