The landscape of the Italian banking market has been completely redrawn over the past 12 months but consolidation remains work in progress.

First Fiji, now the Seychelles. Suddenly, all those long hours that originators spend on planes en route to visit potential clients seem less tedious.

Although benchmarking has a part to play in some areas, there is no single approach to best execution that suits all markets.

“A private equity play in China is exactly that – a private equity play. The price may go up or down, but that’s not a China strategy”

“When you talk about leasing, everyone thinks you’re talking about cars. My mother-in-law thinks I sell cars for a living”

The gap between the top two and their closest rivals continues to increase, according to results from our recent survey on international cash management.

Barclays Capital has identified a budding mortgage-backed securities market as one of the key reasons for its decision to open an investment banking and broker-dealer business in Mexico. The UK bank started operations in Mexico last month with $100 million in capital. Barcap also hopes to take advantage of the fast-growing local capital markets, as more companies seek to raise money through high-yielding peso-denominated bonds.

In the article in the September issue of Euromoney entitled, "How

More evidence of the chronic staff shortages still faced by Asia’s private banks came in September with news that UBS, the largest private bank in the region, has resorted to constructing its own purpose-built training facility for new recruits and existing staff to cater for the demands of its burgeoning Asia wealth management business.

While the current stage in the leverage cycle benefits corporate borrowers, concern has been raised about the protection that bondholders receive against declining ratings and event risk. Does good corporate governance have anything to offer this set of stakeholders, and should it have? Florian Neuhof reports.

There has been no relief from the pressures that last year’s annual cash management poll detected: globalization, declining margins and intensified competition. Smaller banks face a choice between expanding to compete or forming difficult-to-implement partnerships. Some might soon begin to question whether all the effort is worthwhile. Lawrence White reports.

More than 8,000 hedge funds are now registered in the Cayman Islands.

Eurozone countries are continuing to boost productivity vis-à-vis that in the US; consequently European equities are outperforming American ones.

Investigations into the backdating of stock options has caused around half of the more than 100 companies under scrutiny by the SEC and/or the Department of Justice to miss deadlines for filing earnings. More are likely to follow, says Todd Fernandez, senior analyst at independent institutional research firm Glass Lewis & Co.

RAB's recent acquisition is second in two years.

The man behind Man Group is to step down from his role of CEO.

Benefit of hedge fund ratings to investors is questionable.

Further regulation on delivery needed, says consultant.

The debt burden is a growing worry, not least because many of those that invest in the debt market’s increasingly ingeniously packaged instruments are themselves heavily leveraged.

The postponement because of rain of the annual charity hedge fund polo tournament in Darien, Connecticut, meant a few key players were unable to make it, but it didn’t stop play altogether.

Buzz over US continues, but Europe still getting its act together.

There have been plenty of compelling reasons to go short credit as an asset class this year. Investment-grade corporates are under threat from leveraged takeover by huge private equity funds; at the lower end of the credit spectrum, the easy availability of cheap credit even to risky B-rated borrowers has stretched leverage ratios to unsustainable levels.

Over the years ABN Amro has suffered a series of setbacks. But Niall Cameron argues that internal noise over organization charts has died down and the focus is on the business.

The possibility that the long end of the US yield curve might continue to invert has supported long-end issuance from international sovereign and supranational issuers.

Taking the successful US CRE CDO model and simply applying it to the European CMBS market is unlikely to work.

Investors get fat yields as rating agencies seek extra credit enhancement.

Italian regional authorities’ healthcare securitizations are under threat following the ratings of Lazio, Campania and Abruzzo being placed on negative watch by Standard & Poor’s. Threats to the accounting treatment given by Eurostat and also domestic authorities point to the regions’ healthcare securitizations being classed as debt. This gave S&P the jitters over how they would continue to fund their healthcare deficits.

In contrast to the US, where supply is lacklustre and only just ahead of 2005 volumes, it will be a hectic last quarter in the European securitization market. Last year in November the market saw an incredible supply of €60 billion. Bankers expect that number to be easily matched this time around and maybe even surpassed. In fact 2006 total issuance is already 20% ahead of last year. In addition to jumbo UK RMBS, which is forecast by syndicate officials to figure highly, balance sheet CLO issuance from the likes of RBS, HSBC, Barclays and ABN is also said to be lined up.

Australia is going ahead with a scaled-down sale of its Telstra holdings. But tension persists between the telecom operator and the government.

Stocks traded on emerging market stock exchanges now account for 16% of global equities, according to Standard & Poor’s. However, despite these stocks’ growing weight and in many cases improvements in transparency and corporate governance, investors remain fickle. According to data from Emerging Portfolio Fund Research, a fund flows tracker, investors pulled $15 billion from emerging market stocks between mid-May and mid-September, reducing the year-to-date cumulative inflow to $17 billion.

Although NYSE member firms that conduct business with the public reported second-quarter 2006 after-tax profits of $2.95 billion and revenues of $78.64 billion, up from $1.13 billion and $53.32 billion in the second quarter of 2005, specialists reported a fall in both after tax profit and revenue. For the second quarter of 2006, NYSE specialists reported after-tax profit of just $26 million. During the same period in 2005, the specialists reported an after-tax profit of $33 million. Total specialist revenue in Q2 of 2006 was $215 million, compared with $220 million in Q2 of 2005.

Markets used to move at the hint of change in the political landscape. These days, surprise election results seem to have little or no impact.

Graduation day might be approaching for some of the larger companies listed on London’s AIM (Alternative Investment Market) but the sheer volume of competitors means some might not make the cut.

52,300,000,000 funds raised in IPOs in dollars in the Emea region so far this year. That’s 60% up on funds raised over the same period in 2005.

Arab Bank has bought a 50% stake in Turkey’s MNG Bank, as part of its expansion plans. MNG Bank was established in 1991, and offers retail banking and capital markets services through 11 branches across Turkey.

As summer draws to a close, bankers and investors are gearing up for the rush of new bond issues that traditionally hits the market in the last quarter. In the emerging markets it’s little different. The pipeline of deals out of Russia is strong, Asia is witnessing one of its busiest times of the year and Latin American issuance should pick up now that Brazil’s election is out of the way. Even in the Middle East, corporates are beginning to appreciate the benefits of the capital markets.

More than two years after the enlargement of the European Union, many large equity investors remain convinced that the combined equity markets of central and eastern Europe are too small for them to invest in, despite a combined equity market capitalization of €211 billion at the end of 2005.

Hedge fund rating is a noble goal but Moody’s and S&P’s approaches fail to fill the bill.

The return of hard underwriting on recent bond deals underscores how mundane and risk-free the business had become.

"The bosses of Europe’s big three stock exchanges, the LSE, Deutsche Börse and Euronext, deserve to have their heads knocked together. They appear to have let their egos get in the way of getting together and forming a genuine European powerhouse."

Sovereign liability management exercises continued apace last month in the region, with Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay executing either debt swaps or local-currency deals. Strong market conditions are encouraging sovereigns to clean up their yield curves or reduce their foreign exchange exposure in favour of local currency. Brazil issued a R$1.6 billion ($750 million) global bond denominated in reais. It was the sovereign’s second such deal. Colombia followed with a $1 billion offering of 2037s. Part of the proceeds will be used to buy back up to $700 million of global bonds. Finally, Uruguay entered the market with a $400 million-equivalent inflation-indexed peso bond.

Government’s attempt to develop venture capital industry lack clarity.

“Nobody should be scared of socialism, it’s about equality”

From a research note entitled The largest OTC exchange

FXMarketSpace has made four senior appointments as it gears up for its launch in 2007. Two of the appointments, Jane Forster and Dan Rosenberg, have been lured from rival EBS. Yigal Oren moves over from Reuters, FXMarketSpace’s 50% owner, and Debra Rabichow comes from futures commission merchant Goldenberg, Heymer & Co.

Appointment expected to renew exchange’s focus on stagnant volumes in options contracts.

Polish private equity firm Enterprise Investors has closed its most recent fund, Polish Enterprise Fund VI, at €658 million, making it the largest ever fund raised for central and eastern Europe.

As a consequence of Merrill Lynch’s revolving door policy in FX, Steve Kemp has resigned from the Foreign Exchange Committee. Kemp, just one of the many global FX heads Merrill has had over the past decade, left the bank this summer. Merrill has had few representatives on the Federal Exchange Bank of New York-sponsored committee, which is seen as a prestigious role in the market. Members have to be invited on and there is no guarantee that Merrill will get to sit at the top table again.

Europe’s supranational and agency borrowers are becoming ever bigger issuers in the international capital markets even as their historical missions appear to have been met and the banking and financial market to have matured enough to finance at commercial rates most of the lending risks the agencies assume. The debate as to whether these subsidized institutions distort or complement the capital markets continues unabated, as private lenders submit to capital adequacy directives that do not extend to the agencies. Alex Chambers reports.

Central bank governor emphasizes the resilience of the financial system at a time of crisis.

Do superheroes need financial advice, and if so, how do you go about giving it?

Losses from trader error in December should have been reversible, securities house claims.

Leading US private equity firm Darby Overseas Investments is poised to begin pre-marketing on a global emerging markets fund that will have a heavy focus on Asian investments.

Most investors want to invest in the best companies; Asia is no exception to this. The region’s best-managed companies are a diverse bunch but have some crucial characteristics in common. Chris Leahy reports.

Mexico broke ground this year with a $160 million, three-year catastrophe bond to cover an earthquake disaster, the first developing country to do so. With the success of that issue, Mexico’s finance ministry is now considering issuing against hurricanes and intense rains that cause flooding. As Mexico recovers from the devastation brought by Hurricane John in September and scientists warn of ever-more severe weather because of global warming, the need to protect against such disasters is clearly urgent. According to José Antonio González Anaya, the finance ministry’s insurance chief, bonds issued by the hurricane-prone US state of Florida could serve as a model for Mexico. Those bonds generally pay more interest than corporate bonds with the same rating and need a category 5 hurricane directly hitting a city to trigger them. The finance ministry says that ideally Mexico would issue a cat bond against hurricanes before president Vicente Fox ends his term in December. Even if that goal is not met, president-elect Felipe Calderón is expected to follow a similar, pro-market economic policy and Mexico’s cat bond issuance is forecast to continue. “What’s important is to find innovative insurance schemes to protect our natural disaster fund and our public finances,” González Anaya says, adding that the bonds give the government immediate access to funds should disaster strike. He adds that Mexico went ahead with the earthquake bond first because although hurricanes are far more frequent than earthquakes, an earthquake’s intensity is easier to measure and easier to insure against. Heavy rains are even more complex disasters because risk levels must take into account the probability of mudslides and other rain-related disasters.

Grupo TMM, a Mexican transport and logistics company, is launching a $200 million securitization that will replace bonds that are relics of its troubled past. Juan Fernández, TMM’s CFO, tells Lawrence White how the firm stayed afloat and what he plans for the future.

RBS has astonished the securitization market this year with a remarkable pace of issuance. Shortly after the bank issued £11.25 billion-worth of RMBS paper in just three months, director of capital management and securitization Ron Huggett explained the bank’s new thinking to Louise Bowman.

One hedge fund blew up and lost a reported $400 million after getting caught short. The other lost $4.5 billion after finding itself long and wrong. At first glance, the only connection the two companies have is that both were hedge funds, and both were punting in the highly volatile natural gas market.

For 11 months the European Central Bank has been engaged in a gradual tightening of monetary policy or, to use the more nuanced language of ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet, a “progressive withdrawal of monetary accommodation”. The financial markets and commentators have learnt to read quite accurately the code words – such as “strong vigilance”, “vigilance”, “continuing to monitor closely” – used by the ECB to signal what its next move is likely to be.

Vallimarescu eyes opportunities in local markets.

Qatari bank aims to become world’s largest Islamic player after IPO.

Islamic investment and finance company Investment Dar will increasingly look to the sukuk market to meet its funding needs, according to its chairman and managing director, Adnan Al-Musallam, because of limited opportunities for bank finance in Kuwait.

Corporates are under pressure from shareholders and private equity bidders to leverage up to boost returns. The danger is that they submit just as the economy slows. Some riskier companies are already overstretched. As the debate over the optimal corporate capital structure grows more rancorous, the good news is that most corporates are starting to pile up debt on very strong balance sheets.

Michael Walsh of hedge fund Kilkenny Capital Management talks to Helen Avery about the fund’s melding of information about medical innovators’ development and sales processes with finance theory to assess biotechs’ future value.

A growing number of large leveraged acquisitions are being refinanced in the corporate securitization market. Sponsors are seizing on the competitive pricing compared to traditional leveraged loans to squeeze more leverage and higher values into their bids. It’s a growth market, but the technique only works for certain companies Louise Bowman reports.

Czech financial group PPF Group has bought three banks in Ukraine – PrivatInvest, PrivatKredit and Bank Agrobank – paying $18 million for the PrivatInvest acquisition.

Enormous energy is going into the creation of new Shariah-compliant finance structures for eager Middle Eastern corporates to fund themselves by appealing to Islamic investors and their growing pool of money. Every market participant expects the surging Islamic finance sector to keep on growing fast. But a key element is missing. Secondary trading in these instruments is severely limited. Sudip Roy suggests that for the recent increase in primary market activity to be sustainable, more attention needs to be devoted to trading infrastructure.

A management buyout, a large merger, an IPO, regional acquisitions and investment by Europe’s largest pharmaceuticals player – the past eight years have been anything but dull for the Czech Republic’s Zentiva. Company CFO Petr Sulc talks to Kathryn Wells about the challenges the company has faced and how it plans to finance further growth.

JPMorgan Cazenove has moved quickly to replace David Sismey, who left for Goldman Sachs in August with Chris Babington, who has worked at Deutsche Bank for three years. He is an experienced FIG originator, previously at BNP Paribas and Paribas before the merger. He joins JPMorgan Cazenove as a director reporting to John Mayne, head of debt capital markets. He will look after northern Europe, with a particular focus on the UK. “We are pleased to have Babington joining us. Clients like him and we were very fortunate that he was looking for a change,” says Mayne.

IMF: Singapore welcomes the right sort of people

Hope Pascucci has resigned as joint global head of global capital markets at Deutsche Bank after six months in the role, to spend more time with her family. She has moved to Boston with her children and husband, Mike Pascucci, who retired from Merrill Lynch last year where he was head of credit trading. She was previously global head of debt capital markets and before that European head of DCM and global head of syndicate. Having joined Deutsche in 2000 and spearheaded the bank’s rise up the debt league tables, Pascucci is one of the best-known figures in the euro market. Thomas Gahan is the new sole head of GCM. He reports to Anshu Jain and Michael Cohrs, joint heads of the investment bank. Pascucci’s effective replacement is Ivor Dunbar, the new head of global capital markets, Europe and Asia, and he will run regionally debt, equity origination and syndication. He also continues to run global markets Europe. Pascucci’s former co-head, Richard Byrne, will now be head of GCM Americas.

As credit research is increasingly geared towards short-term trading ideas rather than fundamentals, there could be a dangerous dearth of information when defaults begin to rise.

Zar Amrolia has been appointed global head of foreign exchange at Deutsche Bank. His promotion is one of a number of senior-level changes at the bank. Amrolia replaces Jim Turley, who had the wider role of head of global currencies and commodities. In turn, Turley has moved to become global head of the institutional client group, replacing Brian Reid, who is taking a sabbatical after 21 years in the industry. Sources say that Reid intends to return to Deutsche in 2007. Someone familiar with Deutsche’s structure described Turley’s new role as “huge”. He will have global responsibility for the bank’s institutional investors and hedge funds.

* Harry Culham update: 6 February 2008

The index begins trading under a cloud after a data management firm said it intended to sue FTSE/Xinhua Index for breach of contract.

Bavarian structured finance banker's national dress accidently arrives in suitcase packed for glittering awards do

Likelihood of “ratings shopping” by borrowers/dealers increases.

Higher underlying ratings will change the economics of the pub securitization market.

Leasing is one of the hidden jewels of European banking. Its use by balance-sheet-constrained large private companies, credit-constrained small and medium-size enterprises and indebted public sector entities, including municipalities and local authorities, is growing rapidly. Europe is fast surpassing the US as the largest market for leases as more and more borrowers see the advantages compared with traditional loans. Peter Koh finds that banks are delighted and selling the product busily through their branch networks.

A liberalization of the mortgage market in Argentina could lead to a rise in securitizations and the creation of the country’s equivalent of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Hedge funds are the new financiers to the movie industry, attracted by the potential returns on diverse portfolios of movies especially from DVD sales. Hollywood has a bad reputation for parting star-struck investors from their cash. So the hedge fund managers will need to stay sharp and structure their investments carefully. Helen Avery reports.

Barclays Capital has decided to add algorithmic trading functionality to the front end of its Barx foreign exchange trading platform. The bank made its PowerFill service available to clients on its graphical user interface (GUI) on September 18.

The British Bankers’ Association’s Credit Derivatives Report 2005/06 was unveiled at the BBA’s third annual credit derivative conference held in London on September 21. In 2004 the BBA survey predicted that the global credit derivative market in 2006 would be $8.2 trillion but it is actually $20.2 trillion.