The governor of Sama has led the Saudi economy through a turbulent but ultimately prosperous period during an unprecedented term of almost 25 years.

Internal Revenue Service regulations that become effective in January next year are forcing US hedge fund managers to re-evaluate how they defer fees.

NBG, Greece’s largest bank, is doing well out of a domestic growth surge but has recognized the need to find the fastest-growing, most profitable parts of the market. The same strategy is being applied to its ambitious expansion programme abroad. Laurence Neville reports.

In the week of August 13 participants in the financial markets – credit traders, equity investors, heads of repo desks, hedge fund managers, risk controllers, originators and capital markets bankers, credit strategists, treasurers, chief financial officers – began to lose faith in the financial system itself. But why? What happened in this momentous week and how did it affect the financial global markets? Peter Lee was pounding the sidewalks of New York, sharing the bemusement of Wall Street.

Dramatic change ahead for quoting obligations and multiple trading platforms in sovereigns market.

When Deutsche Bank announced in August that it had retained former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan to provide insights and advice to the bank and its clients, competitors were quick to point out the irony.

Bank of London and the Middle East (BMLE) has advanced its bid to provide a bridge between southeast Asian and Middle Eastern Islamic finance. The bank, which became London’s second independent wholesale Islamic bank when it opened at the beginning of July, announced at the beginning of August that it had appointed a head of structured finance, Derek Weist. Weist comes to BMLE from ABC International Bank, where he was European head of Islamic banking and head of Islamic asset management. BMLE’s CEO, Humphrey Percy, says he hopes to expand their team from 35 to around 65 people over the next two years.

Jones Lang LaSalle, this year's winner of the Euromoney/Liquid real estate poll, is expanding with the global real estate markets. CEO Colin Dyer explains why a local feeling is important in a global market, and why sustainability makes business sense.

Private equity firms have a nice business flipping companies from one to another. But what happens when the music stops?

Funds of hedge funds with underlying managers that have gone sour are understating the losses they have incurred.

The banks look to be overstretching themselves in borrowing abroad to fund increasingly risky domestic lending.

Have policymakers sent the wrong signal to financial markets?

Germany’s banking system is in dire straits, and the answer could be a radical one.

But the flood is likely to be smaller than some bullish observers expect.

The problems in the SIV sector are not only the result of funding and mark-to-market distress, but also because of sloppy structuring in the first place.

Population-growth and climate trends point to the growing importance of agricultural commodity markets.

It’s not an impressive sight. Senior executives of leading financial firms have been castigating the media and investors for over-reacting to the US sub-prime mortgage crisis, insisting that their own firms remain sound and yet simultaneously pleading with the central banks to come and bail them out. It’s either a crisis or it’s not, guys. So which way do you want it?

Bankers with emerging markets backgrounds are taking most of the senior positions in their firms.

Man is the world’s largest hedge fund group, with more than $65 billion in assets. It also claims to be the greenest hedge fund. CEO Peter Clarke tells Helen Avery how alternative investment firms can offer the returns investors want and play a positive role in preventing climate change.

The IMF has mandated Publishing Technology, an AIM-listed provider of publishing-specific software solutions, to create an e-library, bringing all of the IMF’s resources online.

Hedge funds are in the news for all the wrong reasons. But strident calls for regulation are more than just wrong, they are downright dangerous. Financial markets need hedge funds more than ever.

In a further sign of the burgeoning geographic ambitions of companies from Kazakhstan, oil and gas firm KazMunaiGas (KMG) has bought a 75% stake in Romania’s Rompetrol Group.

It’s hard to empathize with the faceless investment bank and institutional investor victims of the sub-prime crash. What’s really needed is an individual whose story people can relate to.

Saudi Arabia’s 2004 Capital Markets Law has brought something of a fresh start to all investment banks in the kingdom, whatever their size. But most of the smaller new entrants are aware that they need to develop niche businesses in the face of competition from larger rivals. Nigel Dudley reports.

From Cuba to Zimbabwe, and from Iraq to Sudan, London-based securities firm Exotix has taken the esoteric markets label and made it its own. Following its recent split from parent company Icap, Exotix is turning away from its background in distressed debt and trading more and more assets from frontier markets. Dominic O’Neill reports.

Taiwan’s grandiose plan to create a big national financial holding company by the end of 2007 has left analysts on the island cold.

Sinan Al-Shabibi, governor of the Central Bank of Iraq, speaks to Sudip Roy about the bank’s efforts to control inflation, curb exchange rate instability and cope with the difficult security situation.

BGC, an inter-dealer brokerage firm, has bought Marex Financial’s emerging markets equity derivatives business for an undisclosed sum.

A case has been filed by investors in Bear Stearns’ two hedge funds that collapsed because of sub-prime losses. The case, filed in August, claims that the bank misrepresented the extent of the sub-prime exposure in the funds.

Global warming is the biggest issue facing society. Markets can play a crucial role in combating climate change. Banks see a huge opportunity to be agents for good – and make plenty of money in the process. How big can green finance become? Clive Horwood investigates.