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March 2006

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LATEST ARTICLES

  • International cash management meets the global challenge
  • Bank of America gets the edge with its acquisition of Financial Labs.
  • Grupo Santander is often considered to be among the sharpest of borrowers, and it certainly has one of the biggest profiles. José Antonio Soler, who has run its funding operation for a year and a half, talks to Alex Chambers about the group’s quest for new pools of capital and its developing issuance strategy.
  • With the notable exception of Deutsche Bank, German investment banks’ performance has lagged their French peers for most of the decade. But the German sector is picking up on new market possibilities, with Commerzbank in particular looking to rebuild its business after a dramatic recovery. Philip Moore reports.
  • Brazil’s biggest private sector bank has announced the creation of a new subsidiary, Bradesco Investment Bank. This will focus on all aspects of the local and international capital markets business as well as asset management. Bradesco is a retail powerhouse but the bank’s CEO, Marcio Cypriano, is keen to take advantage of growing capital markets activity from Brazilian entities. Cypriano told Euromoney last year: “In general, we should be bigger and better in capital markets. That business should closely match Bradesco’s retail performance.” [See Euromoney December 2005, “Bradesco's plan of attack”.]
  • The Swiss bank is making determined efforts to grow its US private banking business.
  • Goldman Sachs might still be the firm to beat when it comes to global M&A but it has just lost the chairman of its European investment banking business, Claudio Costamagna, who will leave this month after 17 years at the firm.
  • Dollar bond with enhanced curve is a sign of bigger things to come.
  • The Iranian authorities’ recent granting of operating licences to two new private banks (Bank Sarmaye Daneshgah and Bank Pasargeda) suggests that the sector has a future, despite president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s apparent disdain for his predecessor’s reformist agenda.
  • Supply of both Islamic-compliant and conventional instruments has so far failed to keep up with the voracious levels of demand across the Middle East, but there are signs that product-starved investors might now begin to see a steadier flow, though far-reaching challenges remain. Kathryn Wells reports.
  • Fund managers' priorities for 2006
  • ESG
    Invest with female mutual fund managers to save on trading costs
  • FX heads aspire for gold in L’Etape du Tour bike race.
  • It’s not easy to see, but behind the trillions of dollars of FX trading a collision between new technology and traditional banking is changing the economics and mechanics of the business. So far, participants talk politely of cooperation.
  • A mixture of accounting issues, demographics, trends in the equity market and a sharp fall in bond yields has revealed the chasm between the assets and liabilities of pension funds in the UK, Europe and the US. Many will be unable to pay their pension promises in full. Most will be pushed into liability-driven investment strategies. But are they a real solution or an expensive act of desperation?
  • “We’ve made $100 billion of investments in the past few years. We have to be number one in every product, in every market. We have no choice. There’s no other way to go.”
  • Argentina’s debt default, devaluation and subsequent recovery is, along with Enron’s fall from grace, the biggest financial story of the decade.
  • “Citigroup should wipe the floor with everyone in credit derivatives. What happened?”
  • Synthetic bond is a precursor to bonds in Egyptian pounds.
  • Our December cover story, The problem with foreign exchange, has sparked debate about the structure of today's FX market. Responses to the feature are still arriving at the Euromoney office.
  • It hasn’t been the easiest of starts to 2006 for Citigroup in Asia, with continuing integration challenges at its Korean banking acquisition and difficult negotiations with existing and future partners over its China strategy [see Citigroup fails to solve the China conundrum, this issue]. Now Citi’s China strategy will need to be reconsidered after the departures of chief rainmakers Francis Leung and Wei Christianson.
  • Jollibee Bee, mascot, all dressed up to collect company's award for Best-managed consumer goods company in Asia.
  • The problems of open-ended real estate funds might pave the way for the rapid success of Reits.
  • Javier Lazaro has joined Credit Suisse as head of global markets solutions covering Spain and Portugal from Goldman Sachs’s leveraged finance group. He will report to Paul Raphael, head of European equity capital markets, and Marisa Drew and Craig Klaasmeyer, co-heads of European leveraged finance origination.
  • The number of Middle East-based hedge funds is set to increase. In January, Abu Dhabi headquartered First Gulf Bank launched the first hedge fund of significance in the region. The fund, Al Saqer (“the Falcon”), is a macro-strategy hedge fund and has a capitalization of Dh3 billion ($817 million).
  • Second-lien financings grew dramatically in 2005. Total US second-lien loan issuance alone amounted to more than $22 billion in 2005. In Europe, second-lien issuance totalled €5.75 billion in 2005, rising from €1.88 billion in 2004.
  • The Chicago Mercantile Exchange has launched a snowfall index. From the end of February, investors were able to trade snowfall futures and options based on snowfall in New York and Boston. “From municipal snow removal budgets to holiday retail sales, snowfall, or lack thereof, can have a major impact on local and regional economies,” says Scott Mathews, president of CTA WeatherEX. “Our clients will be able to hedge the expense or revenue side of the snowfall equation.” It will be a little too late for those affected by the snowstorms in New York in February. A record 27 inches of snow fell in 24 hours, costing the city an estimated $20 million.
  • As KPMG wins a $5.4 billion advisory mandate, are consultants stealing big deals from investment banks?