What does it take to be a pioneer in Corporate Social Responsibility?

Watch out Standard Chartered: a potential competitor might have been born. London-based investment bank Medicap, 100% owned by BMCE, a Moroccan bank, launched in November, and intends to focus on one of Standard Chartered’s specialities: Africa.

Deutsche Bank has hired Dierk Reuter as its new global head of e-commerce and algorithmic trading. Reuter was previously a managing director at Goldman Sachs in its equity algo business, although he also has extensive knowledge of FX. He was seconded to FXall by Goldman Sachs as its original chief technology officer when the multi-bank portal launched.

Next year a handful of top international banks might expand operations into Guatemala, according to analysts and bankers.

Infrastructure investment is not without risk. Even the US has found this; the collapse of a bridge in Minneapolis in August led to the realization that much of the country’s ageing infrastructure needs refurbishment. But flows of new money bring their own problems. Investment skills and experience remain the pre-eminent qualities required to succeed.

It is one thing to want a sovereign wealth fund but to actually set one up is a long and challenging process, as countries such as Brazil are discovering. Key issues such as infrastructure, hiring people and asset allocation need to be addressed before the investing process can even be considered.

Foreign exchange history is littered with the corpses of institutions that have looked at the industry and then decided to enter the market and become significant players. Now the perceived wisdom is that it is harder than ever for someone new to break into even the top 20, let alone the top five.

After months of silence and little sign of progress, Project Turquoise, an initiative started by a consortium of seven leading investment banks to create a pan-European multilateral trading facility, has started to take some concrete steps and gain credibility.

The proliferation of sovereign wealth funds is an opportunity and challenge for investment banks and asset managers.

With the dollar in seeming free fall, the Gulf Cooperation Council is set to discuss the wisdom of keeping its member states’ currencies pegged to the ailing currency.

The Brazilian National Development Bank (BNDES), is fishing for extra funds after recalculating its plans and projecting that it will lend as much as 15% more than expected for the 2008-11 period, as it seeks to step up its investments in infrastructure. BNDES president Luciano Coutinho has been talking about growth of 10% in lending for infrastructure projects, focused on energy, communications, railways, ports, and water and sanitation. The bank has already announced that it needs an extra R$25 billion ($14 billion) for next year, prompting speculation about how the money will be found.

Japan’s Nomura booked a ¥73 billion ($621 million) loss from its residential mortgage-backed securities unit as the company announced its exit from the US RMBS market. The bank described the move as part of a general reduction in its US activities that will cut the number of employees by 400 to 900. Although the loss is small in comparison with the billion-dollar losses at some American banks, it is the largest yet reported by a major Japanese institution as a result of the sub-prime problem. In a statement, Nomura president and CEO Nobuyuki Koga acknowledged "disappointing results" in the US RMBS market but said that the bank had "moved decisively to deal with the issue and had avoided further and protracted losses by taking firm and immediate action".

Goldman Sachs has appointed Beatrice Sánchez as regional manager for its private wealth management business in Latin America. She will join the US bank next spring from HSBC Private Bank. Sánchez will be based in Miami.

Spotted in India: Goldman Sachs’s chairman and CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, enjoying the festivities at a party in New Delhi hosted by Azim Premji, the silver-haired chief of one of the subcontinent’s biggest IT firms, Wipro.

Those looking to harm Ms Whitney may want to think twice.

"I was talking to a Merrill Lynch banker the other day who said he wanted his firm to be like Goldman Sachs. I replied: ‘But you’re not.’ It’s like saying you want to be cool when you’re not"

"If the shoe was on the other foot, if these were sovereign wealth investors in France, Germany, the UK or the US earning fabulous returns, reducing national deficits, funding social security costs and investing into the rest of the world, would they think it was an issue? I suspect not"

Despite all the jawboning over the past few years about succession planning, banks seem woefully unprepared if they are forced to jettison a flailing chief executive because of cauldron-like shareholder pressure.

The US bank recovered from a similar crisis in the early 1990s. But this time around it lacks strong leadership.

While India and China look the best long-term bets, short-term gains could be easier to find elsewhere in the region.

The big banks’ Mlec fund might well unblock the present credit log jam. But there’s no escaping the fact that global liquidity has contracted and capital is being repriced upwards.

Many investors had been positioning themselves for an inevitable downturn in the leveraged finance market long before this summer’s dislocation. But, ironically, the underwriting abuses of the past few years mean that they could still face a long wait before any meaningful opportunities arise. Louise Bowman reports.

Markit purchase of IIC could herald creation of a global credit derivatives index.

The problem is with time rather than the legislation or its implementation, say analysts.

Market remains open but substantial new-issue premiums return.

The monolines should survive this crisis, but only because the prospect of them being downgraded is an outcome too far for the battered credit market.

The strong run of emerging markets equities looks set to continue.

Global problems require global answers.

The hoarding of cash by banks is understandable but dangerous.

Whether it’s Louis Hagen donning pom-poms and leading a Pfandbrief cheer or a University Challenge-style quiz during the lunch break, every conference needs its memorable moments.