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Tough talk by the regulators might bear fruit for the monolines.

Many of the delegates at an industry conference in Nevada seemed blind to the real world beyond the securitization desk.

Independent M&A boutiques are sensing an opportunity in Japan as the country’s top corporate names increasingly look to firms not tied to large commercial banks when awarding cross-border mandates.

Geert Vinken, global head of syndicate at Barclays Capital, has retired. Vinken will be replaced by Mark Bamford, head of US syndicate. Vinken held the global role since 2000, having joined Barcap in 1998.

GSO Capital Partners intends to expand now it has the financial clout from its sale to Blackstone. The leveraged finance specialist has hired Najib Canaan, the head of asset-backed securities at Brevan Howard. Former colleagues of Canaan from his days at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette founded GSO.

Structured note sellers had high hopes that property-linked pay-offs would be a big revenue generator in the UK. However, recent real estate upheavals have cast a dark cloud over the market.

As their peers in Europe and the US struggle to adjust to the world post sub-prime, Japan’s megabanks find themselves in the glow of unaccustomed financial health. But how do they put their new-found advantage to best use? And can they ignore the demons that caused such huge mistakes in the past?

Hugo Chávez is trying to commit Venezuela to 21st century socialism. In the meantime, private financial services are booming. Buoyed by the oil price, Chávez’s policies keep pumping out money. But can left-wing policies and capitalism work an economic miracle in the long term?

Richard Herman has moved across from his role as European head of debt sales to become Deutsche Bank’s global head of sales following Jim Turley’s decision to take a sabbatical and focus on rugby coaching. The bank has also announced that Mark Carrodus has stepped down from his position as global head of FX spot and options at Deutsche Bank for personal reasons. Carrodus, who is returning with his family to New Zealand, will be replaced by Rob Mandeno, who coincidentally is at present based in New Zealand. Mandeno will move to London to take up his new role.

The first ever asset securitization transaction exclusively referencing Brazilian loans has been closed by ABN Amro. The deal could be the start of several other synthetic deals to come out of Latin America this year.

Just as Thailand has entered a period of rare political calm and optimism with a new prime minister, one of its most sickly banks has been given a new lease of life with a landmark recapitalization. But, just as the jury is out on whether Thailand’s government can build on its new foundation, it remains to be seen whether TMB Bank can turn the corner after years of underperformance. TMB Bank was created in September 2004 from the merger of Thai Military Bank, DBS Thai Danu Bank and Industrial Finance Corporation. The merger created what was then the fifth-largest bank in Thailand. It now has 471 branches and 5 million deposit accounts but has struggled to generate performance to tally with its scale. It recorded a full-year loss of Bt43.7 billion ($1.39 billion) in 2007, three and a half times worse than the previous year, and has non-performing loans equivalent to 15% of lending as of the start of the year, having set aside Bt31 billion in provisions last year for loan-loss reserve requirements and increasing bad debt.

LATIN AMERICA ONLINE EXTRA: Mexico’s structured finance market continues to grow on the back of its housing boom.