Companies from emerging markets are on the acquisition trail, and their targets now include firms in North America and Europe.

Sustained competition, falling margins and regulatory pressures mean that the world of cash management and payments is heading towards an inflection point.

There's plenty of capital available to borrowers at attractive prices.

Wreathed in a thick summer smog, it seems that Kuala Lumpur is not so much what tourist ads call "truly Asia" as "truly hazier".

Convertible arbitrage and short-selling have been the cornerstones of hedge fund strategies.

Investment by foreign banks and investors in domestic Chinese banks is not over, but it seems that the recent frenzy of activity has abated, with most of the big deals now signed or at least agreed.

Chancellor Brown is breaking the rules he set for himself when prudence is ditched for unfettered spending.

A punctured US property bubble is not far down the line as inflationary pressures mount.

With a growing retail DVD business, MGM needed a revamped cash management system to make the most of the cashflows.

After three years of heavy losses, Argentina's banks are once again in the black.

China Oilfield Services has long lived in the shadow of its illustrious sibling, CNOOC.

Steps along the right path

Wachovia's Ken Thompson wants his firm to be the best financial institution in the US.

Yahoo's acquisition of a major stake in Chinese e-commerce business Alibaba looks like another example of a US internet firm muscling its way into a dominant position in China.

Rusal has grown from scratch in 2000 to become the world's third-largest producer of aluminium.

The $15 billion buyout of the Italian telecoms company by an Egyptian consortium could be the first of many in Europe.

Chairman Raymond Baer describes Julius Baer's deal as truly transformational.

Merger with Belgium's InterBrew last year helped catapult the Brazilian company to the top of the beer industry.

Iranian shipping company NITC is a rarity: it's one of the few non-oil and gas companies in the Islamic Republic seeking funds in the international markets.

Companies from Egypt to India and from Turkey to South Africa are hoping that the opening of the Dubai International Financial Exchange, set for the end of September, will open the doors to a vast well of unemployed petrodollars.

Eastern European equity had a summer of love, as stockmarkets from Budapest to Istanbul hit all-time highs.

Slow-paced reform and privatization look set to provide opportunities for foreign investment in the Libyan banking sector, but with a lot of provisos.

A reveiw of 13 years of country risk, region by region.

The ability to lend is closely tied to capital markets business, writes Laurence Neville

While other state banking groups in Europe cast covetous eyes at Calyon, the investment banking arm of the Credit Agricole group, CNCE's Ixis is surprising many with its ambition.

Jihad Azour, Lebanon's finance minister, was director of UN Development Programme and World Bank projects at the ministry before his cabinet appointment in July 2005.

Once a small real estate bank, Landsbanki is now trying to build business in new areas such as corporate finance.

Fortified by the strength of its retail operations, OKO has forged lucrative partnerships in eastern Europe and leveraged its strength in local bond markets.

Qatar has become a centre of project finance expertise as the government pursues big industrial and infrastructure projects.

Grigorii Marchenko, chief executive of Halyk Bank and former governor of Kazakhstan's central bank, talks to Euromoney about bank capitalization, the development of consumer banking products, Kazakhstan's economic policy and the country's regional role.

When Caja Madrid's management realized it had little scope to expand in domestic retail banking, it sought new markets both in Spain and overseas

Now the country's largest banking group, Kaupthing argues that its aggressive acquisition spree overseas should lower rather than raise concerns about its foreign debt burden

As Alan Greenspan nears retirement, it is time to assess his legacy.

Real estate has traditionally been a localized business.

The investment market is becoming ever more competitive as structural change brings higher allocations to real estate, writes Laurence Neville

In just two years, Nigeria's finance minister has helped to transform foreign perceptions of her country.

The woman who has run the central bank since 2000 has overseen reform of the exchange rate, the capital markets and the banking industry.

In 2002 the Dubai authorities announced the appointment of a distinguished chairman to its financial regulator that would give credibility to the country's attempts to establish itself as the leading Arab financial centre.

Central and eastern Europe's leading institutions have been quick to praise UniCredit's acquisition of HVB, which creates the region's biggest bank.

Dragos Neacsu, a former civil engineer and latterly investment banker, has taken on the challenge of overcoming the many shortcomings of Romania's debt strategy from the foundations up.

Argentina has rebounded impressively from the 2002 crisis, but it still faces enormous risks and challenges.

The Unico network of cooperative banks is nearly 30 years old.

The imminent liberalization of Gazprom share ownership rules will introduce the world's biggest energy company to the world's biggest investors.

Improved fundamentals have undoubtedly fuelled the emerging-market debt boom.

After a long dormancy, Kazakhstan's equity market might be about to wake up, thanks to some large IPOs.

Sabic's upcoming $267 million Shariah-compliant domestic bond should set the pattern for issuance in a Saudi market that has seen little corporate paper up to now.

As real estate establishes itself as an asset class of choice for investors large and small, advisers are reaping the benefits.

Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez, wants to build his influence in Latin America through the creation of a regional debt market.

Erste Bank handed control of its branch network to local savings banks, and went to work on creating products they could sell.

As Lebanese banks flush with liquidity devise regional expansion strategies, four of them have won licences to open affiliates in Syria's nascent privately owned banking sector.

A flurry of activity marked the first year of new management at Khazanah, Malaysia's state-owned investment arm.

It's difficult to make money in Russian private equity.

Such is the dearth of credible leadership in the Philippines that Filipinos, if they could, would probably vote former president Ramos back in by a landslide.

Iraq's finance minister, Ali Allawi, argues that debt relief with its official and commercial creditors is crucial to restoring stability to the country

Governor of the Central Bank of Libya Ahmed Menesi talks to Kate Luxford about plans to prepare Libya's economy for a more competitive environment after privatization

Legislation to guarantee the position of foreign investors is being followed up with a proposed comprehensive capital markets law.

Toshihiko Fukui has overseen a successful policy U-turn in Japan's fight against deflation.

The growth of Iceland's banks – now centred on three main groups, profiled on the following pages – is one of the success stories of the past decade.

Croatian oil company INA will undertake a 15% initial public offering by the end of the year.

Asia's banks have reinforced their position as the largest emerging-market financial institutions thanks to the region's economic growth.

Ukraine's president Viktor Yushchenko has had a roller-coaster 12 months.

Malaysia's local electricity supplier is just one of the government-linked companies on Khazanah's books.

As a new president takes office in Iran and deadlock hits talks with the European Union over Tehran's controversial nuclear programme, investors are pondering whether they should enter an economy that might soon be subject to sanctions.

Germany's public-sector Landesbanken and the savings banks linked with them have responded remarkably well to the removal of state guarantees.

Íslandsbanki's acquisition of BNbank in Norway marks a significant acceleration in its growth plans.

Riad Salameh has been governor of Lebanon's central bank, Banque du Liban, since 1993.

Public-sector banks in Europe have hit on a new and potentially profitable idea.

Emerging-market and convergence investors have long since stopped buying hard-currency debt from the new European countries after their spreads converged with EU government levels, but the region's local-currency debt is attracting ever more inflows.

As restructuring rather than default becomes the norm for credit events in the emerging markets, it is time for those involved in the market to reappraise the effects of distressed situations on credit default swap prices, argue Manmohan Singh and Jochen Andritzky

Europe's government bond markets are built on a lie.

Mifid promises to shake up EU financial markets in a way that will make Big Bang look like a gentle nudge.

Deep in political crisis, president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is ill prepared to address the Philippines' critical financial problems.

David Knott, the current chief executive of the Dubai Financial Services Authority, argues that Ian Hay Davison's account does not represent the status of the regulator, which is well placed to play an important future role in finance in the Middle East.