The renminbi will become as integral to global trade as letters of credit or the container ship. Companies need to think carefully on how to blend daily RMB usage into their existing supply chains as Beijing begins to remove bureaucratic FX hurdles.

As the US moves toward mandatory over-the-counter trading on swap execution facilities this year, European derivatives dealers are still waiting for European authorities to clarify the regulatory pipeline as fears over market liquidity grow.

Fiscal risks in the US, the depreciation of the yen and growth in emerging Asia – opening up more carry trade opportunities – are reasons to believe volatility could return to the foreign exchange market in 2013 after a long hiatus, investors say.

The economy continues to defy the doom-mongers, but to nurture a sustainable and domestic-led growth model China’s new leadership must embark on painful, destabilizing and controversial reforms.

Despite the country’s strong fundamentals and celebrated growth rates in recent years, the economy lost some of its shine in 2012. The government must get over its obsession with the real and concentrate on beefing up productivity and trade, say analysts.

International money is flying into emerging market sovereign bond markets with frontier credits, such as Zambia, Mongolia and Bolivia, now boasting low yields. The jury is out on whether there is a bubble brewing in developing bond markets in hard currency.

Why has an unprecedented deluge of monetary stimulus since the global financial crisis failed to spark an economic revival in the developed world? One reason could be the inability of debt-soaked economies to further expand private sector borrowing – a key ingredient for growth. But are emerging markets better equipped to maintain the pace of credit expansion?

The internationalisation of the renminbi (RMB) may be at an early stage, but the Chinese currency’s role in global trade is set to expand. Sherie Morais says companies need to start thinking now about how they can prepare for and benefit from doing business in RMB.

Foreign exchange markets are slowly returning to their pre-crisis state, four years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Although difficulties remain because of market jitters and uncertainty over central bank action, Tim Carrington, Global Head of FX at RBS, explains how investors can benefit.

While European Union proposals to limit the time corporates have to make payments in commercial transactions will bring relief to some suppliers, many buyers will face higher debt and lower liquidity. Supply chain finance could be a practical and effective solution to managing working capital efficiently under the EU payments directive, says RBS’s Ugur Bitiren.