Emerging Europe

The key challenge for both corporates and financial issuers will be the $650 billion in bonds falling due this year, up from $560 billion in 2008.

Government support has prevented a systemic run on the banks, but funds are not getting through.

Even in tough capital markets, open only to the few, it’s still possible to craft good deals, attract new investors, bolster balance sheets and stave off disaster. For all their past sins and excesses, investment banks – the good ones at least – will prove themselves invaluable over the coming 12 months

–38 the average percentage return from IPOs globally.

Drip, drip, drip. The Russian authorities’ decision to keep allowing the value of the rouble to fall against a US dollar-euro basket through a series of mini-devaluations shows no signs of stopping.

Banks in emerging markets appeared to have escaped the worst of the financial crisis. Now, as capital markets seize up and the global economy heads for recession, they must face the same liquidity and solvency pressures as their western counterparts. Sudip Roy looks at the banks most likely to cope.

The spread of the credit crisis to emerging countries will have more than just domestic repercussions.

57 the level of the State Street Investor Confidence Index, a record low

In its latest report on OTC derivatives market activity, the Bank for International Settlements says that notional amounts of FX derivatives increased by 12% to $63 trillion in the first six months of 2008. Gross market values rose by 25% to $2.3 trillion. The expansion was fastest in options and currency swaps. BIS reported that outrights, which account for roughly half of total OTC FX derivatives when measured in terms of notional amounts, grew less quickly.

In response to the impact of the global economic crisis on central and eastern Europe, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is looking to increase its investments in 2009. EBRD president Thomas Mirow has outlined a proposal to invest up to €7 billion, a record amount for any single year since the bank was founded and 20% higher than previously planned. As EBRD investments have typically attracted additional funding from commercial partners of at least 2:1, EBRD-led financing could exceed €20 billion in 2009.