The pieces are starting to shift on the board of Chinese investment banking. There have been signs of progress, frustration and new strategy since last April’s announcement that foreigners would be allowed to take majority stakes in securities joint ventures on the mainland.

CEO says bank liquidity and lavish social spending hamper capital markets development.

India’s first real estate investment trust is being fast-tracked to IPO before the end of February. Bankers expect the primary offering to raise more than $1 billion, giving a much-needed fillip to the country’s capital markets.

Before it sets off into Africa, the international financial institution needs to look to its roots.

In 2018, Montenegro was named as one of the countries most at risk from over-indebtedness to China for the €809 million Bar-Boljare highway, dubbed a ‘road to nowhere’, but in Podgorica, enthusiasm for the project is still running high.

After a few years of underperformance, India’s property market is back on form. Prices are rising in commercial and residential real estate, with demand driven in large part by inward investment from blue-chip US corporates. The next big step is listed onshore real estate investment trusts, set to hit the market in 2019.

When Sri Lanka, a key link in the Belt and Road Initiative, sold China a deep-water port in exchange for debt alleviation, it raised eyebrows around the world – yet Colombo continues to borrow from Beijing even as its fiscal situation worsens.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative is trumpeted as a ‘win-win’ for all, but is it everything it’s cracked up to be? Or are countries on its route, wary of Beijing’s motives and fearful of being trapped by debt to China’s big development banks, losing faith in the plan?

Warning sirens are sounding about the level of debt Djibouti owes to China for Belt and Road projects. The local view is that they need the money and China is the country that is offering it. But the fate of the Djibouti-Addis Ababa railway represents the financial challenges of BRI in a 756-kilometre microcosm.

The continent is implementing the African Continental Free Trade Agreement to boost intra-regional trade, economic growth and industrialization, but can 54 countries overcome so many obstacles and ratify the agreement?

At the tail end of 2018, banks still seem to be a long way from equality.

New African Capital Partners’ (NACP) first investment target is a large, regional banking group, co-founder Charles Kie tells Euromoney in his first interview since the launch.

$2.4 billion in dedicated mandates; expectations to reach $20 billion to $30 billion by 2023.

Roll-up acquisitions help to floor high-yield fundraising.

Santiago Peña helped secure Paraguay’s relentless upward trajectory while minister of finance – now he has switched to the private sector and has the perfect perspective to judge the outlook for the Mercosur countries.

Vast infrastructure initiative taking shape, minister says; insists PPP will be used, not just Chinese soft loans.

Research, research and more research is needed for investors to navigate the complex world of ESG and SDG investing.

Natixis surveys large institutional investors and produces framework to avoid ‘SDG-washing’.

Larger family offices are taking on the private equity firms as they focus on investing directly.

SC Ventures launched in Singapore; combines internal accelerator with venture capital.

A Greenwich investor survey projects continuing growth in fixed income ETFs as the likely response to deteriorating bond market liquidity.

Slower growth is translating into lower government spending on infrastructure. With an estimated funding deficit of $40 billion a year, private-sector solutions from Africa’s home-grown pension fund industry as well as international insurance firms could help plug the gap.

Even though the banking sector remains off-limits, foreign investment in other state-owned enterprises will support infrastructure development.

Finally, some progress in Indonesian infrastructure – but familiar battles remain.

Impact investing would seem an unlikely business for avaricious private equity funds. But many are embracing what they see as a new opportunity. Should we be sceptical or see private equity’s buy-in as proof of the impact investment concept?

Can Kazakhstan create an international financial centre in the middle of the steppes or is it just the latest central Asian pipe dream?

Investors hoping new president adopts pragmatic approach; proposed referendum raises more questions than answers.

A fintech headed by veterans of algorithmic trading in equities aims to transform unregulated gold trading as a pure agency broker.

Italy flows up despite populists’ impact on bond yields; warns of peak debt across the West

The first refugee investment impact bond is poised to launch in 2019.