There will be more rallies but the equity market trend is downward, and there’s a worrying backdrop of rising inflation mixed with declining growth.

The role of the European Central Bank as the saviour of the European securitization market over the last year is not even up for debate.

Car manufacturers and their captive finance units might think themselves removed from much of the world’s financial turmoil. But are rapidly expanding emerging markets enough to keep the gloom at bay? Jethro Wookey reports.

In the new world of covered bonds, it really does matter where you come from.

The last of the traditional monoline insurance companies to maintain their triple-A rating are facing a downgrade.

Investors worry that proposed regulation will punish the European market for weaknesses in US sub-prime origination.

The market, it is said, is always right, but the performance of Icap’s share price is seemingly at odds with the company’s financial growth. Of course, Icap’s shares have been caught up with the general malaise affecting global equity valuations in general and financial stocks in particular but as the company pointed out in an interim management statement issued in mid-July, it has continued to benefit as a result of the continuing volatility in financial markets.

James Crosby, former head of HBOS, delivered his interim report on the state of mortgage finance in the UK to the government on July 29. But it does not make for good holiday reading. Despite outlining the extent to which lenders have completely withdrawn from the market and the effect that the shortage of mortgage finance is having on the housing market, Crosby emphasizes that his final recommendation might well be to do nothing. "I should stress that I may yet recommend that the government should not intervene in the market, on the grounds that such intervention would create more problems than it would solve," he says.

G8 ECM The number of ECM transactions from issuers in the G8 countries in the year to date has fallen 42% to 941 deals compared with the same period in 2007. The total volume of equity raised, however, fell by just 9%. Russia has experienced the sharpest decline in volume, with $3.5 billion raised via 12 deals and 1% market share, down from 9% in the 2007 period. US issuers, by contrast, have raised $143.7 billion via 269 deals so far this year, compared with $134.8bln via 496 deals in the 2007 period.

The bad news has been piling up at HBOS, but we shouldn’t call in the movers just yet.

BNP Paribas argues coordinated action to support the dollar can work.

Barclays Capital has confirmed that Adrian McGowan is joining as managing director and head of foreign exchange trading, Asia-Pacific, from Deutsche Bank. It has also promoted Lutfey Siddiqi, its managing director and Asia-Pacific head of corporate FX and risk advisory, who now has additional management responsibility for distribution of the full suite of flow and structured FX products across corporate and investor clients in Asia-Pacific. Dean Tonkin, currently head of FX trading, Japan, and regional head of FX forwards, has also assumed additional regional responsibility for FX spot trading and FX proprietary trading.

Despite the far superior performance of CLOs to that of ABS CDOs, CLO managers on both sides of the Atlantic face a battle to survive in present and future market conditions.

Mark Hillery has apparently left hedge fund Tudor. There is no indication whether his departure is permanent or a sabbatical. Meanwhile, the firm has hired Andrew Bound from Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Bound left GSAM in May and is believed to be starting at the fund in August.

Structured product issuers have a new set of guidelines that they will be expected to informally adhere to after trade organizations, including the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, released non-binding principles for managing relationships with retail investors.

Banorte, the biggest locally owned bank in Mexico, plans to establish a new venture capital unit that will be spun off from its distressed assets business, Solida, according to the bank’s chief executive.

As one Euromoney reader put it: “Macro has had more comebacks than Lazarus.” But is the strategy back to stay? – at least for three or so years, say managers.

"Putting an idiot in a suit doesn’t make him a private banker"

"If you don’t fully understand an instrument, don’t buy it. If you would not buy for yourself a specific product, don’t try to sell it. If you don’t know very well your customers, don’t lend them any money. If you do all these things, you will be a better banker, my son"

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation recently issued a statement laying the foundations for the regulation of a US covered bond market, specifically concerning the preferred treatment of bondholders in the event of an issuer default.

The audience fell silent as they listened to his advice: don’t buy things you don’t understand; if you wouldn’t buy something, don’t sell it to anyone else; and don’t lend money to customers you don’t know.

The strong performance of BBVA and Santander can’t mask the impact of a looming housing crash on domestic institutions.

FXCM posts strong second-quarter revenues.

After years of benefiting from the strong economic performance of the Baltic states, Sweden’s Swedbank is now seeing the downside of its exposure to the region in the wake of the recent sharp slowdown in growth.

Finance sector ECM Banks and agencies raised $108.5 billion via 81 deals globally in the second quarter of 2008, up from $32.9 billion via 49 deals in the first quarter of the year, and year-to-date issuance already surpasses the total amount raised in 2007 ($100.8 billion). ECM issuance by financial sector issuers accounted for 42% of all global issuance in the second quarter and 26% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Scotland’s $24.3 billion rights issue via Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and RBS is the largest ECM deal on record.

Standard Chartered Bank has relaunched the Shariah-compliant version of its online treasury FX trading and hedging platform under its global brand for Islamic products, Standard Chartered Saadiq. The bank says it is the first to launch online services in Islamic FX utilizing the wa’ad structure, which enables Islamic companies and institutions to hedge forward FX exposures under a Shariah-compliant structure.

I hate to be the ugly fairy at the wedding but I'm starting to wonder if John Thain will turn out ot be Merrill's messiah after all.

It seems astonishing that misuse of models still takes place in the foreign exchange market. But there is no doubt it does, although the industry’s self-imposed code of Omertà means that even those cases that seemingly everyone knows about rarely get exposed.