Cantor Fitzgerald offshoot BGC is being coy about the apparent closure of its spot FX broking business.

Greater anonymity, leverage and lower trading costs are seen as incentives.

The massive shift of equity ownership needed in post-apartheid South Africa was always going to be a tough task. There will never be a template for deals, but a range of structuring and financing strategies are taking shape. Mark Brown reports from Johannesburg.

The exchange traded fund market is an area in which Barclays Global Investors can lay solid claim to being more successful than State Street Global Advisers. BGI has built up its ETF business (iShares) in five years to a level of $178 billion, compared with SSgA’s $80 billion.

Standard Chartered has gained management of the White Pine structured investment vehicle from JP Morgan Chase. The transfer, in addition to the Whistlejacket SIV, makes Standard one of the larger players. White Pine was established by Banc One by structured finance stalwart, Jim Irvine. Apparently an internal team led by Irvine also bid to take over management of the vehicle. This is a business where economies of scale matter. The size of White Pine is $8 billion while Whistlejacket has $6.5 billion. But Standard Chartered is still some way behind the largest SIV, Sigma, which has $30 billion under management.

Brazil’s hedge fund industry is growing up. Two trends in particular stand out: foreign investors are seeking out local players through which to invest; and funds are evolving their strategies. Sudip Roy reports from São Paulo.

London-based Nikolaus Hohenberg has become UBS’s new head of debt capital markets financial institutions group Germany. He replaces Martin Keutner, who has moved from London to Zurich to work at UBS Wealth Management. Alongside Hohenberg will be Joerg Mueller, who is working more closely on enhancing the covered bond effort. In the summer, UBS also hired Mariano Aldema and Miguel Pinto to its Iberian FIG team with the aim of boosting its Cedulas business.

Can wealth management truly thrive within the confines of an investment bank?

Wiphold (Women Investment Portfolio Holdings) is one of the best-known Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) companies. From its headquarters in the exclusive northern Johannesburg suburb of Houghton (Nelson Mandela has a house just up the road), Wiphold has spent more than a decade helping South Africa’s women share in the country’s wealth.

SovRisc is capital markets disintermediation and may transform the $50 billion export loan guarantee business.