The withdrawal of liquidity that started in July has posed a challenge for the financial markets, not least credit investors. Solent Capital, a $7.4 billion credit asset manager, has experienced first hand what happens when markets dry up. Helen Avery reports.

Spotted in India: Goldman Sachs’s chairman and CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, enjoying the festivities at a party in New Delhi hosted by Azim Premji, the silver-haired chief of one of the subcontinent’s biggest IT firms, Wipro.

The Ibero-American summit in Santiago, Chile, on November 10 ended on a heated note after the Spanish king told Hugo Chávez, the president of Venezuela, to "shut up".

New regulations are always unpopular with bankers struggling to keep on top of increasing numbers of oversight and compliance rules. The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Mifid) is proving particularly unpopular with those working in the equity-linked structured note market, who say it is simplistic in its approach to derivatives-based investments.

"I was talking to a Merrill Lynch banker the other day who said he wanted his firm to be like Goldman Sachs. I replied: ‘But you’re not.’ It’s like saying you want to be cool when you’re not"

DIC Asset Management – a wholly owned subsidiary of Dubai International Capital, the international investment arm of Dubai Holding; HSBC Bank Middle East; and Oasis International Leasing – has concluded the first close of its MENA Infrastructure Fund with commitments totalling $300 million.

Concerns about lack of transparency force regulator to make participants register directly.

The Brazilian National Development Bank (BNDES), is fishing for extra funds after recalculating its plans and projecting that it will lend as much as 15% more than expected for the 2008-11 period, as it seeks to step up its investments in infrastructure. BNDES president Luciano Coutinho has been talking about growth of 10% in lending for infrastructure projects, focused on energy, communications, railways, ports, and water and sanitation. The bank has already announced that it needs an extra R$25 billion ($14 billion) for next year, prompting speculation about how the money will be found.

In a world of increasingly powerful and mistrusted sovereign wealth funds, Temasek, the investment arm of the Singapore state, stands apart in terms of governance, openness and performance, claims Simon Israel, its executive director. Chris Wright reports.

There have been few signs of summer loving in the boardrooms of the bulge-bracket banks, with more and more senior executives being told by angered shareholders and directors "You’re the one that I (don’t) want" as post-sub-prime gloom spreads.

After a pause prompted by US-inspired volatility in the global equity markets, Russian companies have resumed new-issue activity, helped by the belief that the strong economic environment in the country will help insulate it from the effects of the fallout from the US.

Deutsche Bank has hired Dierk Reuter as its new global head of e-commerce and algorithmic trading. Reuter was previously a managing director at Goldman Sachs in its equity algo business, although he also has extensive knowledge of FX. He was seconded to FXall by Goldman Sachs as its original chief technology officer when the multi-bank portal launched.

After months of silence and little sign of progress, Project Turquoise, an initiative started by a consortium of seven leading investment banks to create a pan-European multilateral trading facility, has started to take some concrete steps and gain credibility.

Without foreign institutional investors, Saudi Arabia’s equities market still has a long way to go before it can match the strength and sophistication of the Kingdom’s leading companies. But a more active foreign presence is expected. Dominic O’Neill reports from Riyadh and Jeddah.

Those looking to harm Ms Whitney may want to think twice.

Spain’s thriving cajas show the rest of Europe the way forward.

The strong run of emerging markets equities looks set to continue.

Global problems require global answers.

With little to choose between the capabilities of covered bond departments, issuers are granting mandates for different reasons.

The hoarding of cash by banks is understandable but dangerous.

The US bank recovered from a similar crisis in the early 1990s. But this time around it lacks strong leadership.

The monolines should survive this crisis, but only because the prospect of them being downgraded is an outcome too far for the battered credit market.

There’s a lot to be said for a monetary union for north America.

Africa’s banking and capital markets are showing encouraging signs of maturity.

The sinking dollar – not ­the sub-prime fallout – is the big hurdle for India’s most buoyant sectors.

HSBC’s global headquarters in Canary Wharf hosted an entirely different type of journalist last month at the press conference announcing the British bank’s sponsorship of the British and Irish Lions for their 2009 tour of South Africa.

The world’s most profitable chemicals company, and possibly soon to be its biggest, has ploughed ahead with big expansion plans despite the credit crisis, making more use of Islamic and local capital markets. Dominic O’Neill talks to Sabic’s CFO, Mutlaq Al Morished.

Industry veteran Albert Maasland has been appointed as Saxo Bank’s European chief operating officer. Previously, Maasland was head of business development, e-commerce at Standard Chartered. He has also held senior roles at Deutsche Bank and Chase Manhattan. "I’ve had a great time at Standard. It’s a really good bank, concentrating on what it does well. But I’m looking forward to starting at Saxo. It is hard to overestimate the impact that Saxo Bank are having in the financial services industry and their future growth potential and I am keen to be part of that winning team," says Maasland.

‘Riskless’ exposure comes back to haunt banks

Jackson Tai brought a determined pan-Asian strategy to Singapore’s DBS Bank. With Tai on the point of retiring as CEO, Chris Wright looks at the successes and failures of his approach.