The global financial crisis has taken hold in the region, leading to a drastic slowdown in traditional capital-raising. With job cuts expected soon, investment bankers are working hard to meet nervous clients’ needs and perhaps simultaneously save their own jobs. Lawrence White reports.

Newly peaceful, liberalized Algeria is an attractive prospect for Middle Eastern and European investors. But a change in the political wind has blown in a whiff of protectionism. Dominic O’Neill reports from Algiers.

Even though it is now under pressure from the global financial crisis, Brazil can look back on 2008 as a relatively good year, with growth close to target, and look forward from a position of strength, sustained by high forex reserves and a sound policy environment. Laurence Neville reports.

At a town hall meeting in New York on November 17, embattled Citi chief executive Vikram Pandit felt compelled to spell out the basics of banking to his assembled troops.

Investors’ fears about the limitations of the debt capital markets have reached extreme levels of late. A UK treasurer recently told Euromoney about an incident his firm experienced earlier this year.

Don’t shed a tear for government authorities working overtime to sort out the financial crisis. The dire situation is playing into their hands by not only increasing their influence but also helping to solve one of their own long-running challenges – how to attract top talent on the cheap.

"You may ask what there is to celebrate," said Hans Van Beeck to a decent-sized crowd of clients at Société Générale’s Beaujolais Nouveau party in Tokyo on October 20. Referring to the markets’ gloomy mood, Van Beeck, chief country officer for the French bank’s securities operation in Japan, suggested that the young wine might stand as "a symbol of nature’s ability to rejuvenate itself" and thus lift his guests’ spirits, if only temporarily.

"Fees are way up... I mean, risk is being more appropriately priced"

"The issue has gone unanswered for years. What is going on is simple stealing. We don’t need new laws against this, we already have them. If the Fed won’t step in, then the Department of Justice has to"

Among the delegates at the 2008 Felaban conference in Panama City were two senior members of the fixed-income department at Santander, named best bank in Euromoney’s 2008 Awards for Excellence in July. The Spanish bank sent Dan Vallimarescu (head of DCM) and Erik Deiden (senior VP) to the conference but unfortunately managed to book their trip so late that the best hotels available were not exactly Panama’s finest.

Data from the Islamic Finance Information Service indicate that rapid growth of Shariah-compliant banking comes mostly from a low base. Is the sector set for a wave of consolidation as organic growth slows? Chris Wright reports.

Access to debt refinance has all but dried up for corporate treasurers. Those expecting tier back-up loan facilities to bail them out could be in for a nasty surprise. Alex Chambers looks at how companies can survive the liquidity crisis.

Zombie banks are stalking the global economy, choking off credit to viable businesses. The solution, writes Lincoln Rathnam, is a straightforward separation of the good from the bad.

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

A tumbling blade has to land some time. Hank Paulson may have decided against trying to stop it directly but John Paulson is apparently back buying mortgage-backed securities. Louise Bowman speaks to other credit investors who believe there is money to be made from this shattered market.

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.

With capital markets effectively closed, cash-rich Chinese firms are well placed to profit. They have tended to rely less on international markets for funding than some regional peers, and are able to develop strategies without the liquidity worries that plague rivals. Lawrence White reports.

Long sheltered from the credit crunch, sovereign, supranational and agency spreads have ballooned in the wake of the introduction of government-guaranteed bank debt. How will SSA names find their place in the uncharted territory of Libor-plus? Jethro Wookey reports.

The market is growing fast in Muslim countries and among Muslim communities. Its fuller development, Euromoney’s roundtable of experts suggests, depends on clearer views on objectives, further development of regulation and standardization of products and approaches.

Beloved by the international markets for her professionalism and by most compatriots for her reformist zeal, Mulyani Indrawati is battling with those who prefer things done the old way. Lawrence White spoke to her at the G20 summit.

Japan’s Marubeni and Chile’s Antofagasta have started to structure the financing for a $2 billion mining project in Chile. The project, called La Esperanza, could receive up to half of its financing from equity investments, with the remainder raised through credit agencies, multilaterals and commercial banks. Given the hostile banking environment, the commercial tranche, which would be syndicated among international banks, would likely not exceed $500 million.

Fails to deliver in the US equity market have exacerbated the sharp declines in share prices of financials. Although the SEC is clearing up the mess caused by naked short-selling, more drastic measures might be needed to restore confidence. Helen Avery reports.

Big losses, growing provisions, slowing profit growth: money is no longer easy in the Gulf, as banks’ third-quarter results brutally showed.

Investors stay on the sidelines and look at directionless strategies.

Eastern Europeans think it could be a haven in troubled times.

John Paulson, George Soros, Citadel’s Ken Griffin, Harbinger Capital’s Philip Falcone and Renaissance Technologies’ James Simons were all grilled by Congress in November about hedge funds’ role in contributing to the financial markets’ meltdown.

In the next few weeks, Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa, will decide whether to voluntarily take his country into default on up to $10.2 billion of external sovereign debt, equivalent to 25% of GDP. As the international community holds it breath, those close to the government are more philosophical. "Correa runs as a 21st-century socialist government. He wants to continue sending the message to the people that the poor come before debt," says Antonio Acosta Espinosa, president at Banco Pichincha, the leading bank in Ecuador. "This default threat does exactly that – sends a clear political message to his supporters. I personally think it is a political strategy and that payments will resume in the coming weeks, but I’m expecting that some international court will analyse the legality of some tranches of the external debt." A Moody’s report that downgraded Ecuador’s foreign currency bond rating to Caa1 agrees that the government’s motivation is political and ideological. On November 14, Correa announced that Ecuador would no longer pay the 12% coupon totalling $31 million on its 2012 global bond. Now the government says it is going to make use of the 30-day grace period to decide its strategy. By December 15, Correa will have decided "if we will keep paying or go the courts".

Although 60% of UK hedge funds surveyed by consultants Kinetic Partners said they were strongly supportive of the industry best practices standards overseen by the Hedge Fund Standards Board, fewer than one in 10 said they would sign up to them. The HFSB standards, put together in January by a group backed by 10 hedge fund managers, lay out a recommended approach to issues including risk management, disclosure, governance and valuation. Respondents cited regulatory burden and compliance concerns as reasons why they would not comply.

UK pension funds slash equity allocations.

Kurt Baker, head of Morgan Stanley’s prime brokerage arm in Asia, has left the company. Morgan Stanley chief executive John Mack announced in October that the prime brokerage business would be reassessed. Hedge funds’ sentiments towards prime brokers in the current climate were expressed in Clontarf Capital’s November newsletter. "For many hedge funds, particularly those with assets below $300 million, it is clear that while they may have thought they had a loving relationship with their prime broker, they were, in effect, being used all along," says the newsletter. "The party is firmly over for many funds, and the prime broker is one more adversary to deal with in what feels like a multi-pronged attack (from markets, investors and regulators, as well as other funds)."