Investors are in no position to worry about niceties in bank capital raising.

Vikram Pandit needs a good deal, and fast, to save not just his tenure but possibly his bank.

In November, Grand Canyon Education, a provider of online education services, broke the US market’s 15-week drought of IPOs with a $126 million deal, ending the US’s driest spell since 1975.

US Treasury secretary Hank Paulson seems to be making an effort to rewrite his part in the failure of the US financial system, perhaps in an effort to influence the verdict of history.

Are we already into the era of unconventional monetary policy?

Central bank president sees no need for recapitalization, nor guarantees for deposits or liabilities.

Gatwick sale will test appetite for infrastructure assets.

News that China’s National Development and Reform Commission is considering a new stimulus package in addition to the Rmb4 trillion ($586 billion) plan announced on November 9 will bring cheer to investors and analysts who regard the country’s growth as central to the prospects of an Asian, or indeed global, recovery from the present crisis.

Agency brokers build fixed-income teams.

The platform’s chief executive, Phil Weisberg, says the firm is ready to face the difficulties of a bear market.

Once out of favour, futures traders are coming into their own by maintaining solid positive returns in grim markets, argues Neil Wilson.

Fit of family cultures closer than with rival Bradesco.

The Asian units of the world’s leading investment banks have not been immune to the industry-wide job cuts being announced.

Inter-dealer broker GFI has poached a team of veterans from it its rival TFS-Icap. The move is likely to result in the defection of four or five of TFS-Icap’s staff in Tokyo and another veteran broker in Hong Kong, pending the resolution of contractual issues.

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.

There are not many markets left in which it would be safe to invest but agriculture ought to be a safe bet.

Shinsei provides a reminder that bail-outs don’t make bad banks good.

As credit and equity markets crashed again in November, mounting problems in the US government bond markets went almost unnoticed. There are worrying signs that the treasury market itself, the last haven for risk-averse investors, is breaking down. Deliveries of treasuries failed at an all-time high of $2 trillion, and over periods lasting weeks, starting in October. Helen Avery reports.

Libya has Africa’s largest oil reserves but last year it was only the continent’s third-biggest producer. So the decision of Bahraini Islamic investment bank Gulf Finance House to invest $400 million of initial equity into an energy infrastructure project there is understandable. This is especially so given that the bank says it will not be surprised if the Libyan government’s Economic and Social Fund, which is advising on the project, makes a similar sized equity injection. Libya’s National Oil Company is seeking to increase oil production by 1 million barrels a day in the next four years, while doubling the country’s gas capacity.

Government provides a bridge for primary market funding.

Thierry Porte, the president of Tokyo’s Shinsei Bank, has resigned, taking responsibility for the bank’s poor results after it lost ¥19 billion ($198 million) between April and September this year. The loss caps a run of weak results for the bank over the past two years, and Porte’s exit marks the end of an era as the firm is returned to the leadership of its chairman, the 79-year-old Masamoto Yashiro.

Beleaguered Barclays, Delphic Deutsche, bank bonuses and preempting press releases.