Republic’s next challenge is to revamp its domestic debt portfolio.

The markets revere individualists who are prepared to follow their hunches – think Soros, Buffett or Kerkorian. But are the many actually smarter than the few?

With their core jobs as trustees and paying agents commoditized, corporate trustees are relishing the chance to carve out a new role for themselves on structured credit deals.

In December, the UK’s Financial Services Authority held a meeting with the Association of British Insurers setting out its position on securitization and reinsurance for life insurers. All year there had been talk of monetization being a big story. Legal and General has been rumoured to have mandated a structuring mandate, and Standard Life was looking at both new business strain and value in force (VIF) structures before being overwhelmed with the process of demutualization. There has been talk of VIF securitizations coming from France and the Netherlands. However, some originators argue that the cost effectiveness of this approach is far from proved and question whether the six months or so spent working on structures is worth it. Also the competitiveness of reinsurance has improved dramatically in response to the capital market, especially for one-year maturity. But for a five-year maturity, a reinsurance treaty is twice as expensive as a capital markets solution. It appears that the FSA is trying to give greater guidance to issuers and arrangers on how to streamline the process; there are hopes for as many as four deals in 2006.

In early December HSBC and Deutsche Bank simultaneously engaged in a charity event to raise funds for London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital’s development fund. In order to entice its workers to stump up some cash, the two banks had a number of celebrities tour their trading floors.

“OK, if there were a big credit event, and if it coincided with one of the dealers going down, there would be a problem. How many ‘ifs’ do they want?”

After earlier forecasting that European share prices would rise in 2006, Standard & Poor’s equity research now expects a 7% fall. The change in outlook is the result of the European Central Bank’s decision to jump on the bandwagon of global monetary policy tightening.

In an historic move in late November, the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, conducted the first ever swap of renminbi with the US dollar, a move that it intends to repeat fortnightly.

Congratulations to the winner of the inaugural Euromoney award for media relations. This bank, before pitching a CDO as part of our deals of the year research, invited the relevant Euromoney journalists to sign a beautifully drafted, five-page confidentiality agreement.

It was set up by private bankers. It is run by private bankers, and it is built around private bankers. The brightest talents are flocking to it. Does EFG International have the model to take wealth management by storm? Peter Lee investigates.

The National Bank of Abu Dhabi’s (NBAD) $850m floating rate note sold in December has set a new benchmark for the region’s issuers both in terms of size and spread.

Dressing up down under