Sterling market opened in the Middle East and CIS.

The expulsion of Citigroup Private Bank from Japan in 2004 was merely the most dramatic of a string of failures among foreign firms that have too often misread the attitudes of investors and regulators. Now, as Japan’s economic recovery creates new millionaires and wealthy baby boomers prepare to retire, several foreign firms are trying again to crack this difficult but lucrative market. Lawrence White went to Tokyo to ask their CEOs what it takes to succeed in private banking in Japan.

Car parks that rival Monaco for the quality of the marques, apartment prices that rival those in New York, but a stock exchange capitalization of only $50 billion. That’s Almaty. Kazakhstan’s government hopes to develop its capital markets and create a financial centre there for all central Asia. The buildings are going up. Will there be enough tenants to fill them? Chloe Hayward reports from Almaty.

Mizuho Securities is building its structured credit and debt capital markets business.

The securities prove to be among the hottest assets of 2006 – some of the best trades across the globe.

Five years after the economic crisis, concerns emerge about overheating.

Major errors of concept and execution in the Iraq war have weakened the US: a sharp lesson in the limits of what seemed like limitless power. Its allies have been discredited, its enemies strengthened. Its real or wannabe rivals, China and Russia, are new global power centres. Its sway in Latin America and Africa has been compromised. The new Asian regional powers must steer a careful course in a complex world.By Charles Dumas, Diana Choyleva and Gabriel Stein.

Moody’s threw a potential spanner in the works of the European hybrid market by announcing a consultation on possibly increasing the notching on securities with non-cumulative deferral features and cumulative deferral with stock settlement. Feedback was due at the end of December.

Abuse of information prompts worries about integrity in credit markets.

Wealth managers are muscling in on the fund of hedge funds business.

The UK private banking market is in rude health. However, although London still dominates, banks are throwing resources into regional growth. The biggest obstacle to organic growth is the lack of suitable talent to drive this expansion. Banks have to decide on the best business development strategy – acquisition, organic growth or servicing from the City? Julian Marshall reports.

Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch’s US dollar, low-risk portfolio caters to high-net-worth clients who want to preserve their money over the long term but are also looking for performance.

Germany’s deputy finance minister, Thomas Mirow, has promised that industrial nations will “coordinate efforts to reduce risks posed from hedge funds”, in a briefing dealing with Germany’s upcoming presidency of the G8 in 2007. He did, however, add that regulation might not be the way to reduce risk, suggesting that more transparency might rather do the job.

What’s bad news for the hard-pressed bean counters at financial institutions across Europe trying to curb the exorbitant expenses claims of their equity capital market teams promises to be good news for AirAstana, the leading Kazakh airline that’s one of the candidates for a stock market listing in 2007.

Austria’s RZB has hired Tracy Frampton to head up its sales of central and eastern Europe capital market products. Frampton was previously in fixed-income sales at Troika Dialog UK, where she focused on Russian corporate external and domestic debt. Before that she was head of distribution at Moscow Narodny Bank. Frampton is based in London.

Marina Bay Residences: Singapore’s “first Über Penthouse”

Surprise suggestion to take Stansted out of the regulated asset base.

Rising intra-regional trade and investment are helping to underpin the economic fortunes of the states that formerly constituted Yugoslavia. Guy Norton takes a look at three examples of a stock exchange, a fund manager and private equity.

“Hedge funds have trailed equities on a relative basis in 2006 because of the unusually consistent strength in the equity markets”

18,000,000,000 the dollar volume of ECM deals that was expected to be executed in December 2006 in the EMEA region, according to Dealogic. $244 billion was raised in the first 11 months of the year, up 9% on full-year 2005, making the amount of money raised in ECM deals in 2006 the highest on record.

Just over one-third of people in the region believe that their economic situation has improved.

UK-based bond dealers breath sigh of relief as regulator turns back from proposals set out eight months ago.

The SEC has proposed increasing the minimum net worth for an investor in hedge funds to $2.5 million from $1 million in 2007. The $2.5 million net worth minimum is to include only liquid assets. Analysts doubt that the move will have much effect.

In spite of all the takeover talk among major global exchanges, and the heavy consolidation in eastern Europe’s banking sector, not everyone believes that acquisitions are the only way to expand business in the region. Florian Neuhof talks to Heinrich Schaller, joint CEO of the Wiener Börse, who outlines his vision of cooperation with the developing regional exchanges.

It is traditional around year-end for awards to be received for deeds performed during the previous 12 months. We hereby announce Euromoney magazine’s inaugural awards for high-quality press relations. We did not ask for submissions as we are constantly bombarded with incidents from which to choose.

After some considerable time in development, Eurex plans to launch the world’s first exchange traded credit derivatives contract on March 27. The contract will be based on the iTraxx Europe five year series and – dependent on market demand and sufficient market maker support – Eurex might also list futures contracts on the HiVol and Crossover indices on the same date. The contracts will be cash settled.

Hundreds pushed out at Dresdner just ahead of bonus round.

Corporates need to recognize that they need to care about their CDS investors and that the old attitude of concentrating on the requirements of bondholders alone will no longer wash.

Volume and profits in the FX market have grown more consistently than in any other part of the financial markets. New entrants and existing users still cannot resist the promise of diversification and excess return.

ATS operators sunk by Icebergs in Europe turn to America and Asia. ITG, which launched its crossing centre in Canada as recently as the fourth quarter of 2005, has already seen its market share rise to 4.1% of the volume of the dominant Toronto Exchange, TSX.