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.

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.

Sterling market opened in the Middle East and CIS.

One market segment – banks – has been noticeably absent from the glut of Russian companies rushing to undertake IPOs in recent years. Is there now a danger that, after the long wait for exposure to Russia’s banking sector, investors will be overburdened with supply? Kathryn Wells reports.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Charles Dumas warns of a ‘reverse Robin Hood’ scenario.

The southeast of the region could be the star performer in 2007.

January is the month to purge the excesses of Christmas and New Year from the system. Detoxing won’t be so easy for the markets.

Big strategic acquisitions might be an exciting diversion for banks’ senior managers. But it is shareholders that pay for them.

“The most important project ever contemplated for the continent”

Bespoke structures expected in 2007 to fund acquisitions.

Another record year for financial institutions suggests no end to the boom in financial markets. But a correction in the global imbalances that have so far sustained the boom threatens economic growth and could have painful consequences for global capital markets. Are we on the cusp of a downturn?

“Retail demand in Brazil is getting used to the idea that the very high level of real interest rates will not be available in the near future.”

Farouk Ramzan has joined Lloyds TSB as head of debt origination reporting to Mark Grant, head of DCM. Ramzan was a long-standing member of SG’s debt team where he was head of UK corporate DCM.

The first of several credit derivative product company (CDPC) launches widely rumoured to be in the works emerged just before the year-end.

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.

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.

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.

Abuse of information prompts worries about integrity in credit markets.

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

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

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.

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