Leading custody banks are squaring up to provide the entire back-office and middle-office functions of fund managers, leaving them to focus more closely on investment. But outsourcing is not growing as fast as many had hoped. Now State Street is bad-mouthing its main rivals, Bank of New York and JPMorgan, saying they have held the whole market back by mismanaging their first deals.

An inflation rate of only 2%, a stable currency and reserves at $3.5 billion demonstrate the stress Jordan has put on having a tight and rigorously enforced monetary policy.

Primary debt capital markets picked up so significantly in May that some bankers felt able to forecast a bumper crop of issuance for the year. But with macro events so unpredictable they weren't betting their all on that outcome.

After several phases of consolidation, Portuguese banks are facing up to a recession that might provide incentive for acquisitions by foreign banks.

Juan Ramón Quintás, Chairman of the Spanish Savings Banks Confederation (CECA), talks to Euromoney's Jules Stewart about the effects of the new finance law on the cajas

Brazil's decision to use 85% collective action clauses in its recent highly successful bond issue has raised questions about slightly off-colour investor pressure. What's more, the republic may have made it harder for itself to handle a restructuring should one be needed.

Source: www.breakingviews.com is Europe's leading financial commentary service

Source: www.breakingviews.com is Europe's leading financial commentary service

At its latest committee meeting, the Federal Reserve stressed the perils of deflation. Fed chairman Alan Greenspan made it clear that if there's a whiff of it the Fed will act. In sharp contrast, European Central Bank president Wim Duisenberg slumbers on, occasionally mumbling about the dangers of inflation.

Three powerful and transforming currents swirling through wholesale financial services - banks' increased appetite for proprietary trading, the growth of hedge funds and the trend to outsourcing - flowed together at a compelling presentation by Deutsche Bank at Euromoney's annual forex forum at the London Hilton last month.

Kenichiro Shiozawa, the director of the capital markets division of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, tells Euromoney's Charles Olivier that JBIC paper is undervalued but that when conditions improve a euro issue will be considered.

European and US borrowers have raised more than $20 billion in the domestic Japanese bond market so far in 2003. Issuance is expected to rise further this year as demand increases.

Some bestsellers are expected. Number one on Amazon.com's list of the top-selling books in Latin America is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Some are more of a surprise. At number five you'll find an anthology of dry economic prose entitled After the Washington Consensus: Restarting Growth and Reform in Latin America.

When Kevin Gould was head of European fixed income at TD Securities, he would look around for daily market-wide data on credit prices. None existed. So he and a few colleagues left the bank to set up a company to produce it.

In its 10 years' existence, EBS had never made a more significant announcement. At the end of last month, the bank-backed forex trading network, whose interdealer platform transformed price transparency in its market, said it would begin offering dealer-to-client forex trading on Bloomberg.

Aberdeen Asset Management, the hard-hit UK fund manager, has sold its Guernsey-based exotic debt and emerging-market debt funds to the fund managers for an undisclosed sum. The fund is the only one in the UK to specialize in so-called pariah debt issued by countries such as Iraq and North Korea.

Searching through emerging-market currencies for investment opportunities is a tricky job - a delicate combination of subjective judgement and fundamental analysis. Luckily, plenty of currency pundits were on hand at Euromoney's forex forum last month to help investors and corporate hedgers choose a strategy.

Russian president Vladimir Putin fired the first salvo of his re-election campaign in his state of the nation speech on May 16 and used it to report on his first three years in office.

Source: www.breakingviews.com is Europe's leading financial commentary service

Convertibles grabbed centre stage last month as European and US issuers took advantage of strong investor demand and the attractive combination of rallying share prices and tightening credit spreads.

Investors are reluctant to buy European high-yield bonds. Rob Mannix reports on how lawyers might just change that

Bank Atlas - Top 200

As an environment of global deflation persists, money looking for yield continues to flow into emerging-market bond funds. Funds that have never invested in central and eastern European debt are now queuing up to do so. One banker in Poland says even Australian investors now hold Polish debt.

Chairman, Transparency International

Karlheinz Muhr is full of colourful ways to describe his business. He is chairman and founding partner of Volaris Advisors, which dubs itself an equity-options strategy firm. Essentially what it offers is the ability, as Muhr puts it, "to harvest the volatility of stocks which you already own".

US banks are starting to make big investments in Russia again, and it could be a sign of a looming economic crash for the former superpower. That's the verdict that consultant Ray Soifer is drawing from the most recent set of figures from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.

The Russian government's long-term energy strategy to 2020 was sent to the Cabinet for discussion last month and should be approved before the summer holidays. The development of the energy sector remains a priority for the Kremlin, accounting for half the economy and just over three-quarters of stock market capitalization.

Sir,

The thousands of retail investors in Europe holding Argentine debt would be virtually powerless as individuals in negotiations on restructuring. Pooled, though, their holdings could command a veto. Enter Angel Gurria and Adam Lerrick who, for a fee, hope to arrange this.

Adam Lerrick has promised the retail investors who sign up for his scheme that he will get them their money back: that although their coupons might drop and their maturities might be pushed back, the face value of their bonds will be preserved.