Hugo Chávez’s war of words with US president George W Bush has escalated, with the Venezuelan president threatening to sell his nation’s oil refineries in the US. Chávez has threatened to sell Citgo Petroleum’s refineries and divert US oil exports to other countries. “I could easily order the closing of the refineries that we have in the United States. I could easily sell the oil that we sell to the United States to other countries...[to] real friends and allies like China, India or Europe,” he told supporters at a rally last month.

New report calls on multilateral to issue more benchmark bonds.

The ASEAN tigers: back with a roar?

FX heads aspire for gold in L’Etape du Tour bike race.

GDP warrants on the sovereign bond exchange are proving a hot market.

Taiwan is desperately overbanked and the unprofitable financial sector is crying out for successful consolidation and rationalization, rather than ill-judged government initiatives. But that has not stopped foreign investors buying into the market for the first time. Nick Parsons reports

A mixture of accounting issues, demographics, trends in the equity market and a sharp fall in bond yields has revealed the chasm between the assets and liabilities of pension funds in the UK, Europe and the US. Many will be unable to pay their pension promises in full. Most will be pushed into liability-driven investment strategies. But are they a real solution or an expensive act of desperation?

Increasing regulatory costs for hedge fund managers are leading large players to make a U-turn and look to outsource back-office functions, says Tom Kerns, global head of client reporting and product integration at Deutsche Bank Global Prime Services.

Dollar bond with enhanced curve is a sign of bigger things to come.

Goldman Sachs might still be the firm to beat when it comes to global M&A but it has just lost the chairman of its European investment banking business, Claudio Costamagna, who will leave this month after 17 years at the firm.

The country’s banks are successful and stable. But a small domestic market leaves a difficult choice: concentrate on building at home or seek to expand overseas. Laurence Neville reports.

Synthetic bond is a precursor to bonds in Egyptian pounds.

India’s distressed debt market has a problem. Specialist firms, often set up by a consortium of banks, buy the assets from one arm of a bank, package them up, and then have to sell them back to the original banks. After intense lobbying from firms such as Arcil, the Indian government has changed the rules. Niranjan Rajadhyaksha reports.

Bond investors are starting to clamour for extra protection as buyout risk increases.

Ucits III opens the door to sustainable growth of single-stock futures. Over the past five years the exchange’s USF market has grown by an average of 57% a year, and there may be more to come.

The financial rehabilitation of Korean chipmaker Hynix offers salutary lessons for the region. Once the company was an embarrassment that an entire country wanted to go away. Now its creditors will reap a bonanza from a deal that they never even wanted. Chris Leahy reports from Seoul.

Latin America’s infatuation with the perpetual bond market shows no signs of slowing down. Metrofinanciera, one of Mexico’s biggest mortgage lenders, is the latest corporate to reveal its interest in issuing a perp. The company’s chief executive, José Armando Guzmán González, says that he is mulling over the idea but declines to provide further details.

Bank of America gets the edge with its acquisition of Financial Labs.

Our December cover story, The problem with foreign exchange, has sparked debate about the structure of today's FX market. Responses to the feature are still arriving at the Euromoney office.

Reserve confirms Wachovia deal qualifies for tier 1. And that could spark over $40 billion of copycat deals.

Foreign investors are back in Thailand to scoop up bargains. The timing couldn’t be better for a new drive to develop the capital markets but politics could get in the way of some important deals. Peter Koh reports.

A US Federal court case may force Congress to consider amendments to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

The Swiss bank is making determined efforts to grow its US private banking business.

Second-lien financings grew dramatically in 2005. Total US second-lien loan issuance alone amounted to more than $22 billion in 2005. In Europe, second-lien issuance totalled €5.75 billion in 2005, rising from €1.88 billion in 2004.

The market is attractive to potential foreign acquirers, but the process of acquisition is proving far from easy. Patrick Gill reports.

Supply of both Islamic-compliant and conventional instruments has so far failed to keep up with the voracious levels of demand across the Middle East, but there are signs that product-starved investors might now begin to see a steadier flow, though far-reaching challenges remain. Kathryn Wells reports.

Thai capital markets are set for a bull run. SCB's president, Khunying Jada Watthanasiritham, expains how her bank, and other local firms, can profit despite growing interest from international banks.

In December 2001, the government defaulted on $81.8 billion of debt repayments and broke the peso’s link with the dollar. When Nielsen was appointed in May 2002, the country was in the midst of one of the worst financial, social and political crises to hit any country since the Great Depression. His job, together with that of his economy minister, Roberto Lavagna, was to help restore stability and turn around Argentina’s financial fortunes.

The problems of open-ended real estate funds might pave the way for the rapid success of Reits.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange has launched a snowfall index. From the end of February, investors were able to trade snowfall futures and options based on snowfall in New York and Boston. “From municipal snow removal budgets to holiday retail sales, snowfall, or lack thereof, can have a major impact on local and regional economies,” says Scott Mathews, president of CTA WeatherEX. “Our clients will be able to hedge the expense or revenue side of the snowfall equation.” It will be a little too late for those affected by the snowstorms in New York in February. A record 27 inches of snow fell in 24 hours, costing the city an estimated $20 million.