Ruling on compensation to pension scheme members for failure or underfunding will have implications for regulation and bond markets across the EU, starting with the UK, writes Roger James.

Latin America’s best companies, like its capital markets, are beginning to find their bite. Boldness is the buzzword in a stable environment of 5% regional economic growth. For a growing club, foreign markets are the targets for home-grown Latin success stories. Leticia Lozano reports.

“Normally, the willingness of the monolines to go long-term means that they are cheaper for long-term funding. But the banks have been pushing the envelope on tenors and prices so this is simply not the case any more”

Row with Russia leaves large hole in the country’s current account.

With acquisition opportunities elsewhere in Latin America now few and far ­between, global banks are increasingly turning their attention to the economically vibrant and rapidly integrating central American region. Leticia Lozano reports.

The Bank of England is planning to issue non-sterling medium-term debt to finance its foreign exchange reserves on an annual basis. The bank has mandated Barclays Capital, Citi, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan for the syndication. The first deal is likely to take place in the week of March 12: the Bank of England said, it will be a three-year US dollar transaction.

Is this the start of a new funding route for corporates?

International media coverage of the late-January elections in Serbia tended to lead on the fact that the ultra-nationalist Radical Party – headed by Vojislav Seselj who has been indicted by the international tribunal in The Hague – won the most votes in the poll. However, the more important and more comforting fact is that a coalition from what is known as the democratic bloc of parties will ultimately form the new government in the Balkan republic.

Many participants in the foreign exchange market were shocked by the sudden departure of nascent trading platform FXMarketSpace’s chief operating officer, Bryan Hunter, on February 12. His exit came just days after he had helped present details of FXMarketSpace to the European Central Bank in Frankfurt with his long-time colleague Rick Sears.

Central and eastern Europe used to be notorious for pollution-belching power stations and factories but the region could now be a key player in the fight against climate change through the use of renewable energy sources. That’s certainly the hope of Michael White, managing partner of EnerCap Capital Partners, whose EnerCap Power Fund is seeking to raise €100 million to invest in renewable energy projects.

Row brews over sale of Japanese steel maker.

On January 30, the leading names in the Islamic finance industry gathered at the Royal Garden Hotel in London for Euromoney’s fifth annual Islamic Finance Awards dinner.

Structured product providers aim to be all things to all people: risk reducers, alpha generators, beta replicators – you name the risk and return profile wanted and they will match it. However, some institutional investors remain distinctly wary of what is on offer.

ABN Amro launched the third SME loan securitization under its Smile programme.

The NFA has barred Tradex permanently from membership, triggering spectacular bad-mouthing between former colleagues.

In the month after populist leftist Rafael Correa took power in January, the market in Ecuador’s global bonds went crazy. Correa made noises about defaulting on Ecuador’s debt from the beginning of his presidential campaign, but bond traders generally discounted that rhetoric as political posturing, and Ecuador’s benchmark 2030 global bonds remained near par until after the inauguration.

The temperature in Moscow has plummeted to well below freezing in recent weeks but the battle to land the best available investment banking talent is raging white hot as firms snap up experienced personnel whom – they hope at least – will boost their share in one of the world’s most lucrative markets.

An increasing number of funds of hedge funds are issuing collateralized fund obligations. There have been 20 such transactions, 10 of which were launched in 2006. "We expect the number of CFO transactions in 2007 to surpass that of 2006," says Ken Margolis, co-head of global CDOs at Merrill Lynch.

The search for yield has resulted in an increase in overseas investment. But according to a recent research note put out by State Street Global Advisors, fund managers might have been lulled into a false sense of security by the low volatility environment.

The shift in the balance of power in Citi’s debt group duplicates a trend seen in some other US investment banks.

URBANE, INTELLIGENT, DYNAMIC and ambitious are just some of the qualities that characterize the up-and-coming generation of Turkish bankers who are driving the country’s banking sector towards a brighter, more prosperous future with all the power of the high-performance sports cars that adorn the car parks of the banking district in downtown Istanbul.

We are repeatedly told that financial markets are awash with liquidity. That is now less true and the ingenuity of modern finance means that liquidity is little more than a mirage.

The Argentine local investment bank says it wants to become the region’s number one. It’s a bold aspiration for a firm in a country still recovering from crisis. Lawrence White visits Buenos Aires to find out how the bank plans to do it.

Credit Suisse has promoted Ram Nayak and Darren Walker to head its emerging markets group within its fixed income division in London.

The huge growth in products and sophistication in global credit markets has been a boon for almost all participants – with one notable exception. Monoline insurers are contemplating a bleak future in the face of changing issuer and investor attitudes towards credit risk. Even their great hope – a return of risk with a turn of the credit cycle – might not be enough to save some of them. Louise Bowman reports.

One of Latin America’s most distinguished banking careers will come to an end this month. Eloy Garcia, treasurer at the Inter-American Development Bank, will leave the multilateral after its annual meeting in Guatemala at the end of March after 35 years’ service.

Willy Zapata, Guatemala’s head of banking supervision, is not easily shaken. When Euromoney met him late in the evening recently, his offices were under siege from angry depositors in the second bank to collapse in as many months. Armed guards barred the gates.

Eurostat’s ruling that healthcare securitizations will be treated as on-balance-sheet debt has forced the Tesoro to concede that the country’s constitution actually prohibits them.

Turkey’s open-door approach to foreign investment is paying dividends, with international banks helping to boost balance sheets and widen the range of products and services in the sector. Guy Norton reports from Istanbul.