Brazil is notorious for many things, caipirinhas, carnival and beautiful beaches... but in the mind of one Euromoney journalist Brazil also breeds a special type of PR who can invent some of the most original excuses for delays to meetings.

Exchange-traded funds backed by physical gold are to be launched on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, following last August’s debut on the Osaka exchange of ETFs backed by bonds linked to the price of the precious metal. Japan’s investors have long had an affinity for gold: it is the only country where buyers of gold-related options contracts frequently exercise their right to delivery, according to Itsuo Toshima, regional representative of the World Gold Council. It is also the only country in which gold accumulation plans, whereby investors gradually acquire small amounts of the metal through diligent monthly payments of as little as ¥3,000 ($30), have succeeded.

Anyone who follows the travails of England’s football, cricket and rugby teams should easily have predicted Northern Rock’s troubles.

The internet campaign to raise €5 billion to save the career of rogue trader Jérôme Kerviel, launched on social networking site Facebook, has got off to a slow start, with only 2,095 members so far having pledged €1 each towards the cause.

Anticipation of the much-discussed but now postponed launch of the European residential mortgage-backed securities index (ERMBX) is behind violent swings in spread levels on single-name credit default swaps on RMBS tranches. Markit, ERMBX’s owner, announced that the index’s debut has been delayed because of market volatility. That volatility, in fact, has been caused by buyers of protection on single-name CDS referencing prime RMBS AAAs, say market participants.

Dow Kim, a 10-year veteran of Merrill Lynch who left the bank in May 2007, is to go ahead with his hedge fund, Diamond Lake, which he plans to roll out in April. Kim was co-president of Merrill’s global markets and investment banking division, and is largely blamed for the losses in the bank’s fixed-income and mortgages businesses despite leaving before the full extent of exposure came to light.

Robert Palache has left Morgan Stanley after a little over 18 months in a role that involved the securitization of corporate, real estate and infrastructure assets. Palache was also the newly appointed chair of the European Securitization Forum.

As their peers in Europe and the US struggle to adjust to the world post sub-prime, Japan’s megabanks find themselves in the glow of unaccustomed financial health. But how do they put their new-found advantage to best use? And can they ignore the demons that caused such huge mistakes in the past?

Funds that offer private banking clients’ portfolio returns are being launched in March by the creators of the FTSE Private Banking Index series.

Banker: "We looked at SG, but the integration would have been very difficult and, in any case, the French don’t like to sell to foreigners"

Credit Suisse’s convoluted saga is a calamity for the banking sector as a whole. People might assume that banks don’t understand the numbers they are dealing with and that the numbers that are reported are not reliable.

The record number of ratings downgrades in structured finance has fundamentally altered the market’s dynamic.

The financial services sector in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia looks set to remain a magnet for foreign direct investment thanks to growing economic and political stability.

The precipitous fall in UK and continental European property values – in some cases 20% and higher – in the months since the sub-prime crisis began to bite has put pressure on a handful of commercial mortgage-backed securitizations. Refinancing risk is the greatest spectre in the CMBS market, with some deals facing dire consequences if banks remain tight-fisted with their cash in the next 12 to 18 months.

Eloy Garcia spent 35 years at the Inter-American Development Bank, most recently as a treasurer, before retiring last year. Now a professor at Johns Hopkins University, he tells Sudip Roy of the enormous challenges the bank and the Latin American region have faced and the progress made.

Latin American bankers appear confident that the region can continue to avoid the worst of the US contagion.

Chinese banks face a potential corporate defaults crisis for the first time in five years.

Private placements are becoming an increasingly common route for emerging market companies seeking to tap global debt markets.

Marking everything that is complex down to zero, because markets are illiquid, does not seem to be a particularly equitable or sensible way of going about things. And that’s before you even consider the way the marking malaise is contributing to systemic risk.

The Japanese megabanks claim there are no shocks to come on the sub-prime losses front. If true, it’s a big leap forward for transparency.

Tough talk by the regulators might bear fruit for the monolines.

Many of the delegates at an industry conference in Nevada seemed blind to the real world beyond the securitization desk.

China’s ICBC, the world’s biggest bank by market capitalization, has been granted a licence to operate in the Qatar Financial Centre. This is ICBC’s first outlet in the Gulf, although in September 2007 the bank’s president indicated that a branch was planned for Dubai. Activities at the Qatar branch will include wholesale and investment banking, as well as asset management, consulting and trust services.

Geert Vinken, global head of syndicate at Barclays Capital, has retired. Vinken will be replaced by Mark Bamford, head of US syndicate. Vinken held the global role since 2000, having joined Barcap in 1998.

GSO Capital Partners intends to expand now it has the financial clout from its sale to Blackstone. The leveraged finance specialist has hired Najib Canaan, the head of asset-backed securities at Brevan Howard. Former colleagues of Canaan from his days at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette founded GSO.

Just as Thailand has entered a period of rare political calm and optimism with a new prime minister, one of its most sickly banks has been given a new lease of life with a landmark recapitalization. But, just as the jury is out on whether Thailand’s government can build on its new foundation, it remains to be seen whether TMB Bank can turn the corner after years of underperformance. TMB Bank was created in September 2004 from the merger of Thai Military Bank, DBS Thai Danu Bank and Industrial Finance Corporation. The merger created what was then the fifth-largest bank in Thailand. It now has 471 branches and 5 million deposit accounts but has struggled to generate performance to tally with its scale. It recorded a full-year loss of Bt43.7 billion ($1.39 billion) in 2007, three and a half times worse than the previous year, and has non-performing loans equivalent to 15% of lending as of the start of the year, having set aside Bt31 billion in provisions last year for loan-loss reserve requirements and increasing bad debt.

LATIN AMERICA ONLINE EXTRA: Mexico’s structured finance market continues to grow on the back of its housing boom.

Independent M&A boutiques are sensing an opportunity in Japan as the country’s top corporate names increasingly look to firms not tied to large commercial banks when awarding cross-border mandates.

The latest bout of blood-letting at the bank may only tarnish its reputation further.