As gas exports from Qatar provide the country with a buffer from the Middle East’s financial crisis, investors are expected to favour Doha over troubled Dubai. Already, some regional and global banks are transferring staff from Dubai to Qatar’s capital.

One region that will feel the force of a deep recession in the US is central America. However, recent financial reform could help soften the blow to an extent. Two of the region’s finance ministers tell Euromoney about their hopes and fears.

Kazakhstan has witnessed a dramatic series of events in recent weeks as the central Asian state grapples with the growing challenge of the global credit crunch and associated economic slowdown. At the start of February it devalued its currency by 18% to about KT150 to the dollar.

As part of a government reshuffle, Hamad Saud Al Sayyari, governor of the central bank of Saudi Arabia, has been replaced by the vice-governor, Muhammad Al Jasser.

The market is relatively young but it has had a brutal education over the past year as the financial crisis has swept through every corner of the financial markets. Where next for inflation-linked products?

Eirvin Knox, chief executive of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, has resigned. He will be replaced by his deputy, Ala’a Eraiqat. The resignation came as ADCB’s profits for 2008 fell 35% from 2007 to Dh1.36 billion ($370 million). The bank took loan provisions of Dh758 million and investment provisions of nearly Dh740 million.

The 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), together with Japan, China and South Korea, agreed in late February to create a $120 billion pool of foreign exchange reserves. The fund is intended to act as a buffer for members by providing short-term financing, as well as helping to ward off speculative attacks on their currencies.

Timothy Geithner’s proposals for hedge funds and private equity funds to buy the mortgage-backed assets that clog financial institutions’ books have not been met with the enthusiasm the US government might have wished for.

Just a week before Bernie Madoff’s first hearing was to take place, another multi-billion dollar hedge fund fraud case emerged. Billionaire Allen Stanford, or "Sir Allen" as he is in Antigua, has allegedly ripped off investors to the tune of more than $9 billion. Once again, due diligence experts say the writing was on the wall and that they had been discouraging investors from investing money with Stanford. The most glaring red flag was that the fund returned the same performance for two years running.

US president Barack Obama is reportedly going to propose taxing the carried interest earned by hedge fund managers and private equity managers as ordinary income, rather than as capital gains. In addition to capping Wall Street executive salaries, industry participants fear that there will be an exodus of financial expertise to more accommodating jurisdictions.

The $3 billion London hedge fund Endeavour is liquidating its flagship fund after losing more than 40% last year. The fund was running a fixed-income arbitrage strategy that lost money on Japanese government bond futures. A bail-out plan with Barclays Global Investors failed to be completed. The fund has also returned money from its second fund, Pembroke, to investors. Pembroke will continue to manage proprietary money.

The RTS Stock Exchange in Moscow has seen good demand for its new euro/dollar futures contract, launched on February 5. Turnover in the contracts, which have a notional value of just €1,000, reached 142,565, or $1.8 billion, on February 17, making it probably the most successful FX contract launch for some time. Local banks have been providing liquidity; demand is said to be flowing in from retail participants.

The relatively conservative approaches of the financial system and banks’ customers seem to be helping the nation deal relatively well with the financial crisis and recession. But there are still risks ahead. Laurence Neville reports.

Some senior bankers are still moving to Dubai; but at least one has already moved away again. Sending rainmakers to the UAE brings as yet unquantifiable rewards. Should global banks keep expanding their Gulf presence? Dominic O’Neill reports from Dubai.

Multibank platform FXall, which has recently released a new service called Cross Currency Netting, says that changing conditions in the foreign exchange market have shown the importance of being able to deliver flexible workflow tools to the buy side.

Debt drought might force Gatwick sale rethink.

The Turkish economy has made great strides forward since the financial meltdown of 2001. But has it changed enough to survive the global economic slump? Guy Norton reports from Istanbul.

Analysts predict that Spain will be hit hard by the global economic downturn. But Baldomero Falcones of conglomerate FCC tells Laurence Neville he’s confident the company is well placed to thrive.

Analysts at Royal Bank of Canada recently summed up the prospects for many of the non-G7 economies in a piece of research entitled Running out of bullets.

If you thought the credit market was dead, it’s not. It is now called the sovereign debt market. The crisis has boosted demand for their paper, but a day of reckoning for the government bond markets is coming. Alex Chambers reports.

Hedge fund activists are finding it harder to spot opportunities.

Hedge fund lay-offs continue to accelerate. Bluebay Asset Management, the fixed-income specialist firm, laid off 30 people in February. One firm, however, is hiring heavily. DE Shaw has been advertising for an investor relations associate, a government adviser associate, a computational biochem associate as well as general staffers across several websites over February. "We’re not your typical finance firm. We hire painters, poets, and mystery novelists. We offer brilliant colleagues, flexible schedules, free food, free admission to most major NYC museums, yoga classes, and no dress code... Plus, we have a supercomputer. No matter what you’ve studied, if you’re smart, accomplished, and willing to learn, you’ll fit right in," says the posting.

Credit default swaps market gets its house in order.

One of the smallest EU sovereign issuers is determinedly fighting its corner, as Portugal’s debt agency head, Alberto Soares, tells Alex Chambers.

Aladdin Capital Holdings has launched a fund that will invest exclusively in debtor-in-possession facilities.

The FX world looks as if it could be there for the taking for the Canadian banks, which either through good judgement or luck appear to have weathered the global credit crunch relatively well. CIBC World Markets also looks as if it wants to capitalize; the bank is rumoured to have lured Mark Sweeting to the new role of head of FICC sales. Sweeting had been twiddling his thumbs at UniCredit in London, which he joined from ABN Amro in June 2007 to focus on US and UK real money sales. In 2008 CIBC hired the heavyweight trio of Harry Culham, Christian Exshaw and Tim Carrington, who gained a solid reputation at Dresdner before an ill-fated stint at Merrill Lynch. Sources say Sweeting will start in April and report to Exshaw.

In Brazil, private equity is in vogue. Local billionaires Eike Batista and Andre Esteves are not the only people tapping the low valuation opportunities. Fund managers can be more selective within wider risk parameters as the true power of their key asset – cash – becomes obvious. Chloe Hayward reports.

Emerging market investors who gorged on an increasing array of corporate debt products face uncertain times as companies’ balance sheets come under pressure. Default and recovery rates will vary greatly by country, writes Sudip Roy.

Bad news from equity derivatives desks to have been relatively contained so far – although banks make it hard to find real numbers. But as investors remain wary of highly structured trades, and bank losses mount, will it be back to basics in 2009? Phil Moore finds out.

Eike Batista is intent on bucking the market. He wants to make idle private equity work. Bankers love his energy and mining businesses despite the downturn in global commodities. Can Brazil’s richest man keep delivering? Chloe Hayward reports.