The New York Stock Exchange needs to have its hybrid system ready before Reg NMS takes effect but it has only just completed Phase I. It might not have too much to worry about, though, as many other market participants are unprepared and a delay is widely expected.

Germany’s True Sale Initiative received some much-needed publicity last month when the first CLO to be structured under the programme emerged from Dresdner Bank.

“Debt providers are becoming more selective about the opportunities they are willing to support and are now concentrating on companies with good forward earnings visibility”- James Stewart, ECI

A compulsory minimum free float for banks listing in Russia is illogical, hard to police and might not be in investors’ best interests.

According to both EBS and FXall, the first quarter of 2006 was the busiest ever for FX trading. Talking purely about spot, EBS says daily activity in the quarter averaged $132 billion, a 2.3% increase on the same period in 2005.

UK companies struggling with pension fund shortfalls have been thrown a lifeline in the shape of investment banks and hedge funds. Wheels are in motion to create a market of defined benefit pension buyout ventures back by banks, hedge funds and entrepreneurs.

Radoslav Jelasic, governor of the National Bank of Serbia, tells Nick Saywell about the challenges facing his country’s banking industry as levels of foreign ownership rise. The main issues now are transparency and supervision rather than solvency and liquidity.

The removal of restrictions on trans-national M&A are fundamental to EU principles. Turkey is setting an example.

More challenging asset classes will require a different approach to Italian public sector risk.

Investors will have to wait for deals to burn out before prepayments in European CMBS transactions begin to ease.

Fitch Ratings has downgraded its rating for the Islamic Republic of Iran from BB– to B+, to take account of what it calls the “escalating confrontation between Iran and the international community over Iran’s nuclear programme.” Although it contends that material sanctions are still some way off, it argues that the risk is increasing and events “are becoming increasingly unpredictable”. The agency acknowledges, though, that with high oil prices Iran’s external financial position remains strong.

BMA chief confident about region’s fundamentals.

The Kazakh authorities would like to establish Almaty as a regional financial centre but further reform and market development is necessary first. Patrick Gill reports.

The most representative annual FX poll Euromoney has conducted to date examines a market in which technology shapes the present and the future, and the buy side is unwilling to break the bank when buying services. In a growing market that demands huge expenditure and promises little return, banks have to position themselves well to stay in the game. Florian Neuhof reports.

Competitors gloating over the firm’s current predicament are likely to be sorely disappointed.

Proponents of European high yield think covenants for issuers should be relaxed if the market is to survive.

Convertibles have regained popularity in M&A because of the types of deals being done.

Latin America is no stranger to banking crises. Every so often a banking system will implode, and depositors will lose all or some of their money.

International banks have been encouraged to re-enter the Saudi project finance market with big-ticket deals backed by a relatively healthy risk environment and more solid financial guarantees than in the past. Nigel Dudley reports.

“I tried really hard not to use the words ‘dead cat bounce’ when we met.”

At the start of April, Chuck Prince, chairman and CEO of Citigroup, came to Riyadh to lobby the Saudi finance ministry, central bank and capital markets regulator to let the US firm back into the kingdom less than two years after Citigroup sold off its 20% stake in Samba (previously Saudi American Bank). It was one of the early big decisions of Prince’s tenure as CEO and signalled the end of Citigroup’s presence in a country where it had operated since 1955.

With EU accession for Croatia still a few years away, the country’s financial authorities are focusing their attention on developing the local bond market. Oonagh Leighton reports.

After a few years of dormancy, convertible bond issuance in emerging Europe and the Middle East is picking up again. A few innovative and highly structured deals have priced this year and bankers are confident of more transactions. Sudip Roy reports on factors driving the activity and the types of investors involved.

ITG and Merrill Lynch have joined forces in a joint venture called “Block Alert, powered by Posit” that will create a global block order crossing service.

BNP Paribas has topped the investment grade section of the Euromoney credit research poll for the past three years but this success has not stood in the way of a shift to a new research model.

The capital markets are something of an open goal for debt issuers at the moment – spreads are tight, and investors want to put their money to work.

IMF responds to Nielsen accusations

Few companies are pursuing leveraged share buybacks, but pressure from activist investors is putting the issue back on the agenda and there could be a lot more deals in the next 12 months.

In recent weeks significant moves have taken place in the higher echelons of European structured finance.

It’s Vietnam, but not as we’ve known it. The country’s financial markets have promised much in the past and delivered little but disappointment. Reforms are now for real and initially most apparent in the banks. Significant opportunities are there for the taking. Chris Leahy reports.