It´s the new Big Bang in equity trading. As research and execution are unbundled, and as clients increasingly access markets directly, brokers need to find new ways to keep their institutional clients. Algorithmic trading is one way. It cuts execution costs, adds alpha and gives the creative brokers – those able to design flexible, customized algorithms – a new way to keep in the execution business, for now.

A rather angry group of American football players and the federal government are reportedly looking for Kirk Wright, whose International Management Association hedge fund allegedly robbed 500 investors of $185 million. The fund was eligible for investment as part of the football players’ financial advisers programme. Wright failed to appear in court, and has reportedly gone underground, claiming that he has received death threats.

Saudi Arabia’s stock market regulator, the Capital Markets Authority, is in an invidious position. At the start of the year CMA officials tried in vain to warn naive retail investors about the dangers of piling into the under-researched, thinly traded speculative stocks that comprise nearly a quarter of the country’s public companies. They were ignored: dismissed as interfering, risk-averse bureaucrats. The market, driven by rising corporate profitability resulting from the high oil price, rose to absurd levels.

The central Asian republic may still be developing suitable funding channels, but a pick-up in deals is expected, given an economy that continues to grow and an appropriate legal framework. Patrick Gill reports.

As an increasing number of hedge fund managers chase similar strategies in a bid to make returns, Bryan Williams asks why more aren’t looking at municipal bond arbitrage.

Hybrid structured products – cross-asset-class investments – are finally starting to make a significant impact with investors. Banks report increasing demand from those looking to trade several market views via a single instrument to instantly reap the benefits of portfolio diversification. But with increasing sales come new challenges, such as the pricing of correlation. How are hybrid structured product makers faring?

Uses of securitization to fund US buyouts is getting ever more innovative.

State Bank of India has decided to enter India’s rapidly growing market for securitized assets.

Vietnam’s first flirtation with western fund management ended in an embarrassing exit for all but the die-hard few. Now that money is queuing to get in again, those who stuck it out through the downturn advise caution. Chris Leahy reports.

US bank is surprising frontrunner in league tables.

When Gloria Estefan released her 1987 chart topper “Rhythm is gonna get you”, she was on to something. Nearly 20 years later she still has the crowd dancing in the aisles, or “partying on out” as she put it – even when that crowd is attending a swanky mid-week benefit dinner on Wall Street.

The managers of a new equity fund say the big re-rating of Russia is over. It is time for a new type of fund that can prosper in a downturn, they argue. Julian Evans reports.

The bridge loan Softbank has taken out to acquire Vodafone in Japan is enormous, negotiated on onerous terms and costly by Japanese standards.

Lehman Brothers has incorporated its European structured finance syndicate and the short-term credit business into its wider syndicate platform. Lorenzo Frontini, European head of syndicate, now has Brett Olson, Edward Rose and Yekaterina Antropova, who are responsible for structured finance, reporting to him. Jon Ford, who runs short-term credit reports to Frontini geographically and Paul Feidelson, global head of short term credit.

Foreign and local banks are preparing for intense competition to win market share in one of Europe’s fastest-growing financial sectors. Those not already in the field are likely to find this an expensive business. Nick Saywell reports.

While some analysts worry about the Austrian bank’s effect on prices in central and eastern Europe, others have a great deal of confidence in CEO Andreas Treichl and his X factor. Julian Evans reports.

Bank of Alexandria privatization process started.

Q&A with Bill Browder, founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, the biggest foreign investor in Russia.

Central Asia, a stronghold for dictators, poverty and corruption, doesn’t at first glance seem to offer fertile ground for high investment returns. But this is precisely what some of the region’s more intrepid investors hope to find and profit from. Kathryn Wells spends a week on the road with two hedge fund managers, on the lookout for opportunities on this new frontier.

Euromoney’s investigation into the global FX market in 2006 – seven years before the fixing controversy - revealed the scale of the practice of banks’ pre-empting, or front-running, clients' FX orders.

Structured credit investors rushing to list residual income funds need the capacity to accurately price this esoteric risk.

Australian regulator’s charges cast doubt on legitimacy of prop trading.

New valuation models have underscored the need for accurate mark-to-market pricing for credit derivatives.

Goldman Sachs has reshuffled its Latin American investment banking team by naming Eduardo Centola and Martin Werner as co-heads.

Fund managers with medium-size AUMs can be successful.

Russian companies are not renowned for adherence to international standards in corporate governance but several from the Russian Federation are looking to list their stock domestically and abroad. How are these companies dealing with the standards demanded by international investors? Kathryn Wells reports.

Three years ago, the Romanian government had to admit defeat in its plans to privatize Banca Comerciala Romana, the country’s largest bank. By last autumn, though, when bidding was reopened, nine banks submitted bids and the bank was eventually sold at 5.8 times book value – a record at that time in central Europe. So what changed?

The long-awaited privatization of Svyazinvest, Russia’s national fixed-line telecoms operator, could finally get under way within the next two months.

What’s going on at Merrill Lynch? The investment bank has posted impressive overall first-quarter results, as revenues hit the $8 billion mark, but the Latin American debt capital markets desk seems to be lagging.

Is the single-minded pursuit of alpha as smart a strategy as conventional wisdom would suggest?