Which US investment bank is back in the top 10? Which Danish bank breaks into the top 25 for the first time? What’s the best multi-bank platform – FXall or Currenex? And who are the leading local banks in emerging market FX? Here are the views of over 8,000 end-users who transacted over $120 trillion in the past 12 months.

Low volatility in the FX market should not necessarily mean low returns.

The range of structured credit products on offer to investors has grown as they seek to increase returns in a low-yield environment. The next stage, led by CPDOs, is to create more spread-based, rated products that incorporate default and market risk.

Financial markets are always dynamic places and constantly evolving as they embrace change. Today’s foreign exchange market is no exception and it is arguably developing at a faster pace than at any other time in its history. So how will it look in five years’ time? Lee Oliver asks leading FX participants to peer into the crystal ball.

The present run of stock market buoyancy cannot be sustained. And that’s not just because credit is set to contract – so, too, are corporate profits.

European credit strategist Gary Jenkins has joined Synapse Investment Management as a partner and portfolio manager in the credit strategy team. Gary was previously a managing director and head of fundamental credit strategy at Deutsche Bank, and before that was a managing director and head of credit research at Barclays Capital.

"Oh shit!"

Société Générale has acquired a 100% stake in Banco Cacique, a Brazilian retail firm specializing in consumer credit with 1,800 employees and about 600,000 active clients. A spokeswoman for SG told Euromoney that the move was not indicative of any plan to rush into Brazil but is rather the targeting of a specific market where strong growth is expected.

The Argentine government has advised Ecuador not to follow its example and default on its debt.

Eurex is clearly very proud of its new exchange-listed credit index futures. To celebrate the launch, the international derivatives exchange threw a party at the London Aquarium in Westminster, giving it the full James Bond treatment.

A flurry of bond deals should not disguise the fact that aggressive loans and PIKs have squeezed both high yield and mezzanine finance.

Buying an oil-producing company in Kazakhstan is by no means a straightforward process, as Citic’s acquisition of Nations Energy makes clear. Nor is the Chinese company’s future in the country at all clearly signposted. Elliot Wilson reports.

"And what drives me? I want to create a huge empire. That is what drives me. And as long as God is willing and gives me strength and I am healthy, I will do that"

Joint venture with local player and a multi-strategy approach.

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Three cheers to Raiffeisen International.

Head of prime brokerage Hannah Goodwin talks about expansion of the bank’s services to Singapore.

Credit Suisse closed the first issue of long/short collateralized commodity obligations notes in April. Rated AAA by Fitch Ratings and denominated in US dollars, euros and Australian dollars in three-year and five-year tranches, the $190 million issue of notes offers protected coupon payments and principal repayments based on the performance of long and short positions on a portfolio of commodities.

As of June 1, Rupert Allan, president of Tremont Capital, will be taking on the role of CEO.

The Irish bank is bringing unconventional assets into the burgeoning covered bond market.

The usual post-bonus round of recruitment has generated a typical flurry of activity in Asia’s investment banking community. The one area that has been notably active is the debt capital markets business as banks reposition their businesses to reflect the exceptionally strong market conditions of 2006 and the start of this year.

Boards spend more time discussing alternative investments.

But Tate & Lyle puts itself on the Pink Sheets.

Performance and regulatory changes make raising capital tough.

"Help me.... I’m cold... I don’t know where I am... there are bugs crawling all over me..."

Taking advantage of its recently gained status as a recognized overseas clearing house, Eurex, the derivatives exchange owned by Deutsche Börse and SWX (Swiss Exchange), announced plans to begin offering sterling-denominated single-stock futures on UK-listed shares in May.

Icap has widened the distribution of its electronic forward foreign exchange platform after what it says is its successful take-up in Europe. The company says the platform will build on the success of EBS, the spot platform it bought from its mainly bank owners in 2006.

Dresdner Kleinwort has bolstered its Russia and the CIS investment banking franchise with the appointment of Igor Lojevsky as chairman of global banking and capital markets. He will join the bank in July following gardening leave, having most recently worked at Deutsche Bank in Moscow where he had been head of sales and origination for Russia and the CIS since 2005. Previously, Lojevsky had been co-head of investment banking for Vneshtorgbank in Moscow from 2003 to 2005 and had also worked in London from 2001 to 2003 for Deutsche Bank’s corporate finance team. Lojevsky effectively replaces Bob Foresman, who left the bank to become deputy chairman of local investment bank Renaissance Capital. Russia is Dresdner Kleinwort’s strongest market outside the UK and Germany. According to Dealogic, the bank was number one for Russian initial public offerings as of end-2006, Eurobonds and securitizations, and number two for syndicated loans.

Ukrainian politicians and bankers are considering allowing the dollar-pegged hryvna to become a managed floating currency. A first reading of a draft law in the country’s parliament, the Rada, has led to expectations that such a change could be made within 12 months.

Belgian bancassurance player KBC has become the latest foreign bank to buy into Russia. Late in April it agreed to pay up to €761 million to acquire at least 92.5% of Absolut Bank, 3.8 times the book value. It is the biggest banking M&A deal in Russia. Absolut Bank is one of the fastest-growing banks in Russia and has doubled its loan book on an annual basis for the past five years. "Over the past decade, KBC has built up a strong presence in many of the countries that joined the EU in May 2004 and January 2007. KBC’s long-term strategic plans entail further expansion in the markets of emerging Europe. Russia is therefore an extension of our existing presence in neighbouring central and eastern Europe," says André Bergen, KBC Group chief executive.