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.

Is Poland the new Russia? Not in economic superpower terms, but in riding roughshod over the wishes of foreign investors?

International banks continue to flock to Turkey, where the lure of a 70 million-plus population that is becoming increasingly bankable presents an almost irresistible attraction. Among the latest entrants to the Turkish banking market is Bank TuranAlem, Kazakhstan’s number two bank by assets. After nine months of negotiations it has secured a 33.98% stake in Sekerbank for TL424.7 million ($256 million). The acquisition was conducted by BTA’s investment banking arm, TuranAlem Securities, whose chief executive, Kairat Bektanov, says that the Sekerbank transaction is part of an expansion strategy that has transformed BTA from a purely Kazakh operation into a major regional player. The bank already has subsidiaries in Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Ukraine as well as representative offices in China, Tajikistan and the United Arab Emirates.

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.

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

More efficiency in clearing will help increase the importance of Europe’s equity markets.

Unsolicited approach looks as if it could get nasty.

FXMarketSpace, the 50/50 joint venture owned by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Reuters, officially went live as planned at the end of the first quarter.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

"It was one of those deals that really worked. It caught the market, it caught the moment and it caught the imagination" -Tim Skeet, Merrill Lynch

In the second half of last year, outstanding volumes of credit default swaps grew by 33%. This compares with the first half of the year, when outstanding CDS volumes grew by 52%. In 2005, CDS volumes rose by 105%. The numbers were produced by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, which announced on April 18 the results of its year-end 2006 market survey of privately negotiated derivatives.

Is a high level of consolidation in the FX market sustainable? And what of the hundreds of banks that fall outside the bulge bracket?

"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"

FIAB and IADB aim to launch market for shares this year.

But Tate & Lyle puts itself on the Pink Sheets.

The ultimate local market, real estate is also open to being globalized as an asset class. Great strides have been made in doing this and there’s more to come.

The Eurasian Development Bank, a new policy lender established in January 2006 by the governments of Kazakhstan and Russia, says its loan portfolio is set to hit $1 billion by the end of 2007 and $10 billion by 2012, from $216 million at the start of April this year. Igor Finogenov, chairman of the joint Russo-Kazakh policy lender, said in an interview with Euromoney that the first tranche of investments would be made in the two founding member countries, before being expanded to the rest of the Eurasian Economic Community, or EurAsEc, which comprises Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Three further countries hold the status of member-observer – Armenia, Moldova and Ukraine.

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

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.

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

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.

The US government has in recent weeks intensified its pressure on the international community to enforce sanctions against Iran in response to its continuing programme of uranium enrichment. It seems, however, that Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez will be among those world leaders who ignore the proposed boycott. "The only country that has developed atomic bombs and dropped them on entire peoples is the North American empire... they don’t have the morality to be giving anybody lessons," he said on his television programme Hello President.

Whatever the conclusion of the bid war for ABN Amro, it will put the Dutch bank’s prize Brazilian asset, Banco Real, into the ring.

Bank hires entire team of Ritchie Capital Management in Hong Kong.

The maturation of Asia’s hedge fund industry is evidenced by the number of new funds being set up by hedge fund employees in the region.

"Oh shit!"