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.

Slackening underwriting standards in loans that back a burgeoning CDO market? It all sounds horribly familiar.

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

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.

Euromoney has incorporated its annual credit research poll into a new fixed income research survey. The intention has been to give those banks that no longer follow the traditional fundamental sell-side credit research model a chance to be nominated by their clients.

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.

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.

One man, one vision might be a line from a naff Queen song but it neatly encapsulates the role Herbert Stepic has played in building Raiffeisen International into one of the strongest banking franchises in Europe.

Czech power provider CEZ has been voted central and Eastern Europe’s best-managed company for the second year running. Rising energy prices are helping the firm to record strong profits, but why are analysts so impressed by the firm’s management? Lawrence White reports.

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.

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

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!"

Ulf Persson, managing partner of Mint Capital, talks to Guy Norton about the challenges of the Russian private equity market.

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.

Macro fund on losing streak; incentive fees down 88% in February quarter.

In 20 years, RZB has gone from being an Austrian also-ran to a central and eastern European market leader. Much of its success is attributable to the vision of Raiffeisen International’s CEO, Herbert Stepic. No wonder he is known to the Austrian masses as ‘Der Cash-Man’. Guy Norton looks at RZB’s ambitious plans for further expansion in the region, and Sudip Roy finds out what keeps the fire burning in Stepic’s belly.

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.

Buying into the IPO of a private equity company is like a game of pass the parcel in which someone has already made off with the prize. Those that choose to play will end up disappointed.

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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.