Amid fears that it is already overly indebted, the image-conscious Dubai government has embarked on its largest bond programme ever. The local-currency bonds will be used to fund improvements to Dubai’s choked transport infrastructure, in particular through a new metro and international mega-airport.

The Bank of England levelled the playing field for UK financial institutions last month when it followed the lead of the Federal Reserve and provided a facility for domestic banks and building societies to refinance mortgage-backed bonds for government bonds. Continental European banks have long been able to use the European Central Bank’s repo facility for their mortgage-backed securities. Until the European securitization market shut down, UK banks were by far its biggest users – accounting for between 40% and 50% of annual issuance over the past three years alone. The Bank of England has carefully constructed its programme to ensure that banks retain all credit risk.

If you’re sick of hearing about Goldman Sachs beating the competition, look away now. Euromoney has conducted its first (somewhat unscientific) poll of investment banks’ online popularity as measured on social networking site Facebook, and the US firm has won by a clear margin. Facebook allows companies to create ‘fan’ pages: "...a unique experience where users can become more deeply connected with your business or brand. Users can express their support by adding themselves as a fan, writing on your Wall, uploading photos and joining other fans in discussion groups."

Freeing up markets would help the country lose its tag as the poor man of Latin America.

According to press reports, Polygon Investment Partners, an $8 billion UK hedge fund, is changing its redemption system in a bid to slow investor withdrawals. The fund, which had lost 4% by the end of March, operates a first-come, first-served redemption system that limits the amount of withdrawals at any particular time. But management reportedly claims that this has resulted in investors applying to withdraw money in a bid to be first out of the gate, simply to avoid being caught last if the fund were to get into serious trouble.

In the first few weeks of April, the Tadawul, the Middle East’s most liquid equity exchange, had returned to form and bucked the downward trend of developed global markets. But until then, 2008 seemed to be the year of recoupling with western markets, rather than decoupling, as far as the Saudi stock market was concerned.

Not content with its £10 billion-a-year PFI programmes, the UK government plans to extend its use of securitization to its student loan book. This is worth about £18.1 billion and is expected to increase in value to £55 billion over the next 10 years. Legislation is now in the House of Lords to enable the government to sell these loans to the capital markets – a process that it hopes will raise £6 billion by 2010.

A $259 million loan to support an acquisition financing for an offshore drilling vessel in Brazil completed syndication last month. The transaction, which was underwritten by GE Transportation Finance, GE Energy Financial Services and WestLB, was oversubscribed. The syndication, launched in February, has been deemed a great success. Mike Mullen Energy Equipment Resource, a Dallas offshore investor, has bought the vessel from Petrobras.

So much for Kenya’s Kibaki/Odinga rivalry derailing the Africa boom.

While elsewhere the mortgage market is drying up and securitization is quiescent, the biggest economy in the Gulf is trying to expand both. The finishing touches are being applied to laws on the Saudi mortgage market but it’s uncertain they will provide enough flow to meet demand for funding. Dominic O’Neill reports from Riyadh.

Tradeweb has unveiled an electronic market for deposits. The platform’s management say that Tradeweb Deposit will support the placement of new and maturing deposits in euro, sterling, dollar, Swiss franc and yen. The timing of this launch comes just as the focus on the money markets has sharpened as discrepancies between the reported fixing of the interbank offered rate and the real level of bank funding have emerged. The new offering has been running on beta since January and 1,500 placements had already been conducted as of April 22. Tradeweb’s belief that electronic trading will help price transparency in the market will no doubt be challenged by the leading brokers. But the benefits of e-finance around processing are less disputed.

Private equity businesses have taken a battering from the credit crisis but the industry remains flush with cash commitments from investors and appears to be trying to adapt to a world devoid of easy and cheap financing.

Barclays Capital has poached Adrian McGowan from Deutsche Bank, where he was head of FX complex risk, to head its FX business in Asia. McGowan will be based in Singapore and report to Ivan Ritossa, the bank’s head of global markets – trading, Asia Pacific, and global head of FX and prime services.

Mongolia’s most profitable bank is considering accessing the capital markets later this year, according to its chief executive, Peter Morrow.

The Eurasian Development Bank, which was founded in 2006 to finance infrastructure projects in Russia and Kazakhstan, is to expand its remit to include investments in financial institutions, according to its chairman.

Banks are paying the price for hanging on to their stuck leveraged loans for so long.

Citi has appointed Andrew Au as chairman of Citibank China and chief executive Citi China after an extended search to replace the previous incumbent, Richard Stanley, who was nabbed by DBS in February. Citi’s press release made no mention of Stanley, who presided over a successful period of investment for the bank in China, but described the search for a replacement as "comprehensive". Au has been with the firm for 24 years, and was previously country head for New Zealand before moving to Hong Kong to take on various regional oversight roles including head of trade for Asia-Pacific.

Competition between trading venues is leading to soaring trading volumes in Europe. Brokers are reaping the benefits and incumbent exchanges have yet to feel any pain, despite the success of new competitors.

"Who is this?"

The volume of equity raised by issuers from eastern Europe so far this year amounts to just $2 billion, down from $11.1 billion over the same time in 2007. Eastern Europe ECM volume accounts for just 6% of the total EMEA ECM volume raised in 2008, compared with 14% this time last year.

The rise of alternative beta strategies seems inevitable as investors chase greater levels of diversification in their portfolios. What are the secrets of alternative beta’s success and what obstacles can still impede its progress?

Sepa came into being in January but there is still much work to be done before the full benefits come through for banks and corporate customers. What are the main threats or opportunities of the developments? What obstacles have to be overcome? Euromoney’s debate panel wrestles with the key issues.

Does the EC need to force clarity on clearing?

More on sovereign wealth funds

The crisis suggests that privately owned banks are not self-evidently better managed nor more effective at allocating capital than state-owned ones.

London’s position as a centre for hedge funds is under threat. Brevan Howard is the latest to warn the UK government that it will be moving its headquarters abroad if proposed tax changes are implemented.

Standard Chartered Bank has made three senior appointments of former Lehman Brothers staff to boost its financial markets management team. Remy Klammers becomes the bank’s new global head of fixed-income trading with responsibility for FX, rates, credit and structured products trading. Klammers reports to Lenny Feder, the bank’s group head of financial markets. Klammers was previously managing director of structured products Asia at Lehman. He is being joined by Alexis Suzat, who has been appointed as global head of structured products trading, and Marten Agren, who joins as global head of modelling and analytics group, financial markets.

Figures released by Isda during April show that the notional amount of credit default swaps outstanding during 2007 grew by 37% from the first half of the year to the second half. After the first six months of 2007 – before problems in the US sub-prime mortgage market tipped the credit markets into turmoil – there were $45.5 trillion of CDS outstanding but by the end of the year there were $62.2 billion. CDS notional growth for the whole year was a full 81%. The figures are a stark illustration of the extent to which CDS were embraced as a means of hedging credit risk when the markets turned.

Uncertainty worldwide on the next move in interest rates is leading to short-term volatility and price gyrations in the foreign exchange market.