The news that spot rouble trades have taken place electronically on EBS and LavaFX between Russian and foreign banks has been taken by some observers as proof that the currency has taken a significant step towards full convertibility. However, the deals mask the fact that Russia’s settlement system is still a real impediment to the rouble’s wider acceptance and is harming the government’s hopes that it will one day be accepted as a reserve currency.

The liquidity crunch of August and September highlighted the intricate relationship between prime brokers and their hedge fund clients. Some managers had their livelihoods threatened by increased margin requirements, while asset valuations were brought into question. Do the two sides of the relationship know each other at all? Helen Avery reports.

The economies of China and the Middle East are expanding at breakneck speed. Over the past 18 months, they have woken up to the importance of investing in each other’s growth. But as Chinese and Middle East investors still find it difficult to cooperate, what can be done to help? Dominic O’Neill reports.

Research released in mid-October came to the far-from-shocking conclusion that two in five of workers in the UK’s financial services sector are stressed.

The US dollar’s long-term weakness looks set to persist as the currency seems to fall to a fresh historical low against the euro on a weekly basis. The latest G7 meeting, held over the weekend of October 20-21, did nothing to provide any support. In the immediate aftermath of the meeting, the dollar fell to 1.4349 against the euro before bouncing. The reasons for the recovery, at this stage, are not clear.

Hong Kong’s notoriously volatile investors are again set firm in headless-chicken mode (the bullish version). Ever since China’s foreign securities regulator, Safe, announced in August that mainland investors would "soon" be allowed to begin throwing their hard-earned savings at Hong Kong-listed stocks, the local Hang Seng index has been on a superhuman tear.

Economic growth, stability, market reform and liberalization have led to a Latin American investors into Chile, Colombia and Peru. Leticia Lozano reports.

The Euromoney debt trading poll is in its second year, and quite a year it has been. Twelve months ago credit houses were hosing their customers with liquidity in a market awash with happy traders. The action had moved out of the cash market and into a thriving derivatives sector. Structured products and indices were flourishing. "You are no longer a bond trader," Henrik Raber, head of credit trading at UBS, was saying to his staff. "You are a trader in multiple asset classes."

Singapore has made great strides as a private banking centre, attracting almost every bank that matters to set up shop there to service the region’s rich. But recent developments in Burma (Myanmar) suggest that the city state’s financial success has come with a string attached to it: increasing scrutiny of its morality.

The NFA is seeking to up the ante in its fight against the bucket shops that tarnish the US retail FX market.

As Brazil’s economy and financial markets pick up, Credit Suisse and UBS face growing competition from other foreign banks and domestic contenders. Chloe Hayward reports.

Sub-prime slime and the credit crunch have diverted attention from global imbalances. However, any dollar rout would be ugly. Neglect is no substitute for policy.

After the build-up of its sales and distribution teams under Keenan Altunis and Steve Turner, UniCredit has switched its attention to its trading force. The bank has appointed Ben Welsh, the former head of FX, global markets and US rates at HSBC New York, as its co-head of global FICC. Shortly after he started, it was announced that Welsh had persuaded the well-regarded Dan O’Sullivan, who was head of FX trading North America at HSBC, to join him. The pair, who also worked together at Goldman Sachs, will be based in London.

While Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore and others enjoy unprecedented levels of activity, and London and New York poach more Asian business, the Tokyo Stock Exchange is struggling to recapture the success of its early 1990s’ heyday. Is it too late for Tokyo? Lawrence White reports.

In some parts of Latin America foreign banks continue to head the push for consolidation, but locals are beginning to cross borders. Chloe Hayward reports.

Icap’s announcement on October that it was buying Traiana, a held company that specializes in automated post-trade processing services, triggered some talk that the broker was looking to challenge CLS, the regulator-sponsored settlement utility. Not surprisingly, Icap was swift to play this down.

The Mexican stock exchange, the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, has announced plans to go public before the end of the year as it attempts to lead by example in the poorly performing Mexican IPO market.

Only Uruguay and Bolivia have active corporate bond markets.

In October Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chávez, signed a number of new economic cooperation agreements in Havana with Raul Castro, the island’s temporary leader, in a move to reaffirm the countries’ anti-US alliance and strengthen their bilateral ties.

The expansion of the Panama Canal is set to draw in banks from far and wide because of the increased investment opportunities that the programme will have on all economic sectors in the country, according to bankers and analysts in the region.

Kaupthing Bank and the state-owned Export-Import Bank of Korea both launched Mexican peso issues in October. The Export-Import bank issued a Ps1 billion ($92 million) 10-year bond. The Icelandic bank launched a Ps2.3 billion bond transaction on October 10 to become the first Nordic bank to do a public issue in Mexico. The deal was led by BBVA Bancomer and Lehman Brothers and aimed at diversifying the bank’s funding sources.

One of Latin America’s biggest challenges is financing its massive infrastructure needs, and nowhere is this more pressing than in Mexico, especially in toll road development.

TradeWeb sells minority stake to nine banks, as LiquidityHub gets going.

The collapse of structured finance issuance has significant implications for the financing of assets such as mortgage loans but has also dramatically changed the nature of the traditional investment-grade bond business in America. Alex Chambers reports.

According to Olivier LeMarois, CEO of Riskdata, equity market neutral funds’ reliance on one risk model for both trading and risk management exacerbated their losses in the summer.

Royal Bank of Canada has launched its €15 billion covered bond programme with a jumbo issue in the European covered bond market. The deal is Canada’s first ever covered bond.

The credit crisis has forced US enhanced cash funds, which seek to better money market returns by taking on slightly higher levels of risk than regular money market funds, to fight to secure their reputation.

Many have struggled to beat regular equity market returns, especially after liquidity crisis, says research.

Monte Kristo Capital of the UK is the latest foreign entrant to the burgeoning Georgian banking market, having bought a 70% stake in Tetri Bank for an undisclosed sum. Following the deal, Tetri Bank, the country’s 16th biggest bank by assets, will be renamed First British Bank. Monte Kristo’s move is the latest in a series of acquisitions by foreign banking groups in recent months. France’s Société Générale, Russia’s VTB and Ukraine’s Privatbank have all bought banks in the Caucasian republic.