"This is worse then a divorce – I’ve lost half my net worth but I still have my wife!"

The huge losses being reported by corporates from emerging markets around the world suggest that not all is as rosy in FX as might have been reported.

The BBC has launched a new series in the UK that seems eerily well timed considering the current financial situation. Little Dorrit, which premiered on Sunday October 26, is the story of a family that has fallen into debt and lost its house thanks to the overly aggressive lending policies of banks on the brink of world recession.

"This is a profound ethical issue. These are very sophisticated operations where the counterparty was not a hedge fund – it was not even a financial institution. Should a grocery chain be selling volatility protection?"

IMF loan may not be enough to stave off banking and currency collapse.

Pension system nationalization announced last month brings country ‘closer to the abyss’.

Russia’s mega-rich are fast emerging as victims of the global credit crunch.

China’s cabinet has approved a capital injection into ailing state lender Agricultural Bank of China, priming it for an initial public offering in late 2009 or 2010. In addition, $150 billion to $200 billion of failed loans will be sucked out of ABC, which was set up in 1979 to provide financing to China’s 800 million farmers, and stored in one or several of the country’s leading asset management companies. In a year full of record bail-outs, the capital injection will be provided by Central Huijin, a division of China Investment Corporation (CIC), Beijing’s sovereign wealth fund, ABC vice-president Pan Gongsheng told a press conference on October 22. Set up in 2005 to oversee the bail-out of other leading Chinese banks, Central Huijin will take a 50% stake in ABC, with the remainder to be held by the country’s finance ministry. The bank will also seek further capital – as well as much-needed management and risk-control expertise – from one or more foreign lenders, who will buy a strategic stake in the lender before its IPO.

Investors in convertible bonds have been washed out by the storm in debt, equity and derivatives markets, so potential issuers are having to look to other buyers.

Bank of America is due to close its acquisition of Merrill Lynch in March 2009 but it is still not clear what it plans to do with Merrill’s Latin American business.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said last month that oil prices, which have dropped by half in the last few months, will probably keep falling as the US falls into recession.

The credit crisis has crossed the Pacific and hit home in Asia and is now even being felt in the streets of Kuala Lumpur, the capital of oil-rich Malaysia.

When structured products started turning into four-letter words, investors should have taken heed.

The credit crisis could leave in its wake rich pickings for Middle East sovereign wealth funds. But what about private-equity-style government groups that rely more on leverage to fund their investments?

Corporates can see the potential of shared service centres for reasons including compliance and costs, increased back office efficiency and labour arbitrage. However, there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

Mid-caps starved of operational and growth capital have new lenders.

A good deal has already been written about the relatively high cost, at least when compared with many other markets, of processing trades in foreign exchange.

Show me the bonus!

But Barclays deal reprices agency sector.

The government bail out packages unveiled across developed countries last month may have prevented the collapse of a host of banks with more toxic assets than equity.

Martín Redrado, president of the Central Bank of Argentina, tells Sudip Roy why the banker should get through the global crisis intact.

When it comes to mergers and acquisitions, Turkey’s banking sector remains a land of opportunity. UniCredit analyst Matteo Ferrazzi says: “In central and eastern Europe, opportunities for mergers and acquisitions are few and far between. Most banks are already in solid hands or owned by foreign players. But in Turkey, it is a different case and there are still banks to be privatized.”

With CDS prices at unprecedented levels, the crisis shows no sign of abating.

The substantial help afforded financial institutions across the globe has failed to support spreads outside the financial sector. Corporate credit was responsible for the widening in both Europe’s iTraxx (Series 10) and the US CDX (Series 11) to 172bp and 225bp respectively – outside the previous wides seen in March. Confirmation that a global recession is on its way was the main factor driving the move.

Amendments made to accounting rules by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) in mid October could allow banks to write back billions in losses incurred in trading books.

In an attempt to boost liquidity to financial institutions the US Federal Reserve has unveiled a scheme to support money market investors. Money Market Investor Funding will buy $540 million of short-term (up to three months) bank paper from funds. The Fed has created 10 private sector SPVs that can buy paper issued by up to 10 financial institutions – with concentration limits of 15%. Funds that sell into this programme receive 90% of the purchase price in cash and the rest as ABCP – which is effectively a first loss tranche for the individual SPV.

Whisper it quietly, but Sarkozy’s bail-out plan looks the most market-savvy.

The central bank has begun to address the financial crisis but must take more action.

Can Gulf financial centres’ high ambitions be fulfilled in a post-credit crunch world with falling oil prices?