Scotching a reputation for cowboy practices, they are responding to demands for more sophistication and the state’s desire to create an important financial centre. New respectability is accompanied by impending consolidation that will leave eight or so leading houses. Elliot Wilson reports.

Being a fixed-income investor in Europe just got a whole lot trickier.

That banks and mortgage servicers may have foreclosed on US homes without adequate documentation further blackens their already tarnished reputations. But the foreclosure scandal has increased the prospect of a far greater attack on mortgage securitization – one that even if it does not destroy the market altogether could cost the banks as much as $180 billion. Helen Avery, Louise Bowman and Peter Lee report.

Bond resurgence eschews riskier banks; Project bonds might seal demise of loan dominance in Gulf

A merger between the companies that own the Australian and Singapore exchanges is only a first step towards an integrated market.

Could the villain of the piece yet have a hero’s role to play? Last month, Angelo Mozilo, former chief executive of Countrywide Financial, paid a $22.5 million penalty and disgorged $45 million of what the SEC calls "ill-gotten gains" to settle disclosure violation and insider trading charges. It is the largest sum ever paid by a public company executive in an SEC settlement. Robert Khuzami, director of the SEC enforcement division, says: "Mozilo’s record penalty is the fitting outcome for a corporate executive who deliberately disregarded his duties to investors by concealing what he saw from inside the executive suite – a looming disaster." The money will be returned to investors harmed in Countrywide’s collapse.

These are sober times in Ireland, as the nation, so well known for its bonhomie, seems somewhat underwhelmed after the slide of its economic wellbeing. This was perfectly illustrated when Euromoney calls into visit a source at the Bank of Ireland in Dublin recently. It’s the final round of the Ryder Cup, and the source whisks Euromoney off to a pub down the road from its Baggot Street headquarters. The result hangs in the balance right down to the last pairing, which contains the Irishman, Graham McDowell. Expecting pints of Guinness and much boisterousness, it feels more like an Irish wake, but with glasses of water and herbal tea. It’s a long way from the last Ryder Cup held in Europe, at Ireland’s lavish K Club, when it was all champagne, and Ireland’s then hero Darren Clarke necked a pint of Guinness for the TV cameras. When McDowell secures victory for Europe, there’s some polite clapping and then bankers drift out onto the street, as the autumn leaves begin to fall.

Continued economic growth is under threat from a backlog in infrastructure development. Obstacles to foreign and domestic financing of the sector urgently need to be overcome. Rob Dwyer reports.

Pension funds are slashing their allocations to equities and reorienting their portfolios to more accurately match liabilities. Strategically that makes sense. Tactically it smacks of buying at the top and it is already creating distortions in markets.

In the past few years the country has reduced its dependence on offshore banking and links to Argentina and has grown its exports of agricultural produce and position as an important entrepôt. But its capital markets remain severely undeveloped, a situation that might be improved by a programme of privatization. Jason Mitchell reports from Montevideo.

Spanish lender looks for growth abroad; Other Turkish lenders expand their horizons

Is it bonfire night or bonfire of the vanities at Credit Suisse? The Swiss bank has reported mediocre third quarter results for 2010. Group net income plunged by 74% (year over year) to SFr609 million, pre-tax profits at the investment bank were down 50% from the second quarter and group return on equity was 7%.

The cancellation of the Nedbank acquisition reflects badly on HSBC.

"It’s getting to the point where clients are looking not at which banks would be good to run the deal but which will lie to them best"

In September and October a torrent of tightly priced Asian bond deals pushed established investors along the yield curve and swept in new names. The more exotic the deal, the more investors flocked to it. But there are concerns that too much money is flowing into Asia. Lawrence White reports.

Development bank crowds out private sector; But has vital role in infrastructure development

The proposition that if you build an investment banking franchise clients will come was severely tested in the third quarter. Sales and trading revenues were weak for most dealers, though with wide variance between big firms. Results were particularly poor for banks such as Morgan Stanley and UBS that had been rebuilding their investment banking franchises on the assumption that an aggressive push into flow business lines would result in increased client volumes.

Investors should diversify into developed market companies with high emerging markets exposures to capture these economies’ growth.

Chinese appetite for Russian risk remains relatively weak; Rare IT flotation on the way in London

Lack of transparency concerns potential partners; Cinda leads the group in JV creation

The easy environment is pushing asset prices in Latin America to boiling point.

Implications for short-selling bans; CCP should boost liquidity

Dropping of Nedbank deal still unexplained; Door now open for Standard Chartered

Deal flow to continue into Q1; Strong foreign capital inflows in Brazil

Year-end markets boom continues; JPMorgan reaches the top

"We don’t think there are cases where people have been evicted out of homes where they shouldn’t have been"

Canadian bank sees great potential to distribute credit investments; BlueBay’s founders hope clients will take comfort from RBC’s capital strength

Swiss bank announces key hires; Next step in recovery from Pactual sale

A stand against foreclosures might be a vote winner but it has deleterious economic consequences.

There’s rarely been a better time to be a mortgage banker in the US.