Firms rushing to set up credit opportunity funds might already be too late.

The world’s stock and futures exchanges have benefited handsomely from equity market uncertainty.

Leading players in Argentine capital markets say the government must issue a trailblazing Eurobond or global bond if the markets are to take off. The country’s financial markets are more than 20 times smaller than those of Brazil, despite Brazil’s GDP ($1.17 trillion) being less than five times greater than Argentina’s ($250 billion).

Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela, announced in September that his country would expand its petrochemicals industry during the next five years, lifting annual revenues to $100 billion. Chávez said that by 2013, after an investment of $20 billion, the industry will have created 700,000 jobs, 10 times the number employed at state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela. On September 23, the president started a "petrochemicals revolution", which will require 87 plants around the country to produce primary materials and petrochemicals-based products such as fertilizers, plastics and cosmetics. Chávez expects these moves to increase petrochemicals royalties to the government from $340 million this year to $20 billion in 2013.

When China’s leading state-run banks lined up to announce their sub-prime exposure in late August, it was surprising and disconcerting.

It seems as if the sub-prime market implosion might have roots deep in the proverbial mists of time.

"If you speak only one language, you are an American."

Barclays Global Investors has appointed Karen Prooth, previously a managing director at JPMorgan Asset Management, as managing director and European chief operating officer for iShares, the company’s exchange-traded funds business, and GIMG (Global Index and Markets Group), which covers a number of businesses from equity index products to securities lending. She will be responsible for coordinating the operations, technology and finance functions for the businesses and reports to Rory Tobin, chief executive of iShares and GIMG Europe.

Could problems in the UK inter-bank market have been avoided?

Credit Suisse has appointed Michael Fouad Chahine as global head of Islamic banking distribution. The bank is expanding its platform to distribute Shariah-compliant products. Chahine, who will be based in Dubai, will coordinate the existing Islamic banking businesses across Credit Suisse’s investment banking, private banking and asset management divisions to build a distribution centre in Dubai. Chahine has been with Credit Suisse since 2000. Most recently he was head of strategic initiatives in Dubai.

Canada’s Scotiabank has agreed to buy 79% of Chile’s Banco del Desarrollo for $810 million, although it hopes soon to acquire the entire bank. The stake will be purchased from Sociedad de Inversiones Norte Sur, a Chilean investment firm that holds 39%, Crédit Agricole with 24% and Intesa Sanpaolo, which has 16%. "As required by local rules, Scotiabank will be making a public share offering on the same terms and expects to acquire up to 100% of Banco del Desarrollo, which would be valued at $1.03 billion," says Scotia. The deal is expected to close in November. Once it does, the combined operations of Scotiabank Sud Americano, the Chilean subsidiary of Scotiabank, and Banco del Desarrollo will create Chile’s sixth-largest bank.

Intervention did the trick, to an extent.

Bankers fear new requirements could prove costly.

The first European bank to be cleared to use one of the new Basle Accord’s advanced approaches – and reap the rewards – is not headquartered in London, Paris, or Frankfurt. It doesn’t inhabit a gleaming tower in Milan or a grand old office block in Madrid. Strictly speaking, it’s not even a bank. Duncan Wood reports.

As volatility spreads across the debt markets, the CMBS market is taking stock. Property derivatives are likely to increase volatility in the market and contribute to spread widening just as refinancing activity – a significant driver of CMBS volumes – slows. But as competition between commercial lenders and conduit lenders expands across Europe, the market is looking to new jurisdictions to maintain growth.

Ecopetrol, the Colombian state-owned oil company, is expected to issue up to $2 billion-worth of ADR shares, most likely on the New York Stock Exchange next year, according to investment bankers.

Hedge funds are supposed to perform well when mainstream markets are falling: that’s when their capacity to go short and their managers’ selection skills have the best chance to outperform long-only managers that do no better than replicate the index. That’s when they earn their two and 20. At least, so the theory has it.

The allure of private equity to senior banking figures is well documented: why run a business for a bank when you can run a fund for yourself?

Nothing signals the end of easy money better than the troubles that have afflicted Northern Rock. The City’s former poster child is about to be taken over, either by a rival or for dismemberment by hedge funds, its reputation in tatters.

Banks are rushing to offer investors access to exposures designed to replicate the performance of hedge funds but without the high fees and other drawbacks. But their replication methods are increasingly being called into question. John Ferry reports.

Growth highest in Russia and the CIS.

After what could be described as a difficult conception and then arduous labour, foreign exchange settlement system CLS has gone on to thrive in the first five years of its life. Lee Oliver reports.

The only UK stock that tried to keep pace with the plummeting Northern Rock in September was Absolute Capital Management. This serves as a warning to all hedge fund investors of the importance of proper due diligence.

Dresdner Kleinwort has hired Vasily Kirpichev as managing director and head of client coverage for Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Formerly head of investment banking at Vneshtorgbank, Kirpichev will be responsible for origination across M&A, equity, debt and other areas. Based in Moscow he will report to both Berent Wallendahl, global head of client coverage in London and Igor Lojevsky, chairman of global banking and capital markets, Russia and CIS in Moscow.

Oanda is an anomaly among the many trading platforms that offer retail FX.

The asset-backed securities market in Latin America might be hampered by inadequate regulation, said the Bank for International Settlements in a report released last month.

In the light of the troubled times the covered bond market has found itself in, the European Covered Bond Council has proposed to establish an emergency committee.

Investors may have learnt the lesson that bonds aren’t supposed to provide equity-like returns.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association, the trade group for the over-the-counter derivatives market, has launched an all-encompassing equity derivatives protocol, called the Isda Equity MCA Protocol, that the organization says constitutes a "significant step in a program to enhance operational efficiency in the equity derivatives markets internationally".