Wells Fargo leaves US equities stategy business

Two landmark bank loans will reinforce the dominance in Russia's oil and gas sector of two of the largest state-controlled companies – fuelling rivalry between them.

Improved fundamentals have undoubtedly fuelled the emerging-market debt boom. But that's by no means the whole story. Excess liquidity might be forcing values unjustifiably high, and hedge fund and credit derivative strategies are vulnerable to an overdue yield-curve readjustment.

Toshihiko Fukui has overseen a successful policy U-turn in Japan's fight against deflation. Despite intense pressure, he has kept interest rates low until sustained inflation returns.

Deep in political crisis, president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is ill prepared to address the Philippines' critical financial problems. She seems to be running out of time. And so does her country.

Such is the dearth of credible leadership in the Philippines that Filipinos, if they could, would probably vote former president Ramos back in by a landslide. If the ex-general pulls off his plans for constitutional change, that might just happen.

It's difficult to make money in Russian private equity. Consequently, many of the world's biggest funds have steered clear. For those that have taken the plunge, the results are mixed. Some report returns far higher than those on equities. Others have had no luck and have packed up and left.

A new family of volatility indices that will track the Dax, Stoxx, and SMI equity indices will launch this September.

European borrowers make peso bonds hot new instrument

Iraq's finance minister, Ali Allawi, argues that debt relief with its official and commercial creditors is crucial to restoring stability to the country

Tanzania's largest bank is sold to Dutch-led consortium

Studying the birth chart of the US shows planetary patterns coinciding with upheavals and depressions in the country's history – and in his new book, Robert Gover predicts a decade of depression ahead. Helen Avery looks at this alternative approach.

THE PARIS CLUB has gone through fundamental change over the past year. First it agreed to an enormous debt reduction for Iraq, then it started to allow debtor nations to buy back their debts. Most recently, it came to a long-awaited and ground-breaking agreement with Nigeria that involved elements of both debt reduction and buyback.

As Lebanese banks flush with liquidity devise regional expansion strategies, four of them have won licences to open affiliates in Syria's nascent privately owned banking sector.

There's a lot of money to be made from the beautiful game. Deloitte's football money league shows that the top 20 football clubs in the world are set to break the £2 billion ($3.6 billion) income mark in 2005, for example. Germany's GNP is set to grow by €8 billion as a result of hosting the 2006 World Cup, and about 500 advertisers are set to spend €7 billion to enhance the branding of their products. According to VAT reclaims company Lowendal UK, an estimated €15 million will be spent on sponsorship events during the World Cup.

The imminent liberalization of Gazprom share ownership rules will introduce the world's biggest energy company to the world's biggest investors. But is Gazprom ready for the world, or the world for Gazprom?

Real estate has traditionally been a localized business. Now developers are considering the costs and benefits of moving out of the comfort zone and going international, as Helena Keers reports.

After a long dormancy, Kazakhstan's equity market might be about to wake up, thanks to some large IPOs.

Russia's domestic wealth management industry has a long way to go

The price of oil might be heading towards $100 per barrel but that doesn't seem to be blunting some bankers' appetites for fuel-guzzling vehicles. Nor is their ability to make money necessarily linked to good taste when spending it, as evidenced by the recent purchase of a stretch Hummer by London-based Citigroup managing director Valentin Ehmer.

Governor of the Central Bank of Libya Ahmed Menesi talks to Kate Luxford about plans to prepare Libya's economy for a more competitive environment after privatization

Slow-paced reform and privatization look set to provide opportunities for foreign investment in the Libyan banking sector, but with a lot of provisos.

The woman who has run the central bank since 2000 has overseen reform of the exchange rate, the capital markets and the banking industry. With her encouragement the country has also become a hub for Islamic finance.

Qatar has become a centre of project finance expertise as the government pursues big industrial and infrastructure projects. Skills have spread from foreign banks to local institutions and are being used in the whole region.

Legislation to guarantee the position of foreign investors is being followed up with a proposed comprehensive capital markets law.

As customers become increasingly sophisticated in trading FX options, banks and other providers are enhancing electronic offerings to tap new markets

Central and eastern Europe's leading institutions have been quick to praise UniCredit's acquisition of HVB, which creates the region's biggest bank. But, they warn, it had better stay on its toes, as rivals will look to profit from any loss of focus that the alliance brings.

Greater transparency is essential for ABS to be used as repo collateral

Movers and shakers

Research points to declining returns and greater risk as hedge funds grow older