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

In your latest quarterly inflation report you suggested that you'd overshoot the target. Is that correct?

The Chicago exchange aims to make currency option trading easier, bridging the gap between the cash and exchange markets

Platform adds five currency pairs to boost its regional offering

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.

SocGen's move on big local player signals confidence in the run-up to Egypt's first open presidential election

A flurry of activity marked the first year of new management at Khazanah, Malaysia's state-owned investment arm. Tough decisions have been made and tougher rules set. But the job is far from complete and success may prove elusive. Chris Leahy reports from Kuala Lumpur

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.

Emerging-market and convergence investors have long since stopped buying hard-currency debt from the new European countries after their spreads converged with EU government levels, but the region's local-currency debt is attracting ever more inflows. Kathryn Wells reports on where the best opportunities lie

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

The investment market is becoming ever more competitive as structural change brings higher allocations to real estate, writes Laurence Neville

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.

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.

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.

You did your first dollar bond since the default in July. What was the strategy behind that?

The bid for plain-vanilla government/public sector debt professionals continues. BNP Paribas has plucked Heidi Crebo-Rediker from Bear Stearns to join its sovereigns, agencies and supranationals desk as a managing director. Crebo-Rediker reports to Chris Marks and is a long-overdue replacement for the vivacious Alex Corley Smith, who decamped to the New York office several months back. BNP Paribas also appointed product expert Jacques Delpla to work in its Paris office. Delpla worked most recently as an adviser in the French finance ministry but was previously also a fixed-income specialist at Barclays Capital in France.

Equity managers in Europe, Japan and Asia might benefit from swapping stocks for convertibles

Latin nations' equity and debt markets are seeing greater issuance activity

Funding real estate development and portfolios is changing. For some the bank market still makes sense; for others the unsecured bond markets. But the burgeoning CMBS market is becoming the vehicle of choice for many. Here's why.

Strategic buyers are getting increasingly bullish about M&A opportunities. So far this year, though, they haven't stolen any of the thunder of financial sponsors

In 2002 the Dubai authorities announced the appointment of a distinguished chairman to its financial regulator that would give credibility to the country's attempts to establish itself as the leading Arab financial centre. Just two years later he was fired. Now, for the first time, Ian Hay Davison gives a first-hand account of the events that led to his dismissal. In the following linked article, the current chief executive of the DFSA gives his response

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.

Europe's government bond markets are built on a lie. Ministries of finance have adopted corporate financing techniques to give a false impression of their true debt levels. Regulators appear unwilling or unable to do anything about it. Investors and taxpayers ought to know. Mark Brown and Alex Chambers reveal all.

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

As a new president takes office in Iran and deadlock hits talks with the European Union over Tehran's controversial nuclear programme, investors are pondering whether they should enter an economy that might soon be subject to sanctions.

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?

News of an election is already perking up the Germany economy. If a centre-right coalition wins, as seems likely, expect yet more improvement

Grigorii Marchenko, chief executive of Halyk Bank and former governor of Kazakhstan's central bank, talks to Euromoney about bank capitalization, the development of consumer banking products, Kazakhstan's economic policy and the country's regional role.

As Alan Greenspan nears retirement, it is time to assess his legacy. Does the Fed chairman deserve his reputation as one of the great central bankers? Frank Partnoy argues that he is in fact the beneficiary of virtuous circumstances, has rarely been in control of events, and has often made the wrong call – notably in his attitude towards credit derivatives.

In just two years, Nigeria's finance minister has helped to transform foreign perceptions of her country. Her crowning achievement was the Paris Club deal, but her reforms have much greater implications for Nigeria's economic future.