The disappearance of both CP investors and ABS buyers in August had grave consequences for those vehicles that rely on both.

David Soanes has rejoined the UBS fixed-income business.

Harnessing market forces for innovation will create technology options, and a more stable climate, for future generations, argues Jon Anda, president of the Environmental Markets Network at Environmental Defense.

Is central Asia of the verge of an Islamic banking boom?

Banks have come to realize that to make money from emissions trading markets they would do well to tie up with the consultants that understand the technicalities and with the corporates that own Clean Development Mechanism schemes. Peter Koh reports.

A broken watch shows the correct time twice a day. I have been a high priestess of gloom for at least a year and finally I can straighten my spine and look you in the eye. There were others who felt uneasy. Many senior bankers told me that the risks being taken were unsustainable. However, it was the investment banker, Paul, who put it most pungently.

Kazakhstan’s economic boom has transformed the country into the undisputed economic leader in central Asia. But can it be a springboard for expansion in the rest of the region? Guy Norton reports from Almaty.

It’s hard to empathize with the faceless investment bank and institutional investor victims of the sub-prime crash. What’s really needed is an individual whose story people can relate to.

The liquidity crisis that blew up out of the sub-prime credit downturn reveals big gaps in understanding between senior managers at banks and the credit structurers. It also poses many questions to regulators and investors. Fairly sharing out the blame and guessing what comes next remain challenges, finds Peter Lee.

A growing social conscience about the environment has opened up new technologies and markets that offer hedge funds new areas in which to find alpha. But it is still a nascent area and the number of players is small. Helen Avery interviews four managers to see how they are approaching the emerging asset class.

Naguib Sawiris, the chairman of Orascom Telecom, has established an emerging market operation that is one of the world’s strongest-performing companies. Now he is turning his attention to Europe. He tells Chloe Hayward why his business is one of the best.

Private equity firms have a nice business flipping companies from one to another. But what happens when the music stops?

"Our aim is to provide long-term capital growth from an investment portfolio consisting of Iraqi and Iraqi-dependent securities." So reads the opening line of a monthly report for the Babylon Fund, a long-only mutual fund run by Godvig Capital Management, which is domiciled in the British Virgin Islands.

In emerging markets fixed income, three investors have raised themselves to superstar status. Mohamed El-Erian, Simon Treacher and Jerome Booth have all earned enviable reputations. Raphael Kassin’s move from ABN Amro to Credit Suisse could place him in the same firmament. Julian Marshall reports.

Chi-X, the pan European alternative trading system (ATS) operated by Instinet, is starting to make waves, winning significant market share in certain stocks on some days.

In the week of August 13 participants in the financial markets – credit traders, equity investors, heads of repo desks, hedge fund managers, risk controllers, originators and capital markets bankers, credit strategists, treasurers, chief financial officers – began to lose faith in the financial system itself. But why? What happened in this momentous week and how did it affect the financial global markets? Peter Lee was pounding the sidewalks of New York, sharing the bemusement of Wall Street.

Man is the world’s largest hedge fund group, with more than $65 billion in assets. It also claims to be the greenest hedge fund. CEO Peter Clarke tells Helen Avery how alternative investment firms can offer the returns investors want and play a positive role in preventing climate change.

Deutsche Bank has lost its head of European ABS origination, Jeff Stolz, to Goldman Sachs. As a managing director in the financing group, Stolz will undertake a similar role at the US firm, which has not had an ABS chief for a number of years. Deutsche has yet to announce a replacement.

Too many sellers and not enough buyers curtail market growth.

It has been a long, slow process but after more than a decade private equity dreams in Kazakhstan are becoming a financial reality. Guy Norton reports from Almaty.

Søren Elbech has been appointed chief of the treasury division of the Inter-American Development Bank. Although his is technically a new position he effectively supplants Hakan Lonaus, chief of the capital markets division, finance department. Elbech joins from Eksportfinans, where he was executive vice-president, director of treasury. He will leave the Norwegian export finance agency at the end of this November. Also leaving Eksportfinans is Oliver Siem, head of funding, deputy director of treasury, who is taking a career break.

After an absence of almost half a century, private-sector banks are once again doing business in Syria. Some three years after the first pioneers opened their doors, the country’s economic landscape is still in full transformation – and competition is beginning to heat up. Alex Warren reports.

Is there an opportunity to initiate new positions at better levels or has the bubble burst?

The Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX) has set up a dedicated structured products market segment to help facilitate the trading of derivatives-based and other structured investments in the region.

Standard & Poor’s has bought software services company Imake Consulting and ABSXchange, a portal for structured finance data, analytics and modelling.

Net jumbo Pfandbrief issuance is likely be down again this year for the third year running, while structured covered bond issuance grows apace. This is generating some bitter debate about just how much investors understand the difference between the two types of debt. Louise Bowman reports.

When the investment trust structure appeared four years ago, the securitization market jerked into action and local banks jumped on a growing opportunity. Now foreign banks are taking a fresh look at the market, eyeing the rich pickings that are emerging from securitizing receivables for corporates, banks and states. Chloe Hayward reports from São Paulo.

Kuwait Finance House is eyeing up certain branches of Malaysia’s RHB Bank, according to Salman Younis, the chief of the Gulf bank’s Malaysian unit. RHB Bank has obtained regulatory approval to start the sale talks but the Malaysian unit of KFH was still awaiting the nod from Malaysia’s central bank to begin discussions. At the moment there are up to 30 branches that could change hands in the next few months.

Liquidity in the global debt and bank markets is scarce but judging by the action of Brazil’s leading private equity firm, the financial crisis has yet to hit Latin America’s biggest economy. São Paulo-based GP Investments has entered into one of the biggest leveraged buyouts in Brazil, in what is expected to be the first of many similar transactions. In August, the private equity firm agreed to acquire 100% of Pride International’s Latin American Land Drilling and E&P Services businesses for $1 billion in cash. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the third quarter.

BGC, an inter-dealer brokerage firm, has bought Marex Financial’s emerging markets equity derivatives business for an undisclosed sum.