Baffled at first by the unwonted benevolence of the clean development mechanism, Chinese enterprises rapidly jumped on the carbon trading bandwagon. There have been instances where companies have metaphorically as much as literally cleaned up – either way the net effect is beneficial to the environment. Chris Wright reports.

Hedge funds should broaden their horizons beyond Brazil to the rest of the region in their search for yield, says Lou Gerken, chief executive of Gerken Capital Associates (GCA). Although there are 148 hedge funds in Latin America, only nine are not based in Brazil and solely focused on the region’s biggest economy. But now it would seem that investors, such as GCA, are seeing an opportunity across the region as countries such as Peru and Colombia, as well as Brazil and Mexico, are set firmly on the route towards investment-grade status. On top of this, liquidity in the region has been improving, although mostly in Brazil, which can now give funds a choice of nearly 60 stocks to short.

Brazil plans to allow the country’s mutual funds, which have $525 billion in assets, to invest an unlimited proportion of their portfolios in overseas assets by the end of this year.

A return of normal attrition rates does not spell the end for hedge funds and many will profit from market dislocations, says Neil Wilson, editorial director at HedgeFund Intelligence.

Taiwan’s grandiose plan to create a big national financial holding company by the end of 2007 has left analysts on the island cold.

Northern Rock’s inability to tap the wholesale funding market is a body blow for the whole sector.

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.

Too many sellers and not enough buyers curtail market growth.

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.

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.

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.

Serbia’s minister of the economy and former finance minister is uncompromising – and his approach has been crucial to the revival of his country’s economic fortunes.

In the wake of the August 1998 financial crisis, Russia’s regions became a banking wasteland. But on the back of this decade’s strong economic growth the regions are seeing a financial services renaissance. Guy Norton reports.

Global warming is the biggest issue facing society. Markets can play a crucial role in combating climate change. Banks see a huge opportunity to be agents for good – and make plenty of money in the process. How big can green finance become? Clive Horwood investigates.

Mohammad-Jafaar Mojarrad, deputy governor of the Central Bank of Iran, speaks to Mark Johnson about the bank’s efforts to control inflation, curb exchange rate instability and cope with the difficult security situation.

Saudi Arabia’s 2004 Capital Markets Law has brought something of a fresh start to all investment banks in the kingdom, whatever their size. But most of the smaller new entrants are aware that they need to develop niche businesses in the face of competition from larger rivals. Nigel Dudley reports.

Tamweel controls one-third of Dubai’s burgeoning mortgage market. In the wake of the company’s issuance of the Gulf’s first ever internationally rated securitization, Dominic O’Neill talks to the company’s CFO and CEO.

UNTIL RECENTLY, INDIA occupied a hazy part of the average global investment banking CEO’s brain marked "untapped potential". That fuzziness has been wiped clean this year. Investment banks are piling into India, snapping up experienced local and expatriate talent, completing multi-billion dollar cross-border mergers, and establishing cost-efficient data centres employing thousands of skilled engineers.

Families have always dominated the economies of the Gulf, controlling huge amounts of wealth and influence but traditionally unwilling to open up their capital – and their books – to the outside world. That model is gradually starting to change, says Alex Warren.