The country’s banking system breezed through the global financial crisis with an ease few thought possible. Its economy is likely to boom as a trading hub for the region. It is no wonder banks such as HSBC are looking to increase their presence. Nick Lord reports from Istanbul.

US states and cities are facing a crisis. Budget shortfalls from declining tax revenues and increasing debt are becoming insurmountable. A swift end to the recession cannot be relied upon to solve their problems. Unless tough decisions are made, and soon, the crisis facing the states could make the ClubMed meltdown seem like a vacation. Helen Avery reports.

Government officials hope that international investors will look afresh at Indonesia. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s government made history with its re-election. It is using a strong popular mandate to tackle corruption and bureaucratic shortcomings head-on. Eric Ellis reports from Jakarta.

Ever since the sub-prime crisis, global banks have been looking for the big idea that will replace revenues lost with the demise of the structured-finance era. Now they think they’ve found it. Emerging market to emerging market business, they believe, will drive growth for years to come. Where government deals lead, so the private sector and the banking industry will follow. It’s not just about headline M&A deals; it’s every part of a bank’s business, from selling equity to trading bonds. Perhaps the toughest task of all will be to position their own banks’ infrastructure to take full advantage of the new flows that bypass the traditional hubs of global finance. In this brave new world, as Sudip Roy reports, bankers are just as likely to shuttle between Beijing, Moscow and São Paulo as they are from New York to London and Tokyo.

The DBS chief executive is developing a more focused take on his bank’s traditional pan-Asian aspirations. Singapore, India and Greater China are the key growth points, concentrating on commercial banking (especially for SMEs) and wealth management. Chris Wright reports.

The flotation of two subsidiaries of the Malaysian state oil company Petronas raises hopes that the parent company may list. This would help the profile of Malaysia’s equity market but could also weaken Petronas’s role as the source of almost half of state revenues. Chris Wright reports.

Eleven banks gathered in Agricultural Bank of China’s offices in early April to plan in an atmosphere of mutual suspicion how to complete an extremely difficult task. The challenge: to sell to investors what was thought of as China’s weakest big bank, to a timetable calling for unprecedented swiftness, against a backdrop of worsening global market conditions. Lawrence White reports from Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai on the story of the world’s biggest-ever IPO.

China’s hugely successful growth-at-all-costs economic strategy is reaching crisis point. The increase in domestic consumption that would help sustain high growth, is laggardly and its political leaders fight shy of pursuing the radical policies that would boost it. Elliot Wilson reports.

Renaissance Capital’s ambition is to become the world’s pre-eminent emerging markets investment bank. The economic ties that link Asia, Africa and all the states of the former Soviet Union are a new focus. Can its clarity of purpose help RenCap usurp its global competitors? Elliot Wilson reports.

The obvious port of call for a prop trader leaving a comfortable berth at a bank is a hedge fund. Another potential destination nowadays is a sovereign wealth fund. Most sovereign wealth funds are treading cautiously as they move towards making greater use of tradable markets but their sheer size means that their impact on liquidity could be significant, along with their potential contribution to bank revenues.

At the end of October, the winner of the prestigious Financial Times/Goldman Sachs business book of the year award will be announced at a swanky dinner in New York.

TSE main investment focus; Privatization continues to flow

To commemorate their London centenary, RBC sent umbrellas to clients. No doubt that’s intended to show how they understand Brits’ obsession with the weather – and, multiplying the cliché, by implication the needs of their clients as well.

If central banks want to become macro prudential regulators, identifying asset price bubbles is necessary but not sufficient.

Market satisfaction with renewed US quantitative easing moves is as misguided as the Fed strategy itself. QE2’s perversions herald great pain farther down the road.

The trickle of proprietary dealers out of investment banks could become a flood in the coming months. This will provide a welcome diversification of sources of market risk-taking as traders end up at corporations and sovereign wealth funds, as well as the obvious destination of hedge funds. A broadening of the range of institutions actively trading across asset classes should help to offset a reduction in liquidity resulting from the death of the traditional bank prop desk.

Delayed aluminium and petrochemicals mega-projects move forward; Few alternatives for local lenders

Economic policies geared towards foreign investment; Sovereign Eurobond debut proves a smash hit

Energy sector to lead the way; Increase in ratings enquiries

Equity cure to indebtedness ills; Holding company looking to list subsidiaries

EFG Hermes acquires 65% of Lebanese lender; Group to expand in commercial banking in Levant, then Africa

Funding costs are rising and the markets periodically shut down. But regulators want you to raise more and to hold more short-term liquidity that you can’t reinvest at a profit. You don’t know how regulators will classify your risk assets or how much capital they will require you to hold. But it will be more than you have. Raising it will cost more than you can earn as a return on it. Fancy a challenge? Become a CFO. Peter Lee reports.

Gary Gensler is on a mission to make the CFTC the world’s most influential financial markets regulator. He wields an unprecedented mandate to interpret the statute book and thereby shape the future of banking. But his former colleagues in the banking industry claim his quest for power is based on personal ambition, causing him to ride roughshod over their reasonable opinions and creating a template that will bring unnecessary hardship to the financial industry and the broader economy. Hamish Risk interviewed the man many bankers call the “most dangerous man in finance”.

There’s investment advantage to be gained from a rational macroeconomic viewpoint.

In trying to make rating agencies liable for their structured finance opinions, Dodd-Frank could end up killing off the US ABS industry altogether.

And so it has come to pass. Central counterparty clearing is to set to become, well, central to the financial markets landscape. It is seen as a cure to the concentration of risk that was held by the world’s largest trading firms in the lead-up to the financial crisis.

New derivatives exchange claims pan-Asian hub status; No shortage of competition

JPMorgan to shut its commodities prop desk; Potential impact on trading profits

Broker translates Chinese analysts’ thoughts; Coverage from chicken feet to Smart Grid