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In the past few months the Russian capital markets have been hit by a rush of selling as spooked investors head for the exit, sending valuations into free fall. Guy Norton reports from Moscow on what lies in store.

Unlike most sovereign wealth funds, the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan is still growing strongly and looking for more foreign risk. Will the country’s experience of the global downturn rob the international capital markets of a new hope? Dominic O’Neill reports from Baku.

Mohammed Grimeh has just started at Standard Chartered Bank in the newly created role of head of trading and deputy head of global markets Americas, based in New York.

James Garvey announced his retirement from Goldman Sachs in December 2008. Garvey’s title was chairman of investment-grade financing – a role that was given to him after the firm made syndicate and debt origination a global business run under Jim Esposito a year ago.

Not so long ago, HSBC’s Latin American debt franchise could have been described as promising but limited. That’s no longer the case. As some of its rivals struggle to maintain their position in the region, the UK bank is growing new relationships fast. Unlike many competitors, HSBC is still able to offer a full range of services, including writing a cheque when needed. "In the last couple of months, a lot of new clients have been knocking on the door that weren’t before – our overall pipeline for 2009 is now stronger than it was in 2008," says Gerardo Mato, managing director, head of global capital markets and banking, Americas.

Relationships count more than ever in the world of equity trading.

This Asian crisis might not be as bad as the last one. For Amando M Tetangco Jr, governor of the central bank of the Philippines, the lessons learnt from the crisis of 1997 and the reforms that followed it mean that the outlook for 2009 is not nearly as gloomy as might be expected. Euromoney speaks to him about the challenges facing the banking sector, forecasts for growth and inflation, and lessons learnt from the 1997 crisis. It’s been a tough year by any measure, so let’s look forward. What’s your outlook for 2009?

As the price of home and commercial real estate plummeted, hedge funds and pension funds have been tuning into how to curb losses and speculate on values of real estate using property derivatives. Activity in the instruments picked up during the last quarter of this year, principally as a result of their participation. Liquidity on the RPX, an index representing average home prices paid per square foot in metropolitan areas, saw 40% of its annual volume from September through November.

Not all doom and gloom for 2009, though capacity will be tested.

The liquidity crisis has contributed to a dramatic change in the trading of fixed-income securities. A year ago the curtailment of the liquidity to investors could be written off as a temporary state of affairs that would be rectified as soon as market conditions got back to normal.

Private equity firm the Carlyle Group has announced plans to cut 10% of its staff, some 100 employees. It will be the first firm-wide lay-off in the group’s 20-year history.

Jon Lekander is the new head of the combined Indirect Investment Management team at Aberdeen Property Investors. This follows Aberdeen’s acquisitions of DEGI and Goodman Property Investors. Lekander was previously chief investment officer of Aberdeen Property Investors. Andrew Smith, former head of strategy at GPI, becomes chief investment officer. Rickard Backlund continues to lead the business.