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Does Syria’s long-awaited equity market finally mean business? Alex Warren reports.

Commercial banks eager to exploit the opportunities in a rising sub-Saharan Africa might have to pay a high price for first-mover advantage. In this most local of retail banking markets, home-grown firms have developed the most effective, innovative approaches. As Dominic O’Neill finds out while bouncing along dirt roads in Kenya and Mozambique, international firms need to follow the locals’ examples, or discard their most basic ideas of what a bank can do.

VTB’s ambition is to be a leading universal bank in Russia, with a strong balance of revenues from its retail, corporate and banking arms. But does it have the wherewithal to achieve those lofty goals? Guy Norton reports from Moscow.

International supranational, sovereign and agency borrowers raised billions in dollar issuance during the first half of the year. This was a continuation of 2007, when volumes from supras and European agencies rose 14% to €241 billion, according to Dealogic. The dollar activity was driven, in large part, by central bank investors that were attracted by wide swap spreads and their wish to diversify away from the government-sponsored enterprises. The woes of the GSEs have increased and the high-level investor sponsorship the European Investment Bank received at the end of August for its $4 billion three-year issue, led by BarCap, Citi and JPMorgan, illustrates the state of the frequent borrower sector.

Moscow private equity firm Mint Capital has taken a stake in beer restaurant chain Tinkoff Restaurants.

Global regulators are poised to introduce new rules to clamp down on the securitization industry’s worst excesses. But in doing so they could kill it off for good.

Rising food prices, in a country where people spend half their income on food already, are a crucial issue for finance minister Mirz Azizul Islam.

VTB, Russia’s second-largest banking group, continues to add to the array of western talent in its investment banking business. Its latest hire is Herbert Moos, who has been named as chief executive of VTB Bank Europe in London. Moos joins from Lehman Brothers, where he spent 14 years, most recently as chief financial officer for Asia-Pacific ex-Japan. Moos will be responsible for developing the investment business of VTB in London, Asia and the Middle East. He will report to Yuri Soloviev, head of investment banking.

Bi-annual Country risk survey which monitors the political and economic stability of 185 sovereign countries.

The first investment banking joint venture to be approved by China’s State Council was in 1995. At the time, investment banking was a relatively new concept in China, although since then the industry has grown apace. The same can be said of the joint venture: China International Capital Corporation (CICC).

The present round of bank reorganizations look as if they might not be as efficacious as leaving things well alone.