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As the structured finance market struggles to reinvent itself, the orgy of recrimination among constituents is intensifying.

Raiffeisen Bank maintains its position at the top of the banking pile in Bosnia & Herzegovina. It is able to serve all sections of the community throughout both the Srpska Republika and the Croat-Muslim Federation and is the largest individual bank in the entire country. In 2007, it increased its corporate customer base by 13%, and retail clients rose by 17%. These increases allowed Raiffeisen to grow its assets by 18.8% in 2007, thanks to strong loan growth, especially in the corporate sector, where it increased by 43%, far above the market average. Thanks to its 99 branches the bank also performed strongly on the retail side, accounting for 21.43% of lending, while it maintained its number one position in the card issuance business on the back of the expansion of its ATM and point-of-sales network.

Costa Rica’s president, Oscar Arias, and the senior executives of the three leading public banks in Costa Rica, Banco Nacional de Costa Rica (BNCR), Banco de Costa Rica (BCR) and Banco Crédito Agricola de Cartago (Bancredito), continued talks in March about a potential merger.

After suffering from several departures to local rivals, especially VTB, Deutsche Bank has sought to bolster its Moscow office with new hires. Alex Bronin is appointed head of emerging markets structuring for Russia/CIS, Valeri Pouchni, head of rates and FX trading, Andrey Yumatov, head of corporate derivative sales, Alex Danylenko, head of local-currency bond trading, and Diana Nikolova as a senior structurer focusing on Russian structured credit.

Liquid real estate Issue 05

Scotiabank Jamaica has actively pushed its small business banking unit, launched in May 2007. Four products have now been introduced – two credit cards, a non-revolving loan and a credit line for small businesses. As of March 2008 a total of 3,172 credit cards from across the banks’ businesses were in circulation.

Malaysia’s CIMB has finally closed a deal in Thailand after it was outbid by ICBC on a previous attempt to buy ACL Bank. CIMB will now acquire 42% of BankThai, and, pending regulatory approval, will then scoop up the bank’s remaining equity, paying around Bt2.10 per share for stock last seen trading at Bt1.32. BankThai is in desperate need of funding after suffering heavy losses on overseas CDO investments. Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has put CIMB and its holding company BCHB on Creditwatch with negative implications, saying it needs to discuss fundng and integration plans with the group before reversing that move.

7 the average percentage return of US IPOs one month after listing so far this year.

Political relations between Greece and former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia are strained but the strong financial and management support from owner National Bank of Greece has helped to ensure that Stopanska Banka Skopje remains the leading force in FYROM’s banking sector. In 2007, the bank posted a 24% return on equity on the back of gross profit of €19.6 million equivalent, according to International Accounting Standards. The bank’s total assets rose to €897.2 million at year-end 2007, up 31% on 2006. Total deposits reached €707.1 million, up 31.2% on 2006. At the end of 2007, about a million Macedonian citizens had accounts with Stopanska Banka Skopje, more than half of the country’s population.

Although neither of Switzerland’s biggest banking groups have covered themselves in glory over the past 12 months, in the domestic market things have been more characteristically stable.

In recent months, Brazil achieved its long-cherished goal of investment-grade status, awarded by both Fitch and Standard & Poor’s. Then there was Santander’s acquisition of Banco Real from ABN Amro, making the Spanish bank the biggest foreign player in the market.

Paraguay is yet to embrace the capital markets and is ranked as not only one of the poorest countries in Latin America but also one of the most corrupt, even after becoming a democracy more than 20 years ago. In August, Paraguay will have a new president, Fernando Lugo, and with him comes renewed hope that corruption will be brought under control and Paraguay can realize its potential.