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3 Degrees, a $400 million Asia distressed and special situations manager, has hired Jeff Tolk. Tolk was formerly the Asian head of structured credit at HSBC, where he established the business.

On February 5, Ukraine received the welcome news that after 14 years of often tortuous negotiations its membership of the World Trade Organization had finally been approved by the international trade body’s general council.

The number of new equity-linked issues in the first quarter of 2008 fell dramatically across all regions in comparison with the same period in 2007.

It is too early to call the end of the credit crunch but evidence that the crisis is not worsening, if not starting to ease, was in abundance last month. If March marked the lowest point in the financial crisis, the first half of April gave ample reasons to believe that sentiment is improving – at least in the short term.

The net new inflow into hedge funds collectively was a meagre $16.5 billion over the first quarter of 2008, according to Hedge Fund Research, in comparison with almost $200 billion in 2007. Some strategies fared better than others: macro hedge strategies posted $1 billion in redemptions; merger arbitrage strategies had outflows of $4 billion; while distressed strategies attracted $8 billion. Macro strategies, however, posted returns of 4.7% in Q1, while the overall hedge fund index was down more than 3%.

There are complaints that investors are being misled by funds.

The Bank of England levelled the playing field for UK financial institutions last month when it followed the lead of the Federal Reserve and provided a facility for domestic banks and building societies to refinance mortgage-backed bonds for government bonds. Continental European banks have long been able to use the European Central Bank’s repo facility for their mortgage-backed securities. Until the European securitization market shut down, UK banks were by far its biggest users – accounting for between 40% and 50% of annual issuance over the past three years alone. The Bank of England has carefully constructed its programme to ensure that banks retain all credit risk.

The arrival of German Gref, apparently with a mandate to build Sberbank into at least a regional if not a global banking force, has generated huge excitement among Russian bankers.

The volume of equity raised by issuers from eastern Europe so far this year amounts to just $2 billion, down from $11.1 billion over the same time in 2007. Eastern Europe ECM volume accounts for just 6% of the total EMEA ECM volume raised in 2008, compared with 14% this time last year.

Visit cities such as Bucharest and one might be surprised by the high-quality cars or food that are available and affordable. Middle class wealth is growing rapidly in CEE, and it brings with it a lot of pent-up demand.