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CLS announced in early December that it had extended its services to cover the net proceeds of non-deliverable forward (NDF) trades. The service has gone live with six member banks and one third-party customer and it will cover 48 reference currencies. Proceeds will be settled in any of the existing 15 CLS settlement currencies.

Kazakhstan’s president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has decreed the creation of a state holding company, roughly on Singaporean/Malaysian lines, to oversee and rationalize the country’s lucrative but inchoate collection of state-owned companies and foster corporate governance. A British corporate warhorse, Sir Richard Evans, has been hired to pull the operation together. Eric Ellis reports on a confrontation of cultures.

Banks in Kazakhstan continue to be the subject of concern in the wake of the global credit crunch, with Standard & Poor’s the latest organization to turn its spotlight on the sector. In mid-December, the ratings agency revised from stable to negative the outlook on its ratings on eight banks – including the leading quartet of Kazkommertsbank, Bank TuranAlem, Halyk Savings Bank of Kazakhstan and Alliance Bank.

They’re proud of their embassies in Berlin. Take a tour of the German capital and soon after passing the building shared by five Nordic countries your guide will point to three more embassies clustered together – those of South Africa, India and… Baden-Württemberg. It’s a symbol of Germany’s decentralization that is particularly apparent in its banking system. So is there room for – or even need of – a national champion? Philip Moore reports.

Private banks attached to investment banks have benefited from the access to balance sheet and innovative products that the relationship provides. But with Wall Street suffering dramatic losses as a result of sub-prime mortgage exposure, will that relationship be the private banks’ downfall? Helen Avery reports.

Lehman Brothers sells its stake.

The year of the MTF?

Guy Hart, head of ABS syndicate at BNP Paribas, is understood to be leaving the French bank. Hart has been at BNP Paribas since joining from Nomura in 1998. He is a victim of the bank’s projected business levels for next year. With so much less activity expected for 2008 in ABS and CDOs, BNP Paribas’ structured finance division has been trimmed. Accompanying Hart out of the door will be Christos Danias, head of European CDOs and fellow CDO structurer William Ma, who only joined the bank last January from Moody’s.

Reprise of Glass-Steagall is not a suitable response to the market’s present woes.

High-net-worth investors are keen to use structured notes to profit from volatility in the equity market, and to take advantage of opportunities elsewhere. John Ferry looks at what is on offer.

The European cash equity market’s status quo will be put to the test in 2008 when at least four new multilateral trading facilities open for business. Encouraged by the EU’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive and the better than expected progress of MTF Chi-X, the newcomers promise to shake things up. Peter Koh reports.

Including breakdown by country; region and institution type; and country and institution type.