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Just over a year on from the initial launch of its marketindex platform in Germany (see Euromoney July 2006), ABN Amro has decided to enter the highly competitive UK retail market. The bank launched marketindex, which is white-labelled from Oanda, in mid-September. The platform provides streaming two-way prices in various currencies, equity indices, commodities and bonds. For legal reasons, these are designated as contracts for difference (CFDs), although in reality there is very little difference from trading the underlying cash products. ABN Amro will act as counterparty to all trades, although all prices are sources directly from Oanda.

The credit crunch has made life especially difficult for the credit portfolio managers charged with hedging commercial banks’ massive corporate loan portfolios. Lack of liquidity in credit default swaps and the closure of the CLO market has greatly reduced their arsenal of hedging tools. It’s not all bad news though. Wild market conditions have underscored the importance of actively hedging loan books and served to justify portfolio management groups’ existence to banks’ top management.

It’s not often that you can walk onto a trading floor and are greeted by England cricket legend Mike Atherton, twinkle toes Mark Ramprakash, champion jockey Frankie Dettori and Olympics silver medallist boxer Amir Khan.

A senior Citi official in Latin America says that Brazil’s leading local banks will remain independent despite rumours that foreign banks, including Citi itself, could be sizing up a potential acquisition. One banker in São Paulo told Euromoney recently that he reckoned that Brazil’s three big local banks – Bradesco, Itaú and Unibanco – could become targets for global banks, such as Citi, as they bid to increase their presence in Latin America’s most important market.

Firms rushing to set up credit opportunity funds might already be too late.

The world’s stock and futures exchanges have benefited handsomely from equity market uncertainty.

Leading players in Argentine capital markets say the government must issue a trailblazing Eurobond or global bond if the markets are to take off. The country’s financial markets are more than 20 times smaller than those of Brazil, despite Brazil’s GDP ($1.17 trillion) being less than five times greater than Argentina’s ($250 billion).

Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela, announced in September that his country would expand its petrochemicals industry during the next five years, lifting annual revenues to $100 billion. Chávez said that by 2013, after an investment of $20 billion, the industry will have created 700,000 jobs, 10 times the number employed at state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela. On September 23, the president started a "petrochemicals revolution", which will require 87 plants around the country to produce primary materials and petrochemicals-based products such as fertilizers, plastics and cosmetics. Chávez expects these moves to increase petrochemicals royalties to the government from $340 million this year to $20 billion in 2013.

A long-standing contact gets in touch with a Euromoney journalist via letter.

When China’s leading state-run banks lined up to announce their sub-prime exposure in late August, it was surprising and disconcerting.

It seems as if the sub-prime market implosion might have roots deep in the proverbial mists of time.

"If you speak only one language, you are an American."