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House painter Miguel Hernández has dreamed for years of buying a house and a car for his wife and three children. However, as one of the millions of Mexicans without a bank account, he has always been denied credit. But his luck could change in June when US-owned superstore Wal-Mart de Mexico opens banking services, joining a growing roster of local retailers moving into banking for low-income earners. "I’ve shopped at Wal-Mart for years, they know me and I hope they’ll let me open an account. It would change everything," says Hernández.

Why the China rainmaker just won’t go away

Hats off to the financial institutions team at a US investment bank who made a highly amusing Bollywood movie using an online service.

The excitement of the inaugural Euromoney US covered bond conference clearly got to some delegates in New York last month. Not least Dr Louis Hagan, executive director of the VdP – otherwise known as the Association of German Pfandbrief Banks.

There was a flurry of activity in the FX employment market in March as those market participants who got bonuses banked their cheques.

For most of this decade the majority of US investment banks have scorned covered bonds. Not any longer. So if it's true that they no longer believe it to be an unprofitable backwater of the European capital markets, what factors are at work? Philip Moore discovers.

Success in investment banking has always depended on relationships and connections, as well as expertise.

Singapore leads the way in Asia Reits, followed by Japan and Hong Kong. Other countries are trying to take the same course, but with varying degrees of success. Chris Wright reports.

"He’d been my client for 30 years, and he invited me down to see him at his home in Florida. When I got there he had assembled his entire family – wife, children, grandkids, the lot. I sat down. He handed me a letter and asked me to read it out loud to the room. It said simply: ‘Dear Bob, In the event that I should pass away, please tell my wife exactly what she needs to do, and ensure that she does it’"

Perhaps the biggest name to jump ship in the European debt syndicate world recently has been Marco Baldini. Baldini spent just under 12 years at Barclays Capital of which nearly 11 were on the debt syndicate desk, and he has now moved to Merrill Lynch.

Despite encouraging news from Bank of America, most US mortgage providers have so far remained aloof despite investor enthusiasm for covered bonds. Jethro Wookey reports.

In March, Morgan Stanley became the latest bulge-bracket firm to enter the increasingly crowded Vietnam securities market.