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Over the years various European names have sold dollar bonds using global formats aiming to find non-European buyers. However, few have had much success in the US. This relative failure has been put down to various factors including the lack of familiarity with the concept of covered bonds and an insular outlook among the investor base. But there has already been evidence that things are changing.

If 2006 was the year that western financial institutions began to cherry-pick Russia’s tastiest retail banking operations, 2007 looks set to see them turn their attention to the country’s investment banks.

Economy ministry proposes simplification of investment aid rules. The rules for disbursing of state investment support should be relaxed till the end of the year, the economy ministry proposed. The new rules would remove the investment location as a criterion for approving aid and the minimum of jobs created for state support eligibility would be reduced from 1,000 to 800. Projects, concentrating on science and R&D, would be no longer considered for investment incentives and support for employee training would be cancelled from the support schemes. The ministry explained that these draft changes aimed to speed up the process of approving investment aid and would thus avoid the process to be governed by the new EU rules, taking force from the beginning of next year. It stressed that this threatened to damage the investor confidence since the new EU aid procedure might exclude some projects from being eligible for state aid, even though the investors already negotiated support with the cabinet. The proposed simplified rules by the ministry would concern investment projects with an aggregate cost of SKK 32bn and planned total job creation of 12,000 places.

Kazakhstan, Ukraine discuss energy cooperation. Ukrainian PM Viktor Yanukovych and his Kazakh counterpart Daniyal Akhmetov discussed the prospects of cooperation in the field of energy. The main issue on the agenda was Kazakhstan ’s participation in construction of additional section of Odessa-Brody pipeline. The parties also studied possibility of filling the route with Caspian oil. Two options were discussed: providing 5mn tons of oil in case the pipeline is extended to Plotsk and 7mn tons if it is extended to Czech refinery in Kralupy (owned by Polish oil company - Orlen). Yanukovych also expressed interest in supplying Ukrainian airplanes AN-148 and railway cars to Kazakhstan . Interestingly, recently the Kazakh PM criticized national carrier Air Astana’s plans to purchase Ukrainian airplanes claiming Ukrainian equipment not to be modern enough. The two officials also arranged terms of holding the intergovernmental Ukrainian-Kazakh commission meeing, which would make place in early December. Yanukovych is to visit Kazakhstan by the end of this year.

Concern that China is poised to diversify its currency reserve holdings has meant some downward pressure.

Tensions between front and back offices over how to price cash CDOs are preying on some industry data providers’ minds.

With heavy demand for housing piling on the pressure for additional mortgage funding, Mexico has pioneered RMBS issuance in Latin America. An active real estate market has also prompted as yet unfulfilled moves towards the creation of Reits. Leticia Lozano reports.

forex market participants were shocked by the news that David Puth, head of global currencies and commodities at JPMorgan, had suddenly resigned from the bank on November 13.

“Take your pick as to which of these versions you prefer to believe:

One of the surprise consequences of the merger between Intesa and Sanpaolo IMI was that it resulted in yet another foreign bank carving out a strong presence in the Italian market. In exchange for its support for the merger with Sanpaolo, Intesa ceded to French bank Crédit Agricole, a long-time partner and investor, control of two regional banks and some 200 Intesa branches. But there are still questions about the future of the former partners’ asset management joint venture and some analysts question the generosity of the divorce settlement. Georges Pauget, CEO of Crédit Agricole, speaks to Peter Koh.

Those who consider the trade reporting fees charged on the London Stock Exchange a thorn in their side are in for some pain relief.

Don’t be fooled. The ready availability of liquidity to buy loans of distressed companies in the mid to high 90s is not a sign of health but another symptom of a market that has abandoned rationality.