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Rapid urbanization poses major challenges for Asia’s developing economies, particularly those lacking government investment. Enterprising Asian developers are now bridging the infrastructure gap alone, creating communities from scratch and reaping handsome rewards in the process. Chris Leahy reports.

Things change, as baseball legend and sometime New York Mets player-coach Yogi Berra had his own inimitable way of saying. Some people prefer the future the way “it used to be” – and right now it’s the renaming of the Mets stadium that is upsetting fans.

Investment banks are paying fancy prices to participate in the hedge fund boom. Is there method in this or is it madness?

Either the underlying money demand relationship on which the M3 reference value is based has failed or there is a lot of pent-up inflation.

The Inter–American Development Bank has agreed to forgive about $3.5 billion of debt owed by Bolivia, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua.

The liberalization of Pakistan’s financial sector has generated unprecedented growth in the number and size of the country’s banks. Pakistan’s central bank governor, Shamshad Akhtar, discusses the challenges posed by the dramatic growth in the financial industry.

Turning a profit by investing in China’s dysfunctional domestic securities markets has proved a perilous occupation for most fund managers. Recent share reforms have helped to improve an appalling investment climate but there is some way to go before China’s domestic asset management industry begins to resemble anything like those of more developed markets.

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Groupama insurer to invest USD 400mn in Turkey. Jean Azema, CEO of Groupama, said that the company would invest USD 400mn in Turkey operations until the end of next year. Early this year, the French insurance company Groupama has acquired a 56.67% stake in the local insurer Basak Sigorta and a 41% stake in private pension fund company Basak Emeklilik for USD 268mn. Groupama has also raised its stake in Basak Sigorta. Groupama paid a total of USD 68mn to Taris Unions of Agricultural Co-Operatives and Cukobirlik for 33.34% stakes in Basak Sigorta. Groupama also acquired Fiskobirlik’s 6.67% stake in Basak Sigorta for USD 13.5mn, thus Groupama’s stake in Basak Sigorta has reached 96.68%.

In what will be a landmark transaction, Privatbank, Ukraine’s biggest bank, is poised to be the country’s first issuer of an asset-backed securitization.

Either the underlying money demand relationship on which the M3 reference value is based has failed or there is a lot of pent-up inflation.

While credit is one source of alpha for emerging markets investors, another is local currencies and bonds. For mainstream emerging markets funds, moreover, investing in local-currency securities is easier and, arguably, more sensible than taking exposure in credit instruments, where liquidity is at premium.