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“Bond of the South”

Argentine banks’ holdings of public debt are to be restricted to a maximum of 35% of their assets, the central bank has announced. The measure aims to reverse the crowding-out effect by inducing banks to focus on private investment. “This provides additional degrees of freedom to conduct monetary policy, increasing the systemic independence from treasury needs and minimizing the ‘fiscal dominance’ that historically characterized our economy,” says Martin Redrado, Argentina’s central bank governor.

Despite grumblings from hedge fund managers about the way they are treated by the media, a survey by Horizon Cash Management shows that not all of them are unhappy with the coverage. Forty seven percent of hedge fund managers surveyed considered press coverage of the sector to be unfair, but 46% thought it was pretty neutral.

HSBC becomes the first private banking client to sign up to SEI’s global wealth service. SEI has spent three years developing front-to-back-office products and services to aid wealth managers and individual high-net-worth clients.

Following the recent appointment of Robert Taylor as CEO, Kleinwort Benson Private Bank and Kleinwort Benson Channel Islands are amalgamating and will become known simply as Kleinwort Benson. The bank has also begun an expansion of its regional office network in the UK.

Fix Protocol has issued a white paper on foreign exchange, after a 2005 survey by TowerGroup predicted a sharp increase in its use among market participants. TowerGroup found that 15% of sell-side firms and 25% of the buy side they surveyed were already using Fix version 4.4 for FX trading; this is expected to rise to 40% and 60%, respectively, by 2008.

Anyone investing in private equity now is making a bet that the business cycle has been abolished. Caveat emptor.

Further welcome signs that Asia’s real estate investment trust investors are getting more choosy arose in July when Cambridge Industrial Trust relaunched its stalled IPO in Singapore with an enhanced yield to persuade punters to subscribe.

A week is a long time in politics; a month in European CMBS can bring an almost complete reversal of sentiment. The €10 billion of supply in July took everyone by surprise

Tan Sri Teh is the first winner of Euromoney’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Asia. His bank, Public Bank, also won best bank in Malaysia for the eighth time.

Hungary’s OTP Bank, the only bank in central and eastern Europe to entertain genuine regional ambitions, is turning its attention to Austria as it eyes up the possible purchase of troubled bank Bawag. “We do not know yet if we are interested,” says OTP chief executive Sandor Csanyi. “But we think that our experience could be very useful.” Austrian trade union federation OeGB is selling the bank after it recorded huge losses following murky deals involving its US partner Refco, which collapsed in October 2005. Refco’s creditors are at present trying to locate the US assets of Bawag.

Inaugural mortgage securitization is sign of a fast-developing market.