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The low-key business of advancing tiny loans to the poor in developing countries is not the most obvious starting point for a new asset class on Wall Street. Microfinance has always struggled to develop because of a lack of access to financial markets. But the consistent profitability of microcredit companies is turning heads, according to Acción International, a non-profit organization that promotes small lending programmes worldwide. Its affiliates extended loans of almost $2 billion last year. “Microfinance as an industry is becoming a separate asset class for Wall Street,” says Acción International’s president, Maria Otero.

Vietnam’s stock market is roaring as speculative money chases the few listed stocks. Reform is on the way and the potential for growth is clear. Meanwhile, the market remains over-hyped, poorly regulated and lethal for the uninitiated. Chris Leahy reports.

Are hedge fund databases trustworthy...

Finance minister’s resignation leaves investors feeling cautious.

As if investment banks didn’t compete enough with each other already, London-based employees of Barclays Capital, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley couldn’t resist the opportunity to swap pinstripes for cricket whites in the chill of February for what has been billed the City Indoor Cricket Championship, held in Docklands.

The London Stock Exchange’s shareholders clearly have a lot to gain from Nasdaq’s bid for the market, especially if, as is widely expected, the New York Stock Exchange joins in the fray and pushes up the price even further. But what, if anything, users stand to gain is far from clear.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange has made no secret of its desire to diversify into Asia. So its agreement with the China Foreign Exchange Trade System & National Interbank Funding Centre (CFETS), China’s interbank foreign exchange and bond market, to provide electronic access to its FX and interest rate products should come as little surprise. “The signing of this agreement is a significant step in implementing our long-term Asian growth strategy,” says CME chairman Terry Duffy. “It is the result of many years of effort by Leo Melamed, our chairman emeritus, to help develop our Asian strategy as well as the contributions of other key individuals including Phupinder Gill, our president and chief operating officer, CME retired chairman Jack Sandner and president Xie Duo and his colleagues at CFETS.”