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There has been no let-up in the spread war, highlighted in last month’s issue. Deutsche Bank has tightened up its spot FX prices even further to selected customers in response to Barclays’ introduction of precision pricing. Sources say that the bank is currently evaluating the impact, before deciding whether to roll it out further. A bank official says: “Deutsche Bank has recently introduced laddered and dynamic pricing to clients. This allows us to price liquidity to our clients more accurately.”

Morgan Stanley took the most M&A advisory mandates worldwide in the first half of the year, but Goldman Sachs had edged ahead again by November.

But UK regulator will not ask for position data.

The world’s largest foreign exchange banks have made a mistake in streaming prices to scores of electronic platforms and inviting everyone to participate in them. Now, they want to take back control. As Lee Oliver finds out, a new bank-only system is being touted as the answer. Who is behind it, and will it succeed?

The massive shift of equity ownership needed in post-apartheid South Africa was always going to be a tough task. There will never be a template for deals, but a range of structuring and financing strategies are taking shape. Mark Brown reports from Johannesburg.

London-based Nikolaus Hohenberg has become UBS’s new head of debt capital markets financial institutions group Germany. He replaces Martin Keutner, who has moved from London to Zurich to work at UBS Wealth Management. Alongside Hohenberg will be Joerg Mueller, who is working more closely on enhancing the covered bond effort. In the summer, UBS also hired Mariano Aldema and Miguel Pinto to its Iberian FIG team with the aim of boosting its Cedulas business.

Could the southern hemisphere provide a solution to the problem of how to settle derivatives trades cleanly and quickly?

Report says lower risk weighting will encourage banks to look at MMFs.

Proposals in the French budget bill for 2006 and discussions in parliament last month could lead to significant changes in France’s public sector debt and risk management. Risk management role for AFT as Cades remains separate borrower.

These rankings of Asian-Pacific banks were compiled by Moody’s Investors Service from commercial banks’ annual reports and financial statements.

Thailand’s largest ever IPO, the $850 million partial privatization of Egat, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, was pulled at the last minute after a judge suspended the public offering in order to hear petitions relating to the legality of the privatization. Underwriters of the deal are said to be furious at the action that has effectively stalled the deal for the second time. Last year the planned IPO was shelved after union disputes. The court action is an embarrassing setback for the government of Thaksin Shinawatra and a disappointment for institutional investors who regarded Egat as an attractive and liquid play on the Thai economy. Local investors are also peeved: it was hoped the Egat IPO would provide a much-needed fillip for the Thai market, which is languishing close to 52-week lows.

Japanese equities are at the start of a sustained bull market that in the next two years will take the Nikkei well above 20,000 from its current 14,000 level.