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Standard Chartered has gained management of the White Pine structured investment vehicle from JP Morgan Chase. The transfer, in addition to the Whistlejacket SIV, makes Standard one of the larger players. White Pine was established by Banc One by structured finance stalwart, Jim Irvine. Apparently an internal team led by Irvine also bid to take over management of the vehicle. This is a business where economies of scale matter. The size of White Pine is $8 billion while Whistlejacket has $6.5 billion. But Standard Chartered is still some way behind the largest SIV, Sigma, which has $30 billion under management.

Analysts expect the Province of Buenos Aires to achieve a 90% participation rate for its $3 billion debt restructuring, when it closes on December 16. If it succeeds, it will be a stunning result, given that those investors who accept the restructuring own debt worth about 40 cents on the original dollar.

Banks are expanding their presence in energy trading – again. But with two established incumbents, is there enough profitable business for the newcomers? Kathryn Tully reports.

From an asset class perspective, the CDO sector dominates the pipeline and within that sector CLO issuance is at the vanguard.

Until recently only multilaterals with a regional mandate, such as the ADB and IFC, have shown much interest in issuing bonds in Asian currencies. But KfW is planning a three-pronged attack on local-currency issuance in 2006. So are local markets about to take off?

Bond returns have come closer to matching equity returns over the past 25 years, according to Deutsche Bank. European credit strategists Gary Jenkins and Jim Reid looked at more than a century’s worth of data from the US. They found that, over a 105-year sample, equities produced a real total annual return of 6.53%, compared with 1.42% for US Treasuries and 2.5% for corporate bonds. But since 1980, equities outperformed corporates by just 1.5 percentage points.

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.

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.

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

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.