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Germany is the new battleground for French banks, it seems, with BNP Paribas and Société Générale both making hires. BNPP has hired Menko Jaekel from Citigroup’s Frankfurt office for its DCM financial institutions group’s coverage of Austria and Germany. He reports to Razi Amin and Anthony Fane, co-heads of DCM FIG Europe. The move is the latest in a series of appointments that the bank has made in an effort to grow its covered bond business. In structured products and derivatives it appointed Ralph Heinig and Marc Steiner for the same region.

The competitive spirit in investment bankers at CSFB and Morgan Stanley is alive and well. But instead of the usual battle to win business from clients or trading head to head, they clashed on a non-financial field.

Sovereign has shown it retains access to the capital markets despite political and economic woes.

Lee Dunst explains why companies that cooperate with US government investigations are falling foul of discovery rules.

Harvard University’s endowment fund has appointed as its head emerging-market legend and one-time candidate as IMF head Mohamed El-Erian. Formerly, El-Erian was running $30 billion in funds at bond investment manager Pimco. He takes over from Jack Meyer who, following complaints about his large compensation package decided to leave with some of his team to run a hedge fund. Meyer is likely to make a success of the new venture given that he has built up Harvard’s fund from $4.7 billion in 1990 to its present $25.9 billion.

The fallout from the recent broker investigations has prompted reinsurance broker Benfield to branch out into primary business and create Benfield Corporate Risk. John Lapsley, the new division's chief executive, tells Ben Dyson about his plans and why he thinks there is room for another broker.

The European Union is introducing the first uniform covered bond legislation. The long-term effects could be beneficial, but some issuers still point to discrepancies between countries that could stifle the development of a cross-border European mortgage funding market. Mark Brown reports.

South Africa’s Standard Bank is poised to buy Bank of America’s Argentina business, although an agreement is unlikely before the end of the year. Standard Bank is leading a group of buyers for BankBoston Argentina, including two wealthy Argentine families. The acquisition would consolidate Standard’s Argentine presence after it announced that it was also waiting for regulatory approval for its purchase of ING’s local unit. Bank of America’s decision to sell is another indication of its retreat from the region. Last year it sold its commercial banking unit in Panama and has also said that it intends to dispose of its businesses in Colombia and Peru. The bank has also announced that it is selling its asset management business in Mexico.

Korea’s love-hate relationship with foreign capital continues. In October, the government announced that it would be seeking tax payments totalling $210 million from five foreign private-equity investment firms that relate to profits earned from investments in Korean businesses.

The first of China’s four largest state-owned banks, China Construction Bank, hit the road in October for its well-trailed IPO. Despite a $8 billion offering, the largest IPO globally this year, CCB eschewed a New York listing, spooked by the Sarbanes-Oxley straitjacket, opting for Hong Kong alone.

At long last the first big refinancing of German multifamily residential units is starting to happen. The €1.55 billion Immeo Residential Finance is in effect a new asset class – multi-family residential. The underlying asset is a portfolio of 48,000 units in the Rhine-Ruhr region formerly owned by Thyssen Krupp purchased by Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund (MSREF) and Corpus. This will be the benchmark for other German multi-family real estate refinancings that will take place in the coming months.

Many investors fear October because it is associated with a number of market crashes. But according to research from ADVFN, a pan-European equity markets website, it is actually quite a good month for equities.