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Another round of changes to financial legislation could reshape the German covered bond market. But it isn’t the new Pfandbrief Act that has got banks most excited. Laurence Neville 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.

Why CFOs should stop mistrusting hedge funds

Zhou Xiao Chuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, tells Sudip Roy why the renminbi was revalued and what financial reforms are next on the agenda.

It’s good to see that the world’s leading finance ministers slum it on the same flights as us mere mortals to the IMF/World Bank meetings. For who should be on the Virgin flight from London Heathrow to Washington, DC, than UK chancellor Gordon Brown?

A pan-European growth market could significantly boost EU GDP, but there are obstacles to putting it in place.

UK pension funds still have 65% of their assets in equities, but the figure is still dropping, according to European Credit Management, which expects it to fall to 50%.

Investors are pushing bank CEOs to produce growth. Some are now touting their ability to wring cost savings from IT, capital management and the rationalization of wholesale businesses after big mergers. National regulators are losing their power to block cross-border deals. We are almost at the point, Peter Lee reports, where every big bank is in the firing line.

Investors are offered first subordinated bond issue by a Middle Eastern financial institution, lead managed by Deutsche Bank and UBS.

Concerns about hedge fund positions in the face of Refco’s collapse have been overstated. The real consequence should be that investors are more wary of what they buy into.

Kyrgyzstan’s central bank governor, Ulan Sarbanov, has been placed under house arrest in the course of a government investigation into funds he transferred to the previous president, Askar Akayev, in 1999.

Intrigue surrounds FSA views of an HBOS tier 1 deal. And the future’s not Bright for the bank’s funding chief.