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With a growing retail DVD business, MGM needed a revamped cash management system to make the most of the cashflows. In the end the system's highly successful implementation might well have also increased the company's attractiveness as an acquisition target.

Sustained competition, falling margins and regulatory pressures mean that the world of cash management and payments is heading towards an inflection point. The EU's Single Euro Payments Area project is adding yet more fuel to the fire that will force banks to re-evaluate their strategies, writes Peter Koh.

"Listen, I'm one of the biggest risk managers in Europe. I run a credit risk book of over €60 billion. By comparison most funds are little pussies."

After three years of heavy losses, Argentina's banks are once again in the black. The sustainability of their recovery, though, depends on expanded lending to the private sector and greater duration for their liabilities. Sudip Roy reports.

Optimism about Japanese economy and stock market is gaining strength.

A new borrower is using securitization technology to help save lives.

These days, convertible arbitrage managers can barely complete the first line of their pitch without investors heading for the door. The solid returns the strategy offered have faded as a result of capacity issues, the sharp decline in global volatility and fewer opportunities. But Axis Capital has managed to retain investors by finding a new niche within the strategy – Asia.

Managed futures or commodity trading advisers (CTAs) have been a good source of diversification and positive returns for hedge fund investors for many years. Barclay Trading Group's CTA index, for example, shows average correlation of just 0.070 with the HFRI fund weighted composite, and 0.223 with the HFRI fund of funds composite from 1990 to the end of 2004. Since the index's inception in 1980, there have been only three instances in which a year has ended with a loss, the greatest being –1.19% in 1999. But for a strategy based on long-term trends, the current market environment has made it difficult to find opportunities. At the end of August this year, the Barclay CTA index was down 1.30%. The result is that those in the know are evolving to find opportunities in shorter-term trends.

The asset class is likely to outperform emerging-market debt as more funds enter the market.

The UAE's financial regulator, the Securities and Commodities Authority, announced on September 6 that the case of two individuals and a brokerage suspected of manipulating the stock price of Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) had been referred to the judiciary.

The credit derivatives market has expanded fast in recent months. But the growing backlog of unconfirmed trades has caused concern.

Paying a pop star to perform at your wedding is so underwhelming. At least, this seems to have been the thinking behind 33-year-old Russian billionaire Andrei Melnichenko's decision to employ not one but four during his nuptials to model and former Miss Yugoslavia Aleksandra Kokotovich in Antibes, France, last month.