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The Shariah-compliant debt market has grown rapidly, with interest from issuers and investors outside as well as inside the Muslim world. The next development is likely to be more corporate issues using Islamic structures.

Azamat Joldasbekov, president and chief executive officer of the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange, spoke to Euromoney's Nick Kochan about the market's limitations and changes being made to extend the scope of its operations

The appointment of former deputy central bank governor Jammaz Al-Suhaimi as chairman of Saudi Arabia's Capital Markets Authority looks set to accelerate the liberalization and broadening of the kingdom's financial markets.

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Iraq and Argentina's debt problems will dominate this month's IMF/World Bank meetings, with the size of their liabilities casting doubt on the international financial system's ability to cope.

It's late on a Thursday night and the party cognoscenti are headed for one of Asia's slickest nightspots. From the exterior, f.bar, a bunker-like building with an unpromising squat black façade is guarded by serious-looking security personnel clad head to toe in matching black.

Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, Coca-Cola's second biggest bottler, had been buying back its outstanding debt on an ad hoc basis throughout 2003. ?We'd been mopping up bonds that came into the market with spare cash last year as we had been building up a lot of cash and had almost completely repaid commercial paper outstandings,? says John Fulton, group treasurer. But in 2004, the Athens-based company decided to do something bigger: to deal with liabilities that were soon to come due, extend its maturity profile and achieve a lower cost of funds.

Unlike nearly every other former Warsaw Pact country making the journey from central planning to a market economy, Russia has decided to shun the overtures of foreign banks and build up home-grown financing institutions instead.

The new coalition government led by Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh will kick off privatization sales with a billion-dollar initial public offering in September.

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Google's decision to use an auction for its IPO sprang from a desire to get what it regarded as a fair price, avoid post-issue upsets and offer fair investor access. Did it succeed in these goals and might it have done better had it shown more respect to its bankers?

Hedge funds are suddenly receiving high allocations in IPOs even though their participation can sometimes reduce issuers' proceeds. Are they suitable buyers or are investment banks favouring the clients which pay them the most?