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German savings banks are using credit default swaps to reduce their credit risk concentration for the first time.

When Dutch telecoms company KPN did a e2.1 billion combined simultaneous tender and exchange in July, joint lead managed by Deutsche Bank and Bank of America, it was one of Europe's most complex liability management deals.

Credit hedge funds and proprietary trading desks are starting to encroach on the trades once reserved for the distressed, equity long/short and merger arbitrage funds. US airline companies have been in trouble for several years now, most recently because of the overwhelming costs of their defined-benefit pension plans. This year, for the first time, credit-specialist hedge funds have been taking a variety of trading positions as a result. Even before the pension problems, credit hedge funds were taking various positions on airlines this year, such as putting on long/short trades on an airline's secured and unsecured paper.

No-one disputes that China's growth rate needed reining in. While investors worry over the possible consequences of a sharp slowdown, most economists believe that, contrary to global historical precedent, the Chinese authorities might have pulled off the trick of a relatively painless cool-down. But serious structural flaws in the economy remain and make China a perilous place to invest.

Full results | Activist investors set governance agenda

Having been heavily overweight on Russia last year, many emerging-market equity investors are now scaling back their positions. Some investors are making a fundamental reassessment of Russian equity risk.

Nordea has become the first bank anywhere to completely outsource its company equity research. It is unlikely to be the last. The pan-Nordic bank is to cease its own coverage of stocks in the Nordic region and will instead buy research on 200 regional stocks, including buy, sell and hold recommendations, from Standard & Poor's. This follows a similar deal with S&P last year in which Nordea outsourced all its US, European and Asian company equity research coverage to the US group.

New approaches to instilling high standards have fed into this year's Euromoney corporate governance survey. Initiatives include activist fund managers taking on mandates to advise other investment groups and the incorporation of governance criteria into bond ratings.

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In the lull between the fundamentals of European companies improving and their expanding or acquiring rivals, there's been a dearth of new credit issuance. Hence the interest investors have taken in liability management deals. Investors claim to see good returns from these, but this is by no means guaranteed.