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Never mind the rumoured $500 million sale of guitar maker Fender. If just one of its guitars is touched by the hand of God, it can raise $1 million by itself.

The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has finally done what critics have been calling on it to do for years. In May, it exercised new anti-money laundering powers and for the first time pulled the licence of a suspect bank. However, rather than prompting congratulations to the CBR, the closure of Sodbiznesbank nearly sparked a crisis.

The development of instruments that match investors' views on defaults, recovery rates and correlations with leverage and return targets represents a fundamental change in fixed-income investing. However, to take advantage of these opportunities, investors need new infrastructure and new risk-management skills.

CFOs in the US are optimistic about the economy and financial prospects, according to a CFO Outlook Survey by Finance Executives International (FEI) and the Baruch College in New York.

In less than six months' time IAS 39, one of the most controversial accounting standards to date, will hit Europe's listed companies. There are practical implications of IAS 39 for corporates, from hedging balance sheets at a macro level to appropriately calculating the carry amount of assets, liabilities and derivatives. But how are CFOs reacting to the impending deadline? A recent report published by KPMG provides some answers.

Joakim Nyberg has been promoted to head the Treasury Support Center (TSC) at Nordic Financial Systems (NFS), the provider of technical and business integration services to the treasury industry. Rising demand for Nordic?s TSC services, claims the company, is the reason for the move.

Customer acquisition and retention concerns US banks more than cost reduction and efficiency according to a survey conducted by Fundtech, a provider of payments, cash management and settlement software and services.

Merger and acquisition activity looks poised for a rebound. According to research by Dealogic, global M&A volume has increased 47% in the first half of 2004 compared to the first half of 2003. The value of global completed transactions for 2004 to date is $941.8bn. Despite the ongoing uncertainties facing industries around the world, the M&A market seems to be well equipped to face the challenges and changes within the economic environment. The figures for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions mirror a similar trend, boasting an increase of 13% in M&A value, but a decrease of 2% in revenue. The Asia-Pacific target deal value increased 29% to $156.2bn. The US tops the M&A list with deals worth $467.2bn; a huge increase of 97%.

Misys Wholesale Banking Systems is offering an ASP service

The number of investment-grade companies that are at risk of being downgraded to junk status has fallen to an eight-year low, according to a new report from Standard & Poor's.

Seven in ten finance directors and financial controllers of UK middle-market companies are optimistic about business growth prospects according to the Monitor research commissioned by UK private equity house Gresham.