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Germany is about to enact a law that will create a new asset class for investors in the federal republic that should also attract foreign investors. The star attraction of the next set of financial reform bills set to go before the Bundestag this autumn is an easing of the rules covering hedge funds.

A quiet suburban street a few blocks from a university campus is not where you'd expect a groundbreaking research shop to be set up. But that is where State Street has sited the headquarters of State Street Associates, a 55-person subsidiary set up in 1999 to organize expansion into research provision for institutional investors. The buildings are two regular-looking houses in Cambridge, the Boston suburb most famous for Harvard University.

Travelling eastwards from Dubai after the IMF/World Bank meetings it is striking to encounter near universal scorn - among bankers, economists, corporate treasurers, investors and central bankers - for US policymakers' attempts to bully China into revaluing its currency.

Spain's banking market is Europe's most attractive, and theoretically at least there's still room for more consolidation. Spanish bankers, though, reckon potential targets are not in a rush to give up their independence. But then they might overcome their hesitancy if the price is right.

The Argentines had fun at the IMF/World Bank meetings in Dubai. First off they secured a $12.55 billion three-year standby credit from the IMF - enough to keep the country current on debt service to, well, the IMF. This was controversial enough, mainly for the near total absence of conditions to which the agreement holds Argentina's government, beyond that of running a 3% of GDP primary surplus in 2004. "It's not a dollars and cents programme," said a rather defensive Anoop Singh, director of the IMF's western hemisphere department.

IPO fever is yet to sweep the equity capital markets, but there has been a marked upturn in other types of issuance, putting pressure on banks' depeleted ECM division. Some are rehiring, but can the revival be sustained?

Talk about getting them when they're young. Merrill Lynch has joined forces with Elmo and the Cookie Monster to develop a "financial fitness" curriculum aimed at children between the ages of two and six.

Investing in China is tricky enough without having to offer coherent data on performance. Fund managers, under increasing pressure to outperform benchmarks, are struggling with the fact that index providers offer a mystifying range of products covering Chinese stocks.

The explosion in demand for telecoms services in sub-Saharan Africa is having a knock-on effect on the region's capital markets. Uganda Telecom, for example, recently set up a USh54 billion ($27.35 million) secured medium-term note programme. It is one of the first local-currency MTN programmes to be listed on the Ugandan Stock Exchange, and the first secured bond issued by a Ugandan company.

The race to take market share in the fast-growing area of credit default swap indices is gathering pace.

September is a popular time for international get-togethers. Near the end of the month there was a small one in New York, organized by the Brazilian/American Chamber of Commerce. It took place while the IMF/World Bank meetings were still under way in Dubai, shortly before the opening of the UN General Assembly, and a week after the collapse of the World Trade Organization talks in Cancún.