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We are dominated by ideals: perfect tax systems, monetary discipline, level playing fields and - above all - unambiguous lines of ownership. In the real world, though, financial systems and ownership structures are never quite what they seem. The governance of a US joint-stock company is not that far removed from a Chinese village-owned enterprise. And this may not be the best time to impose our ideals on Asia, argues Harrison Young.

Leading banks, academics and regulators spent two days stress-testing themselves and the latest in credit risk models. David Shirreff reports.

Luis Cezar Fernandes had planned to retire in two years' time when he turned 55. The founder of Brazilian investment bank Pactual was looking forward to a more leisurely life on his farm. But that was before two crises erupted - the global meltdown that has challenged all Brazilian bankers and the rift inside Pactual that led to staff breaking away to start their own operation and a change in the firm's ownership.

A lot is at stake with the first sale of Mexican airports next month, The aim is not just to work state assets harder but to create a structure that will serve as a corporate governance model for the entire Mexican private sector.

On August 24 when Asian markets were being blighted by Russia's debt default, the Indian government was busy closing a $4.23 billion deal that made investment bankers salivate. Over 74,000 expatriate Indians in over 30 countries bought up five-year Resurgent India Bonds (RIBs) denominated in dollars, sterling and Deutschmarks in what was the single largest debt offer out of India. The dollar bonds carried a coupon of 7.75%, a spread of 225 basis points over US treasuries. The State Bank of India, India's largest commercial bank that issued the bonds on behalf of the government, clinched the sale in just 20 days.

In 1997 Intralinks began providing internet-based document management for capital market deals such as syndicated loans. It claims that electronic dissemination can cut hard costs such as phone, fax, overnight mail, messengers, financial printing and paper by up to 30%.

In the depressed Japanese stock market, foreigners are quietly raising their stakes. By the end of March this year, foreign ownership accounted for a record 13.4% of listed Japanese stocks, according to data from the National Conference of Stock Exchanges. The rate has been steadily rising for the past 10 years from 4.3% in 1988. Last year, ending March, saw a 1.5% jump in foreign investment, even as the overall market lost value.

Why did Isda beg the CFTC for more time? The International Swaps & Derivatives Association (Isda), with a long history of success in Washington, needed a few more days to frame a response last month to a movement from left field a petition from one of its associate members, the London Clearing House (LCH), to Isda's old arch-enemy, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Gardening leave can be a dull experience. There's only so much time you can spend lying on a beach, or learning about fine wines. Mark Eban came up with an altogether more exhaustive pastime before taking up his position as head of global equity capital markets at Commerzbank earlier this year.

Thirty hours before the LTCM debacle hit the newswires Bill McDonough, chairman of the New York Fed, warned an audience of credit quants in London of a "situation which I regard by some considerable margin as the most dangerous since the Second World War". Of course the quants saw it as an attack on their credit models, which, obliquely, it was: which modeller had Meriwether on the radar screen? But McDonough may also have been referring to another threat to the US banking system: the move of Herbie, Euromoney's superbanker, who has been under his distant surveillance for nearly 20 years, back to Boot Hill headquarters in Arizona. David Shirreff

With rumours of big job losses in the financial sector doing the rounds, staff at Flemings were getting worried, especially after 65 of their number were sacked at the end of September.

Down but not out