Foreign exchange
Russian towards success
Founded in 2000, Lukoil International Trading & Supply Company (Litasco) has become one of the world's leading oil and products traders. Gati Al-Jebouri, CEO of Litasco, tells Roderick Bruce about his company role
Utilities seek new credit structures
As US utilities bail out of the auction market, they are turning to enhanced credit structures to refinance bond issues. Catherine Lacoursiere reports
The good, the bad and the ugly
Last month saw US asset manager Pimco triple its holding of mortgage debt, UBS sell subprime loan positions worth $22 billion to a new fund managed by BlackRock, and HBOS get the first residential mortgage-backed securitisation issue in nearly a year off…
Show me the money
Default Modelling
No more special treatment
Accounting
Pimco makes big mortgage debt bet
Guarantee of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae prompts Gross to raise exposure to mortgage debt
Prime suspect
Knowing the exact quality of the loans in a securitisation pool is key if investor appetite for mortgage securities is to return. Chris Ames, an asset-backed portfolio manager at Schroders, discusses what's prime, what's not, and what has to happen for…
Solid as a rock
Distressed Debt
S&P may cut Moody's ratings
Coding error elevated debt products' rating; Moody's initiates a thorough review of its processes
Cost of liquidity
Liquidity
Through the looking glass
ABS Valuations
The great property price panacea
Property Derivatives
Internal affairs
Operating models
Vicious circles
Risk Management
Q&A: Laurent Paulhac & Robin Ross
After the Chicago Mercatile Exchange's recent acquisition of market data provider CMA, Laurent Paulhac of CMA and Robin Ross of CME Group talk about how the CDS market may change in the aftermath of the credit crisis
Lawsuits leave monolines' future in the balance
Two high-profile court cases involving FGIC and XL Capital Assurance could determine the fate of the troubled monoline insurance industry. If the verdicts go against the insurers, the damage would not just be to their reputation, but it would call into…
Column: Nigel Rendell
Recent EU members are finding that adopting the euro is a trickier process than anticipated.
Mortgage lender Edeus rebrands as due diligence firm
UK subprime lender Edeus shelves its origination business and starts offering investors an asset quality assessment service enabling investors to quantify risk in mortgage-backed asset pools
Column: Dan Travers
The high-powered, lightening-fast computer systems that managers use to perform their risk calculations should be geared towards delivering reliability not speed.
Talking point - Are we facing a global economic slowdown?
In a special extended Talking Point, we ask whether the global economy is about to slip into recession, and, if so, what its effects may be. Our respondents reveal surprising differences of opinion..
The Big Interview: Katrin Robeck
With the financial markets still reeling from the crisis in credit, and concerns about a global recession becoming more justified by the day, Matthew Attwood speaks to an economist from Moody's Economy.com about the role of central banks in maintaining…
Back to basics
We take you back to the credit basics to review everything you thought you already knew but were too afraid to ask... Vincent Papa, senior policy analyst at the CFA Institute, looks at fair value accounting