US authorities require Chinese companies listed in the US to abide by certain accounting standards. Many of these Chinese companies are unable to meet such demands because the information contained within their accounts is deemed to be a state secret. Recent fraud accusations involving Chinese companies have only served to highlight this problem, but any sort of resolution appears to be some way off.

For years, activity in the Latin American equity capital markets had been largely limited to Brazil. However, this changed in 2012 when big deals in Mexico and Chile brought the countries to the fore. Is Brazil's dominance over for good?

Despite 2012 being a poor year for equity capital markets, 2013 has started positively and emerging markets are likely to be a rich source of initial public offerings if eurozone jitters remain under control.

The merger of two stock exchanges and work to bring operations into line with international standards gives Moscow the potential to claw back Russian equity offerings from other markets.