Sharia-compliant investing and structured products are two of the largest and highest margin growth areas for investment banks. Both are born out of specialist structuring teams, rich with fiscal and regulatory experts, so it is almost inevitable that compliant structured products are fast becoming voguish. Natasha de Terán explores the market.

Structured products are a result of investors becoming moresophisticated and demanding. Now banks are happy to tailor investments to meet a client’s every wish. Joanne Hart reports.

When a merger fell through last autumn, mining company Freeport-McMoRan was undeterred. It has just bought a rival and issued the world’s biggest junk bond to pay for it. Edward Russell-Walling explains.

A surge of new offerings are coming out of central and eastern Europe, with Russia and Kazakhstan showing the new EU countries how it should be done. Michael Marray reports.

Morgan Stanley’s co-head of securities sales and trading, Neal Shear, explains why the firm reorganised the structure of its institutional securities, and the effect his role heading the trading division will have on risk taking. Kathryn Tully reports.

The development of Islamic hedge funds and other complex instruments, as well as the provision of mortgages for a market hungry for property, shows how far the Islamic finance industry has come and where it is heading, write Mark Ford and Jon Marks.

Saudi Arabia seems to be entering a new golden age, with barriers to the financial sector being lowered and project finance booming. Stephen Timewell reports from Riyadh and Jeddah.

Covered bond issuance out of the US will not only widen the global market, but also deepen the investor base for the European issuers, writes Michael Marray.

As more jurisdictions join the covered bond market, investors are taking the opportunity to diversify their portfolios. Michael Marray looks at which countries are making waves.

Although covered bond issuance is booming in the UK, legislation to bring the country in line with the EU is in the pipeline. Michael Marray reports on the advantages this will bring for the market.