South Korea's Kookmin bank issued the first covered bond out of an emerging market earlier this year. It was lapped up by investors although its pricing has been questioned. But more importantly, is it the first of many other emerging market banks to look to covered bond investors for funding? Writer Joanne Hart
World
Latest articles from World
What went right for South Korea
July 7, 2009In a speech at the IIF Spring Membership Meeting in Beijing in June, South Korean prime minister Han Seung-soo explained how the lessons learned from the Asian crisis of 1997 has helped his country come through the current recession in better shape than most.
A little fine tuning
June 4, 2009Although France's banking sector has been dealt a few blows during the past two years, its retail sector remains strong compared with its European peers. Writer Wendy Atkins
A public answer to a private problem
June 4, 2009
Carlos Heller, president, Creditcoop
As Argentina slides towards recession, the country's private banks are reining in their lending activity, meaning that publicly owned banks will have to take a more advanced role in safeguarding the country's economic wellbeing. Writer Jason Mitchell in Buenos Aires
To the rescue
June 4, 2009
Senator Richard Lugar: queried the ADB's loans to India and China because of their relative wealth
It may have been delayed, but the aftershock of the crisis in Western banks is having huge consequences in Asia. As a result, the Asian Development Bank has seen a revival in its importance as people look to it to prevent the damage festering. Writer Nick Parsons
World
/ Asia-Pacific
/ Japan
Split personalities
June 4, 2009The role of the Development Bank of Japan in seeing the country through its export crisis is mired in confusion as it is caught between its public past and private future. However, the state-owned Japan Bank for International Co-operation is having no such problems in bailing out the overseas operations of Japanese exporters. Writer Charles Smith in Tokyo
Long-term finance in troubled times
June 4, 2009The importance of small regional development banks in emerging Europe has surged as credit ratings decline and global commercial banks cut back project and trade finance. Writer Philip Alexander
Winners and Losers in LATAM
June 4, 2009Some of the multilateral development banks in the Latin Americas region are proving stellar sources of funding at this time of crisis, although others are lagging behind with depleted reserves. Writer Jane Monahan
A different kind of support
June 4, 2009National development banks in Latin America such as Brazil's BNDES and Mexico's Nafinsa are playing an important role in keeping funds flowing in the region, but there is a danger of them being over-stretched. Writer Jane Monahan
Development demand
June 4, 2009
Press conference on co-operation between the Latin American development banks (l to r): Enrique Garcia, CAF president; Luis Alberto Moreno, IDB president; Jyrki Koskelo, IFC vice-president for Europe, central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and global financial markets; and Pamela Cox, World Bank vice-president for Latin America and the Caribbean
The slump in capital markets activity and a decline in cash flow has pushed Latin America's multilateral development banks to prominence as the biggest and most robust lenders in some of the region's principal credit markets. Writer Jane Monahan in Washington, DC
