China’s top banking regulator played Santa Claus to foreign banks weeks before Christmas last year, announcing measures that gave them greater access to the local market.

Investment bankers in Spain are looking forward to an active 2004 as Spanish companies lift their heads above the parapet with repaired balance sheets and more positive stockmarket sentiment. This follows two years, 2001 and 2002, which Antonio Rodriguez-Pina, president of Credit Suisse First Boston (Espana) calls “the worst and most difficult of the last 20 years”.

Social unrest and a government that turns a blind eye to problems means Argentina’s future looks bleak, reports Karina Robinson from Buenos Aires.

A boom in Spanish covered bond issuance has been good news for the savings banks. Head of capital markets at Caja Madrid Carlos Stilianopoulos tells The Banker about dealing with commercial banks, cooperation with smaller cajas and plans to extend the market abroad.
“By definition, a triple-A market is relatively boring,” according to Carlos Stilianopoulos, head of capital markets at Spain’s Caja Madrid. But if he is right that Spanish covered bond issuance has grown by 90% in the past year, then a little excitement is surely justified – especially for Caja Madrid, which is at the heart of it.

Anthony O’Connor reports on why covered bonds are becoming a favourite funding tool for banks.
Although the legislation has been in place for Spanish banks and financial institutions to issue cedulas or covered bonds since the early 1980s, it is really only in the past couple of years that issuance has boomed. According to market data compiled by savings bank La Caixa, at mid-December 2003, nearly -60bn of cedulas hipotecarias – covered bonds backed by residential mortgages – are outstanding from nine issuers, with 32 transactions to date. Equally striking are figures for the end of 2003, which show that cedulas hipotecarias will account for about 13% of all mortgage funding, almost double that of 18 months ago. But opinion is split about why cedulas are becoming a favourite funding tool.

Ben Aris spoke to the Russian bank’s CEO about the rationale behind the deal and the outlook for Russia.

Russian banks dominate the top ranks in The Banker’s first analysis of the fastest growing Europeans.