The worst of the liquidity squeeze on eurozone banks has eased conditions for commodities finance during 2012, but the business still faces significant challenges.

Foreign investors have previously accessed Chinese capital markets through the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor scheme, and since December last year the Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor scheme – which uses offshore renminbi funds – has broadened foreign investment in China. The development of these products is now gaining momentum, and the scheme has given a first-mover advantage to domestic Chinese firms, putting brands that are little known outside China on the international stage. 

With advanced economies still languishing in the doldrums, trade between Asia and Latin America is driving global economic growth, and it appears that this blossoming relationship is mutually beneficial. However, could protectionist policies in Latin America dampen this ardour?

New networks are being forged in transaction banking as the EU's single market nears completion, the renminbi becomes increasingly internationalised and new mobile technologies speed up and simplify transactions.

As the economic scales tip in favour of emerging economies – particularly those in Asia – it seems increasingly likely that one of the region's leading financial centres will steal the status of global wealth management capital from Switzerland. The question is, which city will it be?

With the recent Libor scandal failing to shake asset managers' confidence in London, emerging centres will have to work hard if they are to overtake the UK capital as the world's leading asset management centre.

The Swiss National Bank has been the most aggressive central bank in a developed economy when it comes to seeking to stop its safe haven status from driving excessive currency appreciation, but many other such institutions are using other, more varied techniques.

The growth of China's economy is slowing, and with it the profit margins of its leading banks. However, with an increasing focus on SME lending, opportunities opening up in wealth management and the capital markets, and the renminbi edging ever nearer to achieving international reserve currency status, the mood among the country's bankers is still one of optimism, albeit of the more cautious variety.

While the Chinese economy shows signs of slowing, growth in the western provinces is continuing unabated, making it a particularly attractive destination for financial institutions. A number of major cities are competing for this inward capital, but in the race to become western China's financial hub, the city of Chengdu has taken a clear lead.