Although foreign banks may be reining in finance for their subsidiaries in central and eastern Europe, any transition to local currency bond financing looks likely to be gradual.

Renewed access to capital markets for both the sovereign and the two largest banks has prompted hopes that Ireland will be able to exit multilateral support programmes successfully by the end of 2013.

Improved risk appetite allowed peripheral sovereigns and banks, together with high yield corporates at the lower end of the credit spectrum, to reaccess the market at the start of 2013, as investors seek new frontiers for higher yield.

Acquisitions by both private and state-owned banks in Russia are gradually concentrating the top end of the banking sector, but the long tail of closely held and regional banks remains.

Bringing vanilla investment banking products to emerging markets has proved a highly successful formula for Standard Chartered, and the model needs only modest refinement to cope with new regulations, according to its wholesale banking chief.

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.