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The measures Draghi announced last Thursday aren’t bad, but he could have done much more. A few simple changes could mean a lot more liquidity for the European banking system. The only loser would be the ECB’s pride.

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What’s in a name? Quite a lot, as it turns out. The first rouble denominated bond issued by a foreign company has been unhappily linked with the infamous Kalashnikov machine gun. A campaign is already underway to rebrand it.

Sukuk may not be able to offer any sort of quick fix for Europe’s funding crisis, but South Africa’s decision last week to push ahead with a sovereign deal offers a much more encouraging vision for how the Islamic market could develop.

David Cameron’s opportunistic gamble in demanding regulatory concessions for UK financial services as a price for signing up to EU treaty change has failed spectacularly. The vetoed treaty will go ahead and EU regulations are unchanged. Politically, however, the UK’s link to Europe has been badly weakened. That is worrying news for the City of London.

Should independent banks and brokers be invited to produce pre-IPO research? It has occasionally been done in the UK and the London Stock Exchange wants to see much more of it as it looks for ways to improve its IPO market. But perhaps it’s time for an altogether more fundamental rethink of pre-deal research.

The 28th Annual Risk Management Conference (RMC) is hosted jointly by the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE) and CBOE Stock Exchange (CBSX) and has become a leading financial industry event. The RMC is an educational forum where end users of equity derivatives discuss new policies, strategies and tactics to manage risk exposure and enhance yields. The conference provides an ideal setting for institutional users and prospective users of exchange-traded derivatives to network with their peers, exchange ideas and learn the latest information about new products and risk management strategies.

Launched in 2001, TradeTech is a now a global conference series on equity trading with major events in London, New York, San Francisco, Toronto, Mumbai, Moscow, Tokyo and other international cities. If it’s not TradeTech CERTIFIED, it’s not worth your time off the trading desk.

The polls are now open for EuroWeek’s Asian capital markets awards 2011.

Network 2012, January 29-31, The Breakers Hotel, Palm Beach, FL, is MFA's premier networking conference and exposition for alternative investment industry participants and institutional investors, and is expected to draw nearly 1,000 delegates. The Network 2012 agenda will focus on trends in investing, the needs of investors and best practices in asset allocation, manager selection and due diligence. http://network.managedfunds.org/default.asp

The frenzy in Hong Kong's new listing market has brought a welcome stream of business to syndicate bankers, and has given confidence to companies hoping to raise money. But the recent rally in equity markets should not sway bankers from telling companies the ugly truth: you still need to pay up to get deals done.

Policymakers need to be careful about muddying the waters with their public debates over how to regulate banks. But at the same time, banks and markets must come to terms with the fact that regulation has to be dynamic to be effective.