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Africa’s rise may be less spectacular than its decades of destitution but economic change is finally underfoot.

Standard Bank's Malcolm Wilde, ceo for Asia in Hong Kong, has resigned from the firm, according to an internal memo obtained by DW. Reasons for the departure could not immediately be determined. "He has been instrumental in our growth in the region and recently played a key role in securing the people we hired from Bank of China International and HVB," noted Rob Leith, ceo in London. The South African bank has this year made a major push into Asia across asset classes, reeling in an equity derivatives team from BOCI (DW, 4/30) and a securitization group from HVB Asia (DW, 5/12), among other hires in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Wilde, who had worked at the firm for 14 years in London, Singapore and Hong Kong, could not be reached.

Morgan Stanley in London has hired five equity derivative salesmen to establish itself in the hot German market. Bernhard Wenger, previously at BNP Paribas, comes on board as an executive director, covering structured equity sales. Four others join for flow sales from Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein: Matthias Rode and Uwe Warpak as executive directors and Christian Stock and Christian Schalke come on board as v.p.s.

Competition. It's the defining characteristic of the capital markets. Most industries and markets are competitive, of course. But the effort — the extraordinary amounts of time, the hard graft and the sheer brainpower — that is put into competition in this financial sector has little by way of comparison.

Is there a region that holds more potential for the capital markets than the Middle East? It would certainly be hard to find another part of the world where there is the same combination of sophistication, capital needs and domestic and international investor liquidity. Philip Moore reports.

Structured finance is one of the most intensely competitive areas of the European capital markets. There are dozens of investment banks in the market, fees are a fraction of what issuers pay in the US, and many say there is no way most of the banks can make money.

Linkers at the core

The emerging player

Lending sophistication

Building on success

Moving up a division

Advancing on all fronts