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Morgan Stanley has hired Irene Rodriguez, a director of fixed-income derivatives sales to Latin American corporates at BNP Paribas in New York, as an executive director in a similar role. Rodriguez, who started a few weeks ago, confirmed the move and said she is looking forward to working at Morgan Stanley, where she will sell a range of fixed-income products such as interest-rate, credit and foreign exchange derivatives to Latin American end users for liability management purposes. She declined further comment.

Credit-default protection on Vivendi Universal rocketed over 400 basis points wider on Tuesday morning in London as Moody's Investors Service announced a downgrade of the media company's long-term debt to Ba1 from Baa3. Swap spreads for five-year protection on Vivendi closed Tuesday at approximately 1,100 basis points, compared to 640bps in the morning, said traders.

Glenn Barnes, Merrill Lynch's London-based head of European structured credit, has left the firm, according to senior Merrill officials. Dale Lattanzio, managing director and newly appointed European head of global principal investing and structured finance, has assumed Barnes' responsibilities. One insider said Merrill decided to eliminate Barnes' position to remove a layer of management, given the relatively small size of its European operation compared to the U.S.

Brunei is positioning itself as a regional – even international – financial hub, but what exactly is the sultanate's competitive advantage? Chris Wright reports.

Boon Chye Loh, head of Deutsche's global markets business for Asia, and Jonathan Paul, who is chairman of global markets for the whole region including Japan and Australia, are responsible for a wide range of businesses including debt capital markets, foreign exchange, cash and derivatives. And they face something of a PR challenge. It's this: the bulk of the bank's financial success in this area is scarcely visible to the financial media. Many magazines and wires cover primary debt issuance, particularly in the G3 or G7 currencies, and there Deutsche's recent record is only moderate. It has led successful deals for PLDT and Maybank out of the region this year, but it is a long way off the top in bond issuance from Asia. It missed out on the Petronas bond, the first euro-denominated bond from the region not to feature Deutsche as a lead, and doesn't look like it's punching its weight.

Minister Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti is the coordinating minister for economic affairs for Indonesia. Within that remit comes a range of challenges and issues – most recently the delayed Bank Niaga sale, the fines levied against parties to the Indomobil sale, the continuing battles of IBRA against bad debts, and the effect of the Manulife judgment on foreign investor sentiment. In a roundabout way, he shares his views with Chris Wright in Jakarta

Anaemic trade flows and the challenge of open account trading have led to intense competition among bankers, discovers Pauline Loong.

Boeing, as any of its staff will tell you these days, is an aerospace company, not an aircraft manufacturer. This subtle shift in semantics underlies a significant change, which Boeing's PR executives refer to as a “business transformation strategy”, through which the company has diversified from passenger aircraft into defence, space, communications, air traffic management – and financial services. The last of these, Boeing Capital Corporation, announced the opening of a Hong Kong office in June, and Asiamoney met its managing director for the region, Foster Arata, two weeks later. Boeing Capital describes itself as a “global, full-service provider of financial solutions, with a primary focus on assets critical to customers of the Boeing Company”. With its roots in the McDonnell Douglas Finance Company that was established in 1968 to help finance new aircraft, Boeing capital offers asset-backed lending and leasing services. It became a free-standing business unit of Boeing in October 1999 and has since developed a global portfolio worth over US$10 billion.

PCCW gained its third CFO of the year in late June when the latest incumbent, Frederick Ma, was seduced by the allure of high office. Ma was appointed secretary for financial services and the treasury under the new ministerial system of the Hong Kong government only weeks after taking over the PCCW mantle from David Prince. Ma's resignation took immediate effect, and he took up his government post on July 1. Into the breach steps Alex Arena, a regular among the company's top brass from the outset. He adds CFO to his previous titles of executive director, deputy chairman of the executive committee and member of the finance committee.

Brunei is positioning itself as a regional – even international – financial hub, but what exactly is the sultanate's competitive advantage? Chris Wright reports.

On July 1, restrictive covenants stopping investors from holding more than a 10% stake in St George Bank expire. National Australia Bank (NAB), Westpac, HSBC and Lloyds TSB are among the likely bidders for the largest Australian bank outside the big four. But St George thinks it can go it alone. CFO Steve McKerihan speaks to Chris Wright. You have told local TV that you would prefer to remain independent. Is that correct?

Citibank ranks top in our global custody poll again this year. Our respondents offer a valuable insight in to what they want from their global custodians, and whether they are satisfied with the services they receive. Olivia Chow and Robert Law report.