The Chinese investment contribution is seen as highly important to Latin America. Pei Hua Chin of First Commercial bank said: “Our bank is looking forward to new opportunities in Latin America and to break into the market.”

In 2011 the UN published a report that showed that China had become the largest investor in the region accounting for nine percent of total overseas investment. Brazil received the most foreign investment, $48.5bn, with Mexico coming a close second. The UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC) stated that China’s investment for 2012 would be concentrated on natural resources extraction. In 2010 China became Brazil’s largest outside trade partner, investing $56bn.

The EU is also a major investor in Latin America. The fourth phase of its Al-Invest Regional Aid programme, which specifically channels funds into private sector developments, including chambers of commerce and export promotion agencies. Countries that have benefited from the programme include Bolivia, Mexico, Columbia, Peru and Venezuela. The programme has invested €144m, which has resulted in €500m of trade in the region.

The EU also runs the Latin American Investment Facility (LAIF) that helps governments and public organisations make investments in the area. The programme was launched in 2010 and has committed €125m up to 2013. The primary considerations for LAIF are to improve infrastructure and technology. The EU views this project as a ‘financing mechanism’ whereby grants and loans are mixed and endowed by the European Development Finance and Latin American banks.

The EU Investment Bank is a key player in Latin America. Recently the bank has committed €500m in Brazil towards renewable energy in an ambitious climate change policy. In Argentina the EIB will give €76m for VW SA to help the company modernise and expand its plant in Cordoba. The modernisation of the plant will help VW become more energy efficient and will also contribute to cutting down toxic gas emissions.

Much of the current EU finance comes under its mandate to: ‘finance operations supporting the EU’s presence in the region through direct investment and/or know-how.’

Seven overseas trade organisations, including the CBI and the United States Council for International Business, have joined Osborne’s condemnation saying in a letter to the Indian government that: ‘ the sudden and unprecedented move in the [Budgetary] bill has undermined confidence in the policies of the government of India toward foreign investment and taxation and has called into question the very rule of law.’

Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has faced widespread overseas condemnation following his proposals and many companies have pointed out that the move will affect investment, which amounts to far greater sums of money than the backdated tax. Vodafone alone has invested £4.4bn over the last five years in India, and has already paid over 250 billion rupees in fees and taxes to the Indian treasury coffers. The new tax legislation will also affect the Indian employment market; for example, Vodafone employs 20,600 workers and uses an independent distribution network amounting to 1.25 million people.

The US has also pointed out that the action proposed by the Indian government would do little to close the Indian budget deficit and would, instead, cause foreign investment in the country to slow down, therefore affecting the economy and the jobs market. Nandan S Nelivigi, a partner in New York offices of law firm White & Case pointed out that: ‘new deals…there is no question that they are on hold until the tax implications are clear.’

A recent article in the NYT pointed out that the Indian economy had become increasingly reliant on overseas investment to offset both its budget and trade deficit.

The new tax measures – there are two dozen altogether – will include legislation that will give the tax office the power to regard previous tax loopholes used by foreign investors as liable for tax. These loopholes include the curtailing tax moves that direct foreign investment funds for India via Mauritius and therefore are not currently taxable. The new legislation will also give the Indian tax collectors enormous new powers and allows them to determine what oversees investment should be taxed, therefore destroying the country’s uniform tax code.

Mukherjee claims that he has made the move in a bid to declare to the world that India is not a tax haven, zero-tax or low –tax country. Mukherjee has also stated that the new tax proposals would not apply to those wishing to track Indian stocks, otherwise known as participatory notes.

John Tsang, the Hong Kong Financial Secretary, is still concerned that the property market in Hong Kong is facing a ‘property price bubble’ following the region’s low interest rate and has said that he will step in should the market become over inflated.

Representatives from both Hong Kong and Chinese property companies have recently approached French insurance giant AXA in a bid to encourage the company to invest in the property market. An article in The China Economic Review claims that AXA is looking to invest $2.6bn in the Chinese property market over the course of the next five years.  Other companies looking to invest in Hong Kong include ARA Asset Management and China’s Citic Capital. Following legislation from the Chinese government in a bid to halt the rapidly inflating property market many development companies are facing financial problems, due to high debts and the government campaign to reduce house prices.  Overseas companies see this situation as ideal for long term property investment in Hong Kong and believe that future returns could be as high as 15 percent.

The Hong Kong property market was stunned in early April, following the arrest of development tycoons Raymond and Thomas Kwok. The arrest is a response to an investigation by China’s Independent Commission Against Corruption and shares in the brothers’ Sun Hung Kai Company fell by 13 percent. The Hong Kong Stock exchange showed that the company had of $4.9bn wiped off the value of its shares. Experts believe that this move shows that the administration is determined to demonstrate its prosecutorial zeal in a bid to remove any stain of corruption from the country.

Meanwhile, problems with the European debt crisis have alas affected the Hong Kong property market. A new report released by Knight Frank examines the market in detail and reveals a buoyant primary sales market. The report also reveals that new developments have been launched and show positive sales. The report also states that: ‘residential sales may dip again in the coming months, while the rental market will remain lukewarm. We believe both luxury prices and rents are likely to fall during the year.’

The uncertain state of the Hong Kong property market has led to a growth in leaseholders with many landlords showing that they are prepared to negotiate on both price and terms and conditions. Though the situation facing the commercial market is also uncertain and there has been a 2.1 percent drop in office rents. The Knight Frank report also projects that office rents will continue to fall in the first half of 2012 and points to the global economic problems affecting these rental properties with rents projected to slide by 10-15 percent.

The reform, which was reported in the early stages of March, is said to be targeting a more level playing field and greater cooperation in the way that domestic and international banks operate and are regulated in the Vietnamese financial markets. Under the plan, the degree to which foreign institutions could own and take a stakeholder role in domestic banks would be increased. This is intended to encourage the injection of foreign capital into the Vietnamese banking sector, hopefully in order to stabilise a number of financial institutions. There will likely be particular focus on the commercial joint-stock banks, which have been regarded as being in a relatively weak position.

At the extreme of this new principle, particularly weak banks are likely to face a take-over or merger by or with a bank that is in a better position commercially.  The stronger bank will have benefited from their higher level of capitalisation. At the same time, the system of allocating targets for credit growth to domestic Vietnamese banks is also to be overhauled.

The intended benefit of the reform is increased stability in the banking market, which is also likely to be good news for most customers of Vietnamese banks, in terms of confidence in the credit-worthiness of the financial institutions. The knock-on effect of this may be an increase in investment, which would then be of benefit to the national economy as a whole, as well as to the newly stabilised financial institutions themselves. Domestic banks might also find themselves in a more competitive market as a result of the strengthening of the sector.

On the flip side, a number of doubts have been voiced concerning the effects on small businesses. They may feel the pinch if the terms of credit extended by banks become more stringent and if financing becomes more difficult to obtain in the period while the reform is implemented. However, if the measures being undertaken have the effect of strengthening the local currency, then businesses of any size that trade internationally may find some longer-term benefit beyond the increased national financial stability that is foreseen by financial commentators.

In fact they may be just about to as Moody’s begins its long promised intention to cut its ratings for an estimated 100 banks across the globe, starting this month. Italian banks are likely to feel the heat first, before the agency moves on to institutions in Spain and later the Nordic countries, UK, Germany and US.

A downgrade of just a couple of notches would be enough to see some private sources of finance dry up for certain institutions, which in turn could mean the forced sale of assets and a reduction in lending to businesses, thus undermining economic recovery hopes.

The ECB’s decision to throw more than €1tn (so far) at the continent’s banks, in the form of cheaper three-year loans, may have resulted in a substantial easing of credit conditions in Q1, due to an improvement in funding and liquidity conditions; however, this has since gone into reverse, with lending to non-financial companies slowing in April.

The situation is only likely to get worse over the next few months as the cost of wholesale funding continues to creep up and banks reduce their lending as they start hoarding cash again.

Europe’s politicians would like nothing more than to put the US credit rating agencies, including Moody’s, out of business for good, but raising the industry’s standards is surely paramount to survival.

The firm is intending to boost investments by around 40 percent when weighed against the volume of ventures made between 2006 and 2011. The privately held food trading powerhouse will also undertake several acquisitions, leading to estimated spending of around $7bn, according to reports.

Dreyfus is set to finance its expansion plans via the capital markets and cash. “We have a strong balance sheet but we want to diversify our sources of capital,” Schoen told reporters.

The group recently reported sales of $59.6bn, up 29 percent year-on-year.

Fast forward to May 2012 and a man who once seemingly walked on water – well at least according to his cheerleaders – now finds he’s fallible after all.

It’s bad enough being informed of a $2bn hole in your bank’s trading accounts following a hedging strategy that has gone wrong, what’s even worse is publicly having to offer a mea culpa describing ‘egregious mistakes’ that have been made on your watch, especially when your bank has long been renowned for not taking major risks in the markets.

Dimon will want to move on from this corporate accident as quickly as possible – he has far bigger fish to fry such as fending off the growing clamour in Washington to impose tougher regulations on the investment banking industry.

The irony of Dimon – a high profile campaigner against tightening up the regulatory regime – will not be lost on his ideological enemies in Washington.

Democratic US Representative Barney Frank, co-author of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law, has already said it’s now ‘$2bn harder’ for Dimon (and others) to make the case for financial institutions not to have additional regulations imposed upon them in order to help avoid the type of irresponsible actions that led to the 2008 banking crisis.

Dimon has been especially critical of the Volcker rule, a provision in Dodd-Frank that will ban banks from proprietary trading, or trades that are made solely for their own profit.

Frank, a long time critic of casino banking on Wall Street, has long been one of the biggest proponents in the US for legalised online gambling from the comfort of your own home.

Never let it be said that Barney doesn’t do irony.

The anticipated managed growth of the pension fund seems likely to be focused on equities and real estate. This remains within the framework of a wider strategy of fund investment, as the NPS seeks to maximise its potential during the current global economic downturn. Non-financial investments such as international social development projects will also continue to grow within the fund, according to reported comments by the chairman of the NPS, Jun Kwang-woo.

According to reports, the service has the equivalent of more than $300bn, from which to finance the expansion of its financial interests. The current overseas portfolio has been calculated to be in the region of roughly $36bn, and the expansion seems set to aim to double this figure as far as overseas investments are concerned.

The size of the overall pension fund means that the current expansion puts the national pension fund in a position to be one of the largest three such funds in the world, which would improve on its current position as the fourth largest in the world. The size of the fund and the projected expansion also reflect how the NPS, in 2009-2010, has managed to achieve a yield on investment that is in the region of four percent higher than yields that were generated in the years prior to this.

Cnooc’s independent deep water oil drilling marks the beginning of a new era, as it typically relied on foreign partnerships such as the one established with Canadian Husky Energy.

The move to go solo comes amid increased tensions over ownership regarding disputed waters in the region and is perceived to be the Chinese’s response to Philippine patrol ships around the area.

The part of the sea being drilled is known as the 43/11 block and reaches water depths of around 2,454 metres, making it the deepest in the South China Sea.

These gains are partly due to the ECB’s cash injection of £8bn and show the strongest start to a year since 2000. The Tosca Fund made some of the largest gains at 13.7 percent and CQS Directional Opportunities showed a rise of 13.9 percent. Investors are still wary that the eurozone debt crisis could lead to future market volatility and the slowing of China’s growth is also seen as being very much a negative factor.

These negative features have not stopped new investment, however, and hedge fund administrators GlobeOp has released figures that show that inflows into hedge funds have increased ‘to 2.01 percent of total assets.’ In January BarCap revealed that investors could increase the net worth of new capital by $80bn in global hedge funds.

Another reason for the hedge fund market’s return to prosperity is the appointment of many new managers who have demonstrated good ‘performance to risk’ records.  The industry’s investors have changed over the years from the bulk of investors being labelled as ‘high net worth individuals’ to 60 percent of investors consisting of university funds and corporate pension schemes. The BT pension scheme is a major hedge fund investor and so is the University’s Superannuation Scheme (USS) with a $1.2bn portfolio. This change in investor profile is another reason behind the current upturn in the hedge fund market.

Despite the renewed confidence in the hedge fund market, some funds, including COMAC Capital, the £3.3bn international fund, are sceptical about the new figures. Famously CORMAC stuck to its bear market policies and missed out on the 2012 market upturn, but  fund manager Colm O Shea is well respected in the City. Despite COMAC posting a loss of five percent, many analysts agree with his hypothesis that the European Central Bank’s cash injection is only a short term measure and that the market volatility may still return later in 2012.

Some commentators believe that macro investment is a more prudent course of investment compared to micro investments. Credit Suisse has recently announced that: “macro was the most sought after strategy in 2012,” and the company also maintained that these funds would perform the best. Other well-known hedge funds that pursue a macro investment policy include the Quantum Fund, and Brevan Howard. Another factor that could provide further uncertainty is the gradual economic upturn in the US compared with the fragility of the major eurozone economies.