This article originally appeared in Shanghai Expat.
By Maria Korolov Trombly
I’ve seen a sharp influx of potential entrepreneurs to Shanghai when I was in town the last couple of months.
As the U.S. and European economies head south, I guess that people are looking at the growth numbers, noticing that China is still in the positive digits, [...]

If you know the attendee list and there is someone you are interested in doing an interview with, then you need to research their background and get recent news updates as well.

The dramatic fashion in which Bear Stearns and others have gone down in flames brings to the fore issues like counterparty risk management that had previously been undercounted, or not scored at all.

The increasing functionality and numbers of mobile banking platforms, the growing sophistication of criminals, and the popularity of smart cell phones create the potential for mobile banking security issues, but industry watchers have widely divergent opinions about how serious the threat really is.

These are times that try bank balance sheets - and test their credit scoring abilities. But adapting to new economic realities can be difficult if the scoring formulas are hard-wired into a legacy database system.

Is it time to get out of the anti-virus arms race? If new security vendor Bit9, Inc. gets its way, banks may soon be able to eliminate virus scans altogether.

New channels of electronic communication have been a boon to many industries, opening up sales and marketing opportunities, helping improve customer service and speeding up innovation and collaboration.

SECURITIES INDUSTRY NEWS — New channels of electronic communication have been a boon to many industries, opening up sales and marketing opportunities, helping improve customer service and speeding up innovation and collaboration. For Wall Street, however, the benefits of technology such as Twitter have to be weighed against the compliance pains.

SECURITIES INDUSTRY NEWS — The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) halted trading of Topix index futures, government bond futures and all options for nearly four hours Tuesday, when systems problems prevented the order book from being accessed by the exchange’s trading platform.

Suffering from a lack of liquidity and poor securities processing, Ukraine is hoping that Nasdaq OMX Group can provide some relief and bring the country’s markets more international attention.

PREPAID TRENDS — The United Arab Emirates hopes to complete a contactless smart card system for its roads and public transportation system by the end of 2009 with the help of Octopus Knowledge Ltd. and the Electronic Documents Centre LLC, a card personalization, billing and fulfillment supplier.

PREPAID TRENDS — During the past year, prepaid use in China’s rapidly growing economy has seen a boom in the transportation and communications sectors and other closedloop markets. However, governmental regulations are still blocking any development in open-loop markets.

SECURITIES INDUSTRY NEWS — Chinese firms listed in Shenzhen, Shanghai and overseas will be able to issue corporate bonds more easily under new regulations released by the China Securities Regulatory Commission last month.

PREPAID TRENDS — Despite Asia’s largely cash-based economy, prepaid cards are making inroads there because of increased use in transportation and commuinications.

SECURITIES INDUSTRY NEWS — In an effort to open lines of communication to employees and clients more quickly, brokerages are adopting intelligent notification systems that can reach hundreds of contacts at the touch of a button.

SECURITIES INDUSTRY NEWS — Securitization in Russia exploded last year, accompanied by increasing investor confidence and a steadily improving regulatory environment, analysts say. As demand outpaces the development and testing of a solid legal structure, however, many companies are taking steps of their own to manage the risks of a volatile emerging market.

SECURITIES INDUSTRY NEWS — A much-anticipated rise in algorithmic and electronic trading is taking hold in Japan. It is confirmed in a recent report by Connecticut-based research firm Greenwich Associates and is being led by Japan’s largest securities firms.

SECURITIES INDUSTRY NEWS — Despite limited infrastructure and liquidity and disparate regulations across Asia’s geographical vastness, algorithmic trading has arrived in the region’s emerging markets. Over the next two years, use of the technology is expected to increase from around 6 percent of the market to 10 percent, predicts research firm Celent, driven by the steady growth of hedge funds in the area.

SECURITIES INDUSTRY NEWS — Before last week, reports of a brewing strategic alliance of NYSE Group and the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) were repeatedly dismissed as premature. But John A. Thain and Taizo Nishimuro, the markets’ respective CEOs, made clear that cooperation between them and their organizations was well underway before they finally got together Jan. 31 for the official handshake in New York.

SECURITIES INDUSTRY NEWS — China’s regulators have been diligently working to raise the level of risk management in the securities industry. But regulations alone won’t eliminate the bad practices that long plagued the country’s markets–and improvement will require opening them to more competition, which could bring other unaccustomed consequences.

SECURITIES INDUSTRY NEWS —
NYSE Group and the Nasdaq Stock Market have had to slow their plans to open offices in Beijing. Tu Guangshao, vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), said Jan. 13 that the openings–and other non-Chinese exchanges’ applications–will be on hold while new regulations are considered.

SECURITIES INDUSTRY NEWS —
The parent of the New York Stock Exchange and three other investors said last week that they will each buy 5 percent, $115 million equity stakes in the National Stock Exchange (NSE) of India, that country’s largest exchange and the third-largest in the world in terms of equity trades. The agreement came on the heels of a disclosure that the Singapore Exchange (SGX) was negotiating to invest in the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

CHINA FINANCE & CURRENCY WEEK — Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) is likely to have a greater probability of making future non-performing loans (NPLs) than China’s other big banks, experts say. To that end, it may be more of a risky investment for investors.

CHINA FINANCE & CURRENCY WEEK — China is set to allow its banks to partake in a second wave of asset securitizations by year-end, but it is still too early for foreign investors to get involved, experts say.

ASSET SECURITIZATION REPORT — The number of Chinese securitization projects has almost doubled this spring. The sudden burst of activity brought the total number of securities industry securitization projects up to seven - but lagging legislation is hindering the growth of this market in the securities industry.