Financial NewsJason Corcoran in Moscow28 October 2008 Russian state bank VTB is defying the global downturn and dismal domestic markets by opening new sales and representative offices for its investment banking arm in New York and Dubai.Yulia Chupina, the VTB board member responsible for the expansion of its investment banking subsidiary, said the bank would open offices shortly in the US and Dubai.She said: "We are being cost conscious by freezing hiring and development in some areas while continuing to develop in other areas."VTB has already established three investment banking hubs in Moscow, London, and Singapore. It has dominated this year's hiring war in Russia by recruiting bankers from Deutsche Bank and key figures from a number of banks in Moscow.In response to the crisis, the bank said it was considering cutting costs by between 15% and ...

by Edward Hugh: BarcelonaWell the action in Russia this week has moved on slightly, and the damage has started to spread from pressure on the domestic stock market (accompanied by capital flight) to the real economy - via a very rapid tightening in credit conditions for Russian domestic users. We are also seeing a rapid slowdown in Russian manufacturing industry as internal demand slows while the inflation-driven decline in cost competitiveness continues to make imported products (where available) an attractive alternative to the home produced variant.Emerging-market bonds have been generally falling this week as the U.S. Senate's approval of a $700 billion bank rescue package did little to revive demand for riskier debt, and Russia has, unsurprisingly, been among the worst affected. The extra yield investors demand to own developing-nation bonds rather than U.S. Treasuries rose 8 basis points yestreday to 4.14 percentage points after widening ...

by Edward Hugh: BarcelonaWell the action in Russia this week has moved on slightly, and the damage has started to spread from pressure on the domestic stock market (accompanied by capital flight) to the real economy - via a very rapid tightening in credit conditions for Russian domestic users. We are also seeing a rapid slowdown in Russian manufacturing industry as internal demand slows while the inflation-driven decline in cost competitiveness continues to make imported products (where available) an attractive alternative to the home produced variant.Emerging-market bonds have been generally falling this week as the U.S. Senate's approval of a $700 billion bank rescue package did little to revive demand for riskier debt, and Russia has, unsurprisingly, been among the worst affected. The extra yield investors demand to own developing-nation bonds rather than U.S. Treasuries rose 8 basis points yestreday to 4.14 percentage points after widening ...