2018 has been marked by various emerging market crises. From Turkey to Argentina, confidence has eroded, resulting in bond and currency chaos. There is a growing focus on South Africa, and our analysis suggests that will continue.

In the era of Central Bank policy influence, we have become used to large shifts in the performance and trends of different currencies across time. For the better part of the past two years, the currency headlines have been dominated by a weakening US Dollar.

According to Daniele Bianchi, of Warwick Business School, is Assistant Professor of Finance and he researches crypto-currencies incluing Bitcoin, despite fears about the Bitcoin 'bubble' bursting, the price of the new digital coins is going through the roof...

TOBAM, the Smart Beta pioneer, announced today the launch of the TOBAM Bitcoin Fund, an unregulated Alternative Investment Fund, set up in France. The fund, the first of its kind in Europe, will allow qualified and institutional investors wanting to gain an exposure to the cryptocurrency to benefit from TOBAM's top-of-the league research and IT systems to track the value of investing in the Bitcoin.

Since the launch of the first SWIFT RMB Tracker in November 2011, the RMB has shown stellar growth for payments, whilst RMB usage by value in traditional trade finance – letters of credit and collections – has been decreasing since 2014. The Chinese currency is now the third-most-active currency in trade finance, after the euro, with a share of 4.61%.