One of the central themes in my latest book, State of the Asset Management Industry – Latin America, is around greater and more direct links between fast-growth emerging economies and regions, especially Asia and Latin America.

This morning the Financial Times on its front page reported that China Construction Bank is in talks to buy a bank in Brazil to “service rising trade with the region and to encourage South American exporters to begin trading in China’s currency, the RMB, rather than the dollar”.

A CCB executive at a banking conference in offshore hub Miami called it “we are following our customers.”

Indeed.

We have seen many firms follow the opportunities for both regions.

– Japanese fund managers in recent years raised almost $200 billion in Brazil related investments.

– Julius Baer calls Singapore and Sao Paulo their new second homes, and acquired a stake in GPS.

– HSBC, BBVA, Santander et al get the majority of their growth and revenues from Latin America and/or Asia.

– CS is heavily invested in Asia, and has seen much of their 2011 profitability from Brazil boutique Hedging-Griffo.

– Mirae is pushing in Brazil and the region.

– Blackrock is doing local roadshows and post Barclays acquisition is aggressively expanding in LatAm (and Asia).

– Chilean pension funds have an insatiable appetite for Asia investments, in all shapes and forms.

And the tactical list goes on.

Strategically, emerging market bridges are even more appealing:

– The exploding middle class in the next decade will primarily come from emerging markets – BRICs and N-11.

– HNW investors are growing fastest in Asia and Latin America, soon leaving the US and Europe behind.

– Emerging markets both from an investment and distribution perspective are on top of the list for fund managers.

And China and Brazil are leading the party – you might remember the spectacular opening ceremony for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Don’t wait for the Olympic Games or the World Cup in Brazil to wake up to the new normal in global asset management.