War and why primary credit markets are not as worried as you might think

If you only consumed mainstream news, the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran — and potentially the US — might lead you to assume that such global turmoil would make it a bad time to be issuing debt.

But if you only observed the capital markets to the exclusion of all wider news, you'd be forgiven for thinking the world was a stable, peaceful and certain place.

Issuance in credit markets has boomed even as the prospect of a wider war ramped up this week. We examine why investors are so keen to take on risk at such an uncertain time and how long it can last for.

Meanwhile, the European Commission has revealed a raft of proposals with which it hopes to boost the EU's securitization market. We pick through plans to see which the market likes, and which it doesn't.

Finally, Luxembourg achieved a digital bond first this week; pricing a bond using distributed ledger technology that was sold to investors. We explain what this advance means for digital debt issuance, and ahead of our GC Live event in September on the same subject, look at where digital capital markets are at versus where they need to get to.