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FedEx, the US delivery company, picked Europe to print its debut sustainability bond on Tuesday, as the region’s green and environmental, social and governance debt market is “years ahead” of the US.

If the European Union wants its bonds to be considered the true eurozone safe asset, then it’s going to have to start acting like it means to stick around.

Banks are optimistic that sustainability-linked bonds have a bright future as part of their funding toolkits, after Berlin Hyp became the first financial institution to land a deal in the format this week. More trades are already on the way and market participants are stepping up their efforts to break down the remaining barriers for FIG borrowers.

Vingroup Joint Stock Company raised $500m from an exchangeable bond this week, selling the largest equity-linked transaction from Vietnam — and developing the market by using novel structural features never seen before in the country. Rashmi Kumar reports.

Mexico cleaned up a chunk of short-term debt maturities on Tuesday with a $3.26bn 2041 bond. The country’s deputy finance minister told GlobalCapital that the sovereign had decided to act fast to issue amid expectations that US Treasury yields will widen further.

Banks shouldn’t let conceptual considerations stand in the way of them issuing sustainability-linked bonds.

Institutional private credit is emerging as a competitive substitute for bank lending in Europe, but companies need to remember that alternative lenders define what they are looking for more narrowly than banks.

The IPO market looked on in despair on Wednesday as Deliveroo, the UK food delivery company, began trading. The stock fell more than 20% in early trading and shell-shocked bankers fear that IPOs planned for after Easter may have to be put on hold. Sam Kerr reports.

The Republic of the Philippines sold its first zero-coupon bond in the Japanese market this week.

Austrian utility company Verbund this week did something no European issuer has ever done when it sold a single bond that had its use of proceeds tied to green and sustainability-linked metrics. This is an excellent development for the ESG market, and finally covers glaring weak spots in the effectiveness of green bonds.

The European Union will complete the funding for its Support to Mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency programme next year, rather than this summer as previously planned.

Tricor Holdings, owned by investment firm Permira, has brought a rare dividend recapitalisation deal to Asia’s loan market. Pan Yue reports.