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Korea Development Bank has set a new benchmark for Asia by selling the region’s first SEC-registered Sofr-linked floating rate dollar note. It gives further momentum to the use of the new Libor replacement rate, amid an expected spurt in FRN issuance due to volatility in interest rates. Morgan Davis reports.

NatWest expanded its environmental, social and governance (ESG) offering with its debut social housing bond this week, the first from a UK financial issuer, landing the €1bn deal well through fair value.

The Export-Import Bank of Korea returned to the offshore renminbi bond market after nearly three years this week. It took advantage of a recent rally in the CNH swap rate to raise Rmb1.5bn ($232.4m). Addison Gong reports.

There were flashbacks to last month’s Spanish syndication in the bond market this week as Italy made an emphatic start to the Draghi era in the BTP market. The borrower shed billions of orders on Tuesday after aggressively pricing its first syndication since the appointment of the ex-ECB chief as the country’s prime minister. Burhan Khadbai reports.

Two factors bear outsized influence on capital markets — Covid-19 and central bank stimulus. But the temptation to see these powerful forces culminating in one of two extreme outcomes — another crash as a feeble economy flounders, or a boom like the 1920s US — must be resisted.

South Korean e-commerce firm Coupang is set for a multi-billion-dollar New York IPO — the first US listing from the country for a decade. The deal structure could appeal to other Korean start-ups, bankers said this week. Jonathan Breen reports.

Thomas Piketty and 100 other economists from across Europe put their signatures to an op-ed this week calling for the ECB to cancel its holdings of government debt. GlobalCapital debates whether it is radical but wise policy making, or would make matters worse still.

The financing for the Issa brothers and TDR Capital’s buyout of Asda was priced on Wednesday, breaking multiple records in the process and showing that, for the right issuer in the right conditions, the sterling market can shoulder the bulk of a multi-billion LBO package. Owen Sanderson reports.

Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) is planning to bring in sweeping changes to rules governing equity and bond deals, requiring syndicate teams to be fixed earlier and fee structures to be disclosed. The moves have divided bankers. Jonathan Breen and Morgan Davis report.

If he can form a government that holds the demons of Italian politics at bay long enough to drag his country through the coronavirus pandemic, then Mario Draghi will have earned his laurels. But in Rome, glory has always been fleeting.

The Italian fashion house Tod’s has signed a €500m sustainability-linked loan, as environmentally conscious financing continues to infiltrate the infamously wasteful fashion industry.

The Singapore Exchange has sold a €240m zero coupon convertible bond, its debut equity-linked issue and the first CB from a stock exchange globally in eight years.