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If there is one year where Asia’s bond market needs to slow down for the summer, and then emerge stronger and better, it’s 2021.

Robinhood’s mission to democratise stock markets is taking its inevitable next step with its own initial public offering, of which it says it will sell between 20% to 35% to retail investors. But while opening up the IPO investor base beyond the institutional investor clique sounds good in theory, such transactions remain extremely risky for retail investors.

In this round-up, the Chinese central bank releases the first white paper for its digital currency, regulators led by the Cyberspace Administration of China conduct an on-site inspection at Didi Chuxing Technology, and the takeover period of nine financial firms linked to beleaguered conglomerate Tomorrow Holding has been extended.

GlobalCapital is thrilled to announce that the survey for this year’s awards is now open. All market participants are invited to take part.

In this round-up, China’s economic growth slows in the second quarter, Beijing launches the world’s largest carbon emission trading scheme, and the top market regulator approves Tencent Holdings’ plan to take US-listed search engine Sogou private.

Limited partners in private credit take a hands-off approach when investing in direct lending funds. But they need to pay attention.

Athletes are finally arriving in Tokyo for the long-awaited 2020 Olympics. I am bracing myself for what could be the oddest Olympics I've ever seen.

China’s move to tighten its grip on overseas IPOs of technology companies could be a boon to a handful of other markets in Asia.

GlobalCapital is delighted to announce that the Covered Bond Awards 2021 survey will open for voting from Thursday. Congratulations to all those who made it to the shortlists.

GlobalCapital is delighted to reveal the winners of its 2021 US Securitization Awards, where we seek to recognize the most notable and innovative deals, banks and market participants of 2020. The vast majority of awards were voted on by the market, from shortlists compiled by GlobalCapital’s editorial team. In compiling the shortlists, we took feedback from the market through a survey, and in direct discussions, studied league tables, submissions and other data. Then, we picked out lists of credible winners for each category, all of which would have been richly deserving of an award.

RMBS deals of the year are often innovative in one form or another. But they typically only boast one or perhaps two fresh features. Investors looking at the Nomura-led Cascade Funding Mortgage Trust 2020-AB1 had to use both hands to count the structural innovations. The $285.8m reverse mortgage transaction from Waterfall Asset Management was the clear winner in 2020, impressing investors, analysts and other issuers with its groundbreaking structure.

We had an abundance of excellent candidates for this award. Yet in a year when the pandemic dominated markets, we wanted to recognise a transaction that not only showed structural flair, creativity and capital markets excellence in solving a problem for a client, but which successfully navigated extremely challenging market conditions at the same time. Congratulations to Fannie Mae and to structuring lead Nomura for Connecticut Avenue Securities-Seasoned B Transaction.