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Many CLO managers went into 2020 aggressively positioned, with a high percentage of portfolio assets rated triple-C and on the cusp. When the pandemic hit, a wave of downgrades drove these same managers into bouts of forced selling and severely limited purchases of new assets. But not GoldenTree Asset Management.

Waterfall Asset Management is one of the largest structured product-focused alternative investment managers by assets under management. It is a testament to the firm’s skill, dedication, and innovation that this year it won awards both as issuer – RMBS deal of the year – and as hedge fund investor of the year. Waterfall manages approximately $9.5bn of assets across a variety of co-mingled funds, funds-of-one, separately managed accounts, a publicly-traded REIT, and a private equity fund.

If there was ever a year when the confidence and insight of a first-rate accounting firm was particularly needed, it was 2020. Facing stiff competition from its peers, Deloitte’s depth and breadth of experience and expertise in structured finance was called on and recognised by the market as Accounting Firm of the Year across multiple sectors.

Golub Capital has won the GlobalCapital 2020 awards for Middle Market CLO Manager of the Year and Middle Market CLO Deal of the Year. These awards continue the firm’s long track record of market leadership in middle market CLOs. They also reflect the power and resilience of Golub Capital’s sponsor finance platform through the Covid-19 crisis. The firm has been the top middle market CLO issuer by volume for the past eight years, according to Creditflux data.

When the 2007-8 crisis hit, appetite for analytics using macro forecasts to project tranche-level impacts across structured finance was fairly limited. There were models that could forecast the performance of residential mortgages, but few issuers or investors saw the need to try to determine how, for example, unemployment might affect a specific RMBS tranche.

Space might well be the new frontier in equity investing, with several deals catching the attention of capital markets professionals in the past couple of weeks. But as exciting as investing in space and space technology are, grouping vastly different businesses together under the catch-all term 'space economy' runs the risk of stoking fads or even an equity bubble.

Pundits in the ESG space are already levelling disappointed criticisms at the ECB’s new green monetary policy strategy. But while it may not be perfect, it is important to recognise that the ECB has taken a valuable and important step forward.

For all their espoused commitment to capitalism — a system in which outdated ideas are supposed to be allowed to perish when superseded by newer, better ways of doing things — there is a club of leaders at the top of investment banking that seems obstinately, sentimentally, and possibly even damagingly attached to the way things have always been done.

Arguably the most important sustainable finance innovation since the development of green bonds, sustainability-linked bonds have picked up notable traction in the year since the launch of the Sustainability-Linked Bond Principles. But while the instrument provides the holistic issuer-level engagement that many investors are seeking, in contrast to use of proceeds bonds, questions remain over both the credibility of KPIs and applicability to financial and sovereign credits.

In this round-up, China’s central bank will cut the reserve requirement ratio for banks by 50bp, Beijing further tightens its grip on overseas IPOs of technology companies, and the top antitrust watchdog blocks Tencent Holdings’ plan to merge two of the country’s largest videogame streamers.

Activity in the recruitment market for sustainable capital markets experts has ticked up this year, as banks looking to staff up in this area see a small but growing talent pool to tap. A recent hire by Santander in London is a good example.

Originally a self-regulated sphere in which voluntary principles underpinned activity, ESG debt is attracting increasing regulatory focus — especially in Europe, where the EU’s ambitious Action Plan on Sustainable Finance is creating a demanding new framework around the market. What does this imply for issuers and investors? And are other regions in step with European developments? Clifford Chance and Latham & Watkins clarify the state of play.