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Bankers woke up on May 12 to find themselves in a changed world, quickly realising they would need to adapt to a new set of circumstances.

In this round-up, China records the lowest population growth in decades, the pace of credit expansion moderates, and a surge in the country’s factory gate prices adds to global inflation concerns.

In the film 'Annie Hall', Woody Allen recounts two diners’ experience at a restaurant. “One of them says: ‘Boy, the food at this place is really terrible.’ The other one says: ‘Yeah, I know; and such small portions.’”

The UK's High Court delivered a ringing endorsement of the country's new restructuring regime this week in a landmark ruling on gym chain Virgin Active, showing that companies have a new route other than CVAs to cut their debts to landlords. Silas Brown and Owen Sanderson report.

Commercial landlords in the UK are angry about gym chain Virgin Active’s restructuring plan, and with good reason. Many of them have lost out heavily, while senior secured creditors got away with little more than an amend and extend.

I have shared my recent experience of getting vaccinated in Hong Kong with my loyal readers, many of whom have given me kudos.

The debate over whether SSA borrowers should pay less in underwriting fees has split the market since the EU told banks it would pay less than the standard rate for its €800bn Next Gen EU bond programme. It is "the only topic" under discussion, one senior SSA banker told GlobalCapital this week. Is it fair to pay banks less when central banks underpin the market, or will issuers jeopardise their position long-term? Here, we present arguments for an against a shake-up of the way banks are paid.

The SSA syndication fee schedule is no longer fit for purpose, if it ever was. The EU has kick-started the debate, but the flaws in the business model go well beyond the issues the EU's fees grid has raised.

Public sector borrowers should be careful what they wish for. Those looking to follow the European Union’s lead in lowering the underwriting fees they pay to banks could cause an unwelcome distortion to their market at a time when getting funding through the door with minimal drama is perhaps more crucial than ever.

The increasing pace of technological change in the capital markets might worry some bankers who fear they’ll be replaced by algorithms and distributed ledgers, but they needn’t be concerned.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s newly unveiled Green and Sustainable Finance Grant Scheme is big on ambition but falls short on some areas that are growing in importance.

In this round-up, the China Securities Regulatory Commission plans to ask companies to include separate chapters for corporate governance as well as environmental and social responsibilities in their annual financial reports, and three Chinese telecommunications companies will be dropped from the New York Stock Exchange after an unsuccessful appeal.