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Credit rating agencies are attracting harsh criticism over their treatment of emerging market sovereigns. Some in the bond markets believe it threatens to undermine their authority when it comes to assessing creditworthiness.

Big firms like HSBC, BlackRock and JP Morgan are always being criticised for environmental, social and governance failings. The remedy lies in their hands.

The emergence of institutional money into bitcoin is the death knell for its revolutionary dreams of a decentralised economic system.

Happy New Year to all Notebook readers! Although frankly, the lockdown restrictions, US democratic backsliding and unflappable markets make it feel like we never left 2020 behind.

In this round-up, consumer inflation in China turns positive in December, Beijing announces rules to protect Chinese companies from sanctions of foreign governments, and the banking and insurance regulator hands a Rmb200m ($30.1m) fine to financial institutions including China Development Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

This week in Keeping Tabs: US Capitol invaded but economic growth projections up, the UK's 12 week policy on vaccines, and insolvency in Europe.

In this round-up, the central bank sets working goals for 2021, the Chinese government extends its policy to support small and micro-sized enterprises, and the US bans eight Mainland-based applications including the popular Alipay and WeChat Pay.

Raiffeisen Bank International’s clients are increasingly looking to achieve more sustainable, fairer and more transparent ways of doing business. In this context, RBI maintains a comprehensive dialogue with an ever-increasing pool of clients on sustainable finance, e.g. bonds, loans and Schuldscheine. We focus our attention not only on “green”, but also cover sustainability-linked instruments, a rapidly growing area in the sustainable finance universe.

Leading US financial institutions were quick to condemn the shocking attacks on the US Capitol on Wednesday — a sign that they are willing to take positions on important social issues, in line with the industry’s eagerness to align with good environmental, social and governance standards.

Sometimes one gets a stark reminder that there are different levels of wealth. This realisation struck a good friend of mine recently, with terrifying implications.

Asian loans bankers are expressing guarded optimism about their prospects this year. Most of their hopes are so far concentrated on India, where a mix of public and private sector deals — as well as the occasional sponsor financing — should bring some welcome supply.

Cancelling debt, dual interest rates, helicopter money: if the recovery from the coronavirus crisis stalls in the developed world, we will see calls for more radical central bank action.