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Italy lost €45bn of orders from its 10 year bond issue this week when it tightened the spread to 4bp inside initial price thoughts. It was a close echo of when investors pulled €75bn of bids for Spain’s 10 year in January.

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.

After nearly a year without any travel, many of us have become desperate to leave the gilded cage of Hong Kong. I, for one, would give anything to be able to laze on the beaches of Thailand with a Piña Colada in my hand — if I could only avoid the three-week quarantine on my return to Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong regulator’s plan to overhaul the bookbuilding and allocation process for equity and bond deals has some worthy goals. But it is unnecessary for a market that has proven able to clean its own house.

The size of a covered bond liquidity buffer that protects investors against the risk of payment disruption should be an important risk consideration, but there is no incentive to play safe as regulatory and central bank treatment of the asset class play more pivotal roles in valuations.

H&M, the Swedish fashion company, has sold a sustainability-linked security for its debut outing in the bond markets. This is an encouraging step, but the fashion industry has a lot more work to do to clean up its look.

It's a new start for Natixis, and also for ex-Labour Party leadership contender Chuka Umunna.

This week in Keeping Tabs: an opportunity for the UK's finance sector after Brexit, and an argument for why you shouldn't worry about the stock market.

2020 was an extraordinary year. It was period many would rather forget in their personal lives, but a year of outsize returns in pockets of securitized products. It was also a year that turned the outlook for securitization on its head.

Nominative determinism has come up in Taipan before. But not everyone can love thy fate.

Banks that mostly missed out on last year's trading and origination windfall would find it difficult to make up for lost time by leaning into investment banking; that ship has probably already sailed.

Italian prime minister-designate Mario Draghi must walk a knife-edge if he is to form a government and present a national recovery and resilience plan. If he takes too hard a line the mill of Italian politics will chew him up and spit him out. If he is too quick to compromise, the EU’s life as a giant bond issuer may be shorter than hoped.