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Northumberland Estates, the body that manages the interests of the Duke of Northumberland, has sold £200m worth of private placements to US and UK investors, according to market sources. The borrower joins Blenheim Palace, the Duchy of Cornwall and a long list of esoteric credits to tap the private markets.

Some of us have got quite comfortable working from home — a bit too comfortable.

Sustainability-linked pricing has arrived in the equity capital markets. This is no bad thing.

Symon Drake-Brockman, the founder and managing partner of European direct lender Pemberton Asset Management, thinks that the US direct lending market has matured to such an extent that further growth is tricky, whereas Europe still has fruitful opportunities ahead.

Giving cheap loans with few restrictions to local authorities via the Public Works Loan Board is not a suitable replacement for central government funding. This must change, or London Borough of Croydon will only be the first council to fall into insolvency.

With the inauguration of US president-elect Joe Biden in January will come increased expectations of further sanctions against Russian figures and corporates. Russian issuers should take advantage of the rally initiated by Biden's election performance and follow their sovereign into bond markets to raise cash while the going is good.

As the UK and the EU prevaricate over the terms of a future trading relationship, equity investors seem to be ignoring the lack of progress in negotiations and the dangerous possibility of a deal between the pair not being struck before the Brexit transition period ends in just a few weeks.

Baoshang Bank’s complete write-down of close to $1bn of tier two debt offers an invaluable lesson to investors in China’s domestic bond market.

In this round-up, 15 countries in Asia Pacific seal one of the largest ever trade agreements, China’s banking and insurance regulator relaxes rules for equity investments by insurers, and AllianceBernstein Hong Kong eyes a mutual fund licence onshore.

Last week's update from Pfizer and BioNTech about their vaccine candidate appears to have galvanised bank investors. The Euro Stoxx Banks index was up 17% on Friday afternoon, compared with where it started the week.

This week in Keeping Tabs: what a Biden administration means, the people behind the BioNTech vaccine, the link between commercial property and bank equity, and a proposal for dealing with debts in poor countries.

In this round-up, October headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation hits a 11-year low, the Chinese and Italian finance ministers promise to work on the two-way opening up of the countries’ financial markets, and the top market watchdog readies anti-monopoly rules for the internet sector.