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In this round-up, Ant Group receives blessing for the Mainland portion of its jumbo dual listing, the September benchmark lending rate remains unchanged, and a large securities house is in the making as Guolian Securities plans to acquire a bigger rival.

This week in Keeping Tabs: what scientists still don't know about coronavirus as we grapple with a second wave, ESG index funds outperformed in the first half of the year, and Japan's currency challenge.

In this round-up, the World Trade Organization rules that additional tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on some Chinese goods in 2018 breached international trade regulations, ByteDance makes progress on the sale of TikTok in the US, and Hong Kong asks Washington to drop its demand for the city’s exports to be labelled as ‘made in China’.

In this round-up, the recovery of the Chinese economy picks up pace, the country’s micro loan companies face stricter regulations, and the trading hours of bonds in the interbank market have been extended to draw more international demand.

The green bond market was conceived on a simple plan. A new class of green bonds would finance environmental projects, standing out from the grey mass of ordinary bonds.

A push towards harmonising data and reporting standards in ESG finance is gaining momentum and is a much-needed move in the development of the market. This was the message from panellists at GlobalCapital’s Sustainable and Responsible Investment Capital Markets Virtual Forum this week.

Market participants are still speculating about exactly how the EU's Taxonomy of Sustainable Economic Activities will shape sustainable finance.

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a surge in the issuance of social-labelled debt and sovereigns could be the next set of issuers to join this fast growing asset class, according to panellists at the 2020 GlobalCapital Sustainable and Responsible Capital Markets Virtual Forum on Wednesday.

Chinese issuers opened the Covid-19-linked bond market this year, tapping the capital markets to raise funds for relief from the health and economic effects of the virus. More deals have since popped up both in Asia and the world, and experts say the pandemic will change the way issuers and investors think about social bonds in future.

Bankers are famous gossips. They like nothing more than talking about the revolving door of job moves in the industry, the embarrassing slip-ups rivals have made with clients or the scandals that can result when alcohol and the capital markets collide. But although the rumour mill ensures bankers know plenty about other firms, they don’t always know what’s going on at their own.

The Covid-19 pandemic has been a health and economic disaster — but it also creates opportunities, say responsible investing experts. The new environment means financial players can become more ambitious, socially and environmentally.

An accounting practice called badwill is central to debates about European bank M&A — but it probably should not be, as it leads to some confusing rhetoric.