Free content

Cyrus Ardalan, chair of the board of directors at the International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm), discussed whether others could follow his organisation's model to finance solutions to social challenges at the GlobalCapital Sustainable and Responsible Capital Markets Virtual Forum 2020 on Wednesday.

Surging covered bond issuance that is printed only for repo at the central bank and official sector purchases means that the asset class is now less relevant for market funding purposes than ever before. If this continues, the systemic importance of the €2.7tr global market will be undermined just as efforts to develop it look to bear fruit.

Sir Ronald Cohen, the venture capitalist who chairs the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment, on Tuesday called on governments to mandate companies to publish impact-weighted accounts.

Bank of China has opened a new area of sustainable investing with Asia’s first blue bond. The excitement over the potential for sustainable ocean-related financing in the region is justified — but the market should temper its expectations.

In this round-up, China’s August credit data offers a positive surprise, the government introduces greater control on domestic financial holding companies, and ByteDance rejects Microsoft’s offer for TikTok’s US operations in favour of a possible tie-up with Oracle Corp.

This week in Keeping Tabs: the state of EU capital markets and whether good government matters, a profile of Mairead McGuinness, and Adam Tooze on central banks.

Hugh Hendry, the outspoken founder of former macro hedge fund Eclectica Asset Management, told GlobalCapital he sees no evidence for the re-emergence of global macro as a broad and viable investment strategy. Were volatility to rise again, Hendry says he may well get back into the financial fray but the likelihood of that is vanishingly slim.

In this round-up, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation moderates in August, the Chinese capital of Beijing opens up its financial services industry further, and Goldman Sachs is reportedly readying a deal to take full control in its China securities joint venture.

In this round-up, the foreign minister announces a global data security initiative, both American journalists and Chinese students face fresh visa restrictions, and president Donald Trump says his re-election will end the US’s reliance on China ‘once and for all’.

European policymakers may decide to ramp up efforts to retain control of capital markets, amid rising Brexit tensions, the US-China dispute and the need to recover economic growth.

The European Central Bank’s bond buying is doing bizarre things to corporate spreads that saw an airline reprice its curve this week in the midst of a once-in-a-lifetime crisis for the aviation industry. With a market this broken, it’s time for the central bank to see where its money can be put to better use.

GlobalCapital is proud to announce this year's winners of the covered bond awards