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Green hybrids are still a niche part of the corporate treasurer’s arsenal, but with balance sheets battered by the coronavirus pandemic and investors clamouring for both sustainability-linked and higher yielding debt, now is the time for more borrowers to take the plunge.

The Covid-19 crisis, and particularly the equity rally since the bottom of the sell-off in March, should cause deep reflection for active fund managers at risk of underperforming if they stick to their principles.

Healthy financial systems should not rely on short sellers and journalists to expose accounting scandals at large, publicly listed companies. Regulators and auditors should have been the heroes of the Wirecard story but their inability to see what others saw plainly paints them as the villains in this edition of German corporate noir.

In this round-up, the Chinese capital of Beijing conducts nucleic acid tests for Covid-19 on 2.3m local residents, the central bank leaves the benchmark lending rate unchanged for June, and a subsidiary of AIA is set to become China’s first wholly foreign owned life insurance company.

Robert Bosch has joined a rare club to issue €2bn-plus in a single Schuldschein. The A+ rated German car parts supplier re-opened the market with an initial target of €500m. Bankers say the final result is an illustration of the depth of the market for well-rated corporates.

In this round-up, Chinese banks and financial institutions are asked to hold back profit growth in 2020 to pump funds to the real economy, foreign strategic investors will have better access to listed companies, and regulators give JP Morgan full control of its futures joint venture and MUFG a bond settlement agent licence.

In this round-up, officials claim the second wave of local infections of Covid-19 in Beijing is under control, top Chinese financial regulators gather and deliver speeches at a high-profile event in Shanghai, and US president Donald Trump says that a “complete decoupling” from China is on the table.

It has been a long time coming. Social impact bonds, in which the investor's return is based on the outcome of a social project, were invented 10 years ago. This week, one was issued for the first time by an organisation recognised as a full member of the mainstream European capital markets.

Oil major BP printed its debut hybrids this week, defending its balance sheet from the huge slump in oil prices and the ravages of global lockdown. The company lured €20bn of orders a day after writing off up to $17.5bn of assets, proving that if you’re a company with something unusual to bring to capital markets, now is the time to do it.

‘Angrynomics’, a well-timed book on anger and how it relates to politics, economics and finance by Eric Lonergan and Mark Blyth, is published this week. GlobalCapital spoke to Lonergan to discuss its meaning.

Spare a thought for your colleagues in London or New York. Most of them are still working from home, juggling over-crowded, pointless conference calls with parental oversight and even the odd bit of real work. Those of us in Hong Kong are back to normal.

One of the sectors so far unscathed through the pandemic, in the eyes of institutional investors, has been UK social housing. Deals from housing associations have been priced during the crisis, as several institutions have said their resolve to invest in the sector remains undimmed.