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Mediobanca frontloaded regulatory issuance and completed its funding plan before the coronavirus crisis struck. While its corporate loan book has increased, deposit inflows have also improved which means the bank is in no hurry to return to the public market according to head of group treasury, Carlo Masini, and head of funding, Paolo Labbozzetta.

The coronavirus crisis has reshaped urban living and working. It will also change the way financial firms operate over the longer term.

Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), the Nigeria-based multilateral development bank (MDBs), has emerged at the forefront of regional coronavirus rescue efforts, providing financing for emergency hospitals, medical aid and more. As Africa finds itself at the centre of global calls for emergency financing and debt relief, the AFC’s chief executive, Samaila Zubairu, talks to GlobalCapital about the bank’s response to the crisis, how its own fundraising plans have been affected, and the future of Chinese capital in the region.

China’s move to enact a controversial security law in Hong Kong is clearly bad news for the special administrative region. But it will also hurt mainland China.

In this round-up, China’s top government officials, including president Xi Jinping, discuss key economic targets and a fiscal stimulus package, and foreign minister Wang Yi warns the US against a ‘new cold war’.

Jingdong Hua has seen his fair share of crises. In Africa when the Rwandan genocide happened, in the Philippines when the Asian tsunami hit, in New York City when the twin towers fell on 9/11, he now finds himself in Washington, DC at one of the key institutions the world is desperately looking to to lead it out of the coronavirus crisis.

There is a huge amount of information to take in at the best of times in the capital markets. During a crisis, it can be overwhelming. So, each week, Keeping Tabs brings you the very best of what we in the GlobalCapital newsroom have found most useful, interesting and informative from around the web.

In this special round-up on China’s annual Two Sessions parliamentary meeting, the government does not set a growth target for 2020 but raises the budget deficit to at least 3.6% of GDP. It also plans to issue Rmb1tr ($140bn) of special ‘anti-pandemic’ treasury bonds.

In this round-up, China’s central bank leaves the benchmark loan prime rate (LPR) unchanged for May, the stock exchanges of Shanghai and Shenzhen will allow companies to sell bonds with maturities under one year, and fund manager Fidelity International is looking to break into the onshore mutual fund industry.

China Southern Asset Management is in a strong position to capture opportunities in the Mainland’s rapidly growing equity fund market. The rising competition in this segment is only set to push it harder.

In the classic UK sitcom Yes, Minister, cunning civil servant Sir Humphrey Appleby would try to deter government minister Jim Hacker from making a particular decision by calling it "courageous" — meaning it was risky. He might have given similar advice to bankers on the IPO of coffee company JDE Peet’s this week.

Bank balance sheets are set to expand and Intesa's will be no exception. It will mean an an increased reliance on central bank funding. But apart from this, the Italian bank's mix of funding is likely to remain unchanged from February with the emphasis on regulatory capital. But as Alessandro Lolli, head of group treasury and finance told GlobalCapital, the bank has great flexibility in navigating its capital raising during the pandemic.