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Amid a grim outlook for their profitability, European banks have been looking at all manner of ways to cut costs. Bank capital investors should not be surprised if their next target is debt interest. That may mean banks cannot be relied on to call bonds as expected, just to maintain good relations with investors.

Capital markets enjoyed a euphoric high after Boris Johnson's Conservative Party won a convincing victory in Thursday's general election, bringing what many hoped would be clarity to the long wrangles over Brexit. It lasted two working days. The hardball approach Johnson is taking to EU trade negotiations is a severe letdown, which is likely to make 2020 as unsettling as the last two years.

Retail investors who bought two minibond issues from Chilango, a London-based Mexican food chain, are set to lose their money, with either a 90% writedown or debt-for-equity swap heading their way. This was grimly predictable, based on a cursory glance at the deal documents, but the issue shows how messed up our investor protection rules are.

Rising defaults by Chinese firms onshore have triggered sell-offs in numerous parts of the dollar bond market over the past few weeks. But international investors appear too complacent about the health of some of the largest debt issuers from the mainland. More scepticism is needed.

In the second part of our results announcements, we reveal the winning equity deals and banks, including the Best Follow-on/Accelerated Bookbuild, Best Equity-Linked Deal, Best IPO, Best ECM Deal and Best ECM House. Our congratulations to all the winners!

In this round-up, the US and China set terms for the phase one trade deal, Chinese industrial production grew more than expected and the People’s Bank of China will sell Rmb10bn ($1.43bn) of bills in Hong Kong this week.

GlobalCapital Asia spent the last two months talking to banks and their clients to determine the most impressive capital markets transactions and advisers across Asia ex-Japan in 2019. We are pleased to begin our awards announcements in the loan market.

There are fundamental reasons for UK assets to be revalued upwards, analysts believe. The powerful majority achieved by Boris Johnson's Conservatives tilts the UK towards a Trump-like market-friendly, fiscally generous patch. But the reality of Brexit cannot be ignored for long.

The solid victory for the Conservative Party in the UK election has given investors a burst of confidence. But the rise in rates has proved short-lived and is unlikely to spark any supranational, sovereign and agency sterling issuance. Meanwhile, the outlook for the Bank of England has become slightly more hawkish.

Nerves in the foreign exchange market had been tense in the run-up to Thursday night’s UK election, with a rumour that Labour would win more seats than predicted sparking some volatility in the FX options market. But that was swiftly quashed when TV broadcasters’ exit poll showed a Conservative majority and brought volatility to a swift halt.

With a Conservative majority in Parliament meaning the UK will almost certainly leave the EU in January, attention turns to the transition period —market participants expect prime minister Boris Johnson to break his pledge not to extend it. Meanwhile, the UK’s financial sector now knows it will become less aligned to the EU, and bankers on contingent contracts could be about to move across the Channel.

There were audible sighs of relief on equity capital markets desks on Friday morning as Boris Johnson delivered a hefty Conservative majority in the UK general election. Bankers are now prepping for a busy 2020 and a solid UK issuance calendar. A state block trade of Royal Bank of Scotland shares is among the most anticipated chunks of business for next year.