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In this round-up, China warned Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways amid intensifying protests in the city, Hengfeng Bank received state backing after Baoshang and Jinzhou moves and the offshore Chinese market experienced the largest outflows since March

In this round-up, China’s positive trade data despite the trade war surprised markets, trading volume in USD/CNH futures hit new highs thanks to the weak renminbi, and the Mainland’s foreign currency reserves fell after two months of growth.

In this round-up, hostility between China and the US continued, the State Council unveiled rules on the Shanghai Free Trade Zone and Beijing said it would intervene if the Hong Kong government fails to calm down the recent unrest.

GlobalCapital has published the nominations for its Sustainable and Responsible Capital Markets Awards. The winners will be announced on September 17, at our Awards Ceremony in Amsterdam.

International banks should stand their ground and continue lending to Russian borrowers. The weak, ineffective sanctions that the US rolled out last week have not affected Russia’s creditworthiness and some even argue that investors in the country face fewer risks than they did two weeks ago.

Swiss investors who have been kicking their heels for the last month or so have been kept busy this week by Munchener Hypothekenbank (MunHyp), comfortably the most frequent international borrower in the Swiss franc market this year.

As a banker, it is always ideal to be the first in whatever we do.

The US finally labelled China a currency manipulator this week, a day after the renminbi weakened to below the psychological level of seven against the dollar. With China clearly indicating its willingness to open a new front in the trade war, the stage is set for an increase in rhetoric between the two countries.

Russia was slapped with sanctions this week that stop US financial institutions from participating in primary issuance from the sovereign. So far, so terrifying as – eek!— Russia’s main artery of finance has been cut. Only it hasn’t been, not really. Don’t be too surprised if the Russia sovereign comes out soon with an international bond to prove it.

Green Schuldscheine have been a peripheral feature of the market for the past three years but this seems to be changing, with a billion plus transaction from Porsche and a sustainability linked note from Durr stirring investors into a frenzy. This green turn could have more of an impact for short term market growth than the odd non-European borrower tapping the market.

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is being accused of negligence and a laissez-fair attitude in relation to the collapse of several funds. The irony is that in a different but less well-publicised area it is far from lax: it has undoubtedly tightened the screws on bankers gone bad.

In this round-up, the renminbi dropped below seven per US dollar for the first time since the global financial crisis, Hong Kong-listed companies with weighted voting rights are set to be included in the Stock Connect and regulators will score securities houses based on their ability to manage public opinion.