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In this round-up, the US and China will meet in Shanghai next Tuesday to continue trade negotiations, newly elected UK prime minister Boris Johnson showed some love to China and Mainland regulators are continuing a crack-down on real estate financing firms.

Boris Johnson, the UK's new prime minister, has spent most of his first week in power making life difficult for his new chancellor. Announcing big investments in transport infrastructure, health and social care in his first speech on the steps of 10 Downing Street, Johnson is already racking up the bills.

The Schuldschein market, traditionally a safe and stolid funding product for German companies borrowing from German insurers, has been on a tear of late, with extensive international interest on the buy- and sell-sides, booming issuance volumes, and a procession of digital initiatives to streamline the market. But it has not all been good news.

It gives me great pleasure to realise how much of an impact I’ve had on my former employees.

London’s capital markets are again under threat of severe disruption as the UK’s clown prince in chief, Boris Johnson, became prime minister this week.

The Covered Bond Awards 2019 survey is off to a very strong start with roughly 300 completed responses registered in the first week. Two banks are running neck and neck for the top award, but with four weeks to go, pecking orders can change.

The first 25 companies that started trading on the new Shanghai tech board on Monday skyrocketed, as Chinese investors welcomed the Nasdaq-style equity market with frenzied trading. As the excitement cooled on Tuesday, the bourse’s performance shows that regulators must not just focus on market reform, but also on market participants.

In this round-up, the Shanghai Star market officially opened on Monday morning, the People’s Bank of China, the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission formally announced 11 market reform measures, and the Mainland made the largest sorghum purchase from the US since last April.

In response to requests from market participants, GlobalCapital has extended the closing date of its poll to determine the 2019 winners of its Sustainable and Responsible Capital Markets Awards. Market participants can now vote until July 26.

In this round-up, China lowered its holdings of US Treasuries yet again in May, new issuance of local government bonds has skyrocketed and regulators are wooing state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to list on the new Shanghai Star market.

In this round-up, China and the US talked on Thursday after unhelpful comments from US president Donald Trump, China’s state council released policies on using social credits to regulate the market and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) published guidelines to help financial institutions exit from the market.

Bondholders are still afraid to form alliances like those in the equity market to pressure issuers to improve their environmental, social and governance performance. They are paralysed by fear of market abuse and competition rules. But there is hope regulators will reassure them.