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Italian populists rocked Europe in 2018, bringing fresh political and market turmoil, highlighting the EU’s failures while simultaneously making it harder to solve them. When the next crisis arrives, the bloc may well rue missed opportunities to shore up the financial system.

Welcome to the People & Markets Quiz of the Year. Test your knowledge, earn the respect of your peers, amuse and enlighten.

Rising interest rates in the US have created a roaring market for convertible bonds. Europe’s barren market has been put to shame — it risks being the driest year for two decades. Going into 2019, Europe is likely to remain in the shade of the US, but there are hopes of an issuance rebound — that is if interest rates ever start to rise. Aidan Gregory reports.

Investors are moving to abandon UK assets in record numbers as the country’s government continues to stumble towards a calamitous no-deal Brexit. The government should take notice and reverse to avoid disaster.

Supply of bonds issued by European insurers has been driven by firms merging, demerging and re-orientating, keeping investors and bankers on their toes. Will the conditions persist in 2019?

The European Central Bank’s withdrawal from the covered bond market will reverberate through 2019. Amid tougher markets, issuers will also have to grapple with substituting the enormous handout from the targeted longer-term refinancing operations (TLTRO II).

The Covered Bond Directive is reaching a critical stage that will determine the market’s form and shape for years to come. Luca Bertalot, general secretary of the European Mortgage Federation and European Covered Bond Council, discusses this — and other key factors that will drive the market in 2019.

Capital instruments issued by financial institutions under previous regulatory regimes was a topic of contention in several instances this year. With regulators set to lay down further positions, legacy capital will remain on the agenda in 2019.

Supply of MREL-eligible debt is expected to boom in 2019, when all European banks will finally be in a position to issue senior bonds that count towards the requirement. But a full range of issuers will be competing to issue these new and more expensive instruments at a time when markets are becoming increasingly volatile. Stand by for pulled deals and creative funding strategies.

GlobalCapital has put together a series of infographics looking at the financial institutions bond market in 2018 and in the year ahead.

After several years of very favourable conditions in new issue markets, 2018 has turned into something of a bitter pill for financial institutions. A sharp repricing of risk pretty much wiped out investment returns for many funds, as the market faced up to concerns about global growth, the end of QE and the rise of populism in mainstream politics. This backdrop made life extremely difficult for issuers and bookrunners wanting to make the most of the primary market. GlobalCapital wanted to reward the new issues that achieved stand-out results for issuers, in terms of pricing, execution and timing. The winners are presented here:

As central banks retreat from public markets, spreads are widening in dollars and euros, and cross-currency basis swaps are improving for international borrowers, Swiss bankers believe the good times might be returning to a market once known the world over for diversification and arbitrage.