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Since the issuance of a pioneering Climate Awareness Bond (CAB) by the European Investment Bank (EIB) in 2007, the global Green Bond market has expanded at an impressive pace, with total issuance passing the $500bn mark in the third quarter of 2018.

The meeting between US president Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping during the G20 summit resulted in a trade war ceasefire, giving capital markets a temporary breather from the threat of a fresh tariff outbreak. Asia’s debt and equity issuers should pounce on the opportunity.

The Turkish government is mulling plans to print asset backed securities against the country's banks' mortgage stock. Some are calling the idea a “bad bank in disguise”. It isn't, but Turkey will need one.

Speculation is rife in the government bond markets that the European Central Bank will deploy special monetary policy to support Italian BTPs. Aside from being a ridiculous idea — Italy has got itself into this mess with its own budget proposals, not because it is in a financial crisis — such support brings with it yet more rules that Italy would have to abide by in order to receive the help.

UBI Banca includes financing for "religious entities" as an eligible category under its new social bonds framework, listing eligible organisations as those “aiming at reducing exclusions and inequalities”. But it would take a miracle for the world’s largest religions — with their central tenets of ‘we’re special and you’re not’ — to meet that requirement, raising the question of who actually qualifies.

Kommuninvest received a strong score from BondMarker voters for its final dollar benchmark of the year.

In this round-up, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agreed to hold back from new tariffs for 90 days, Bloomberg received the green light from China Foreign Exchange Trade System (Cfets) to become the new trading platform for Bond Connect and CIBM Direct, and UBS obtained approval to acquire a majority share of onshore joint venture UBS Securities.

In this round-up, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) published 18 new regulations for foreign banks in China, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has not injected money through reverse repo for a number record number of days and Spain and China sign MoU for closer financial collaboration and potential Panda bonds.

In this round-up, Bond Connect has chosen Bloomberg to become its second electronic trading platform, the renminbi dropped one place in Swift’s payment rankings, and onshore banks are adding assets at decreasing speed.

It was never going to last. Bitcoin has ended its three month holiday from volatility and begun to crash once more. The cryptocurrency market is looking for a new floor.

Remember the days of limitless expense accounts, client entertainment, obligatory five star travel arrangements for managing directors and lowly analysts alike? Well, things are certainly not what they used to be.

Bankers love to advise their clients to look at the bigger picture and print now, for fear that that in just a few weeks or months, they could be facing a much tougher time. So the chorus of DCM officials criticising Russia for its timing in selling a €1bn seven year bond this week is more than a little hypocritical.