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In this year’s last Clawback, columnist Philippe Espinasse has his say on corporate governance standards in Hong Kong-listed companies.

Russia is doing it again — for the second time this year it has picked yet another politically unpalatable week to print a sovereign bond. It seems to be sticking a middle finger up to the west as it rolls around in cash and shows off the access the country has to capital markets. But if that was the motivation behind this issue, it has not accomplished its goals.

The European Central Bank is likely to decide soon whether to launch a new targeted long-term refinancing operation (TLTRO III) for banks. The market may already be forcing its hand, but the EU’s fight with Italy means the choice has wide-reaching implications.

Populist parties such as Italy’s Five Star Movement are winning elections on platforms of transparency, reducing waste and removing corruption. But the biggest waste of money in Italy this year has been the party’s futile budget standoff.

Some equity investors are hoping for a surprise gift before year-end if Donald Trump strikes a deal with Chinese president Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires to end trade hostility between the two nations, but they're clutching at straws.

The Asian equity-linked market had a rare treat last week when Country Garden Holdings sold a convertible bond using a call spread feature. Its success has ignited hopes of more such deals, but ECM bankers and issuers should be wary of mixing dreams with reality.

Nederlandse Waterschapsbank recorded a healthy average of 7.1 on BondMarker with its only dollar benchmark of the year.

Welcome back to our Monday newsletter. In this round-up, Allianz gets approval for first wholly foreign-owned enterprise (Wfoe) in the insurance sector, foreign bond investors will receive tax exemptions, and PBoC Shanghai branch is lifting lending quotas to help small and private enterprises.

In this round-up, People’s Bank of China (PBoC) signs a currency swap with Indonesia, Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges publish rules to limit the length of trading halts, and the Chinese authorities publish new rules to boost the domestic free trade zones (FTZs).

In this round-up, China and the Philippines sign Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a new Panda issuance, survey finds that 64% of Chinese investors choose to invest domestically rather than overseas, and foreign firms are getting approvals to help China build a nationwide credit information monitoring system.

Payment-in-kind has taken a turn for the worse in Asia’s bond market, with flight tickets and pork being offered instead of cash. Aviophobic vegetarians are up in arms.

No bond issuer is safe in this volatile market. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) learned that the hard way when it was forced to pull a dual-tranche floating rate deal last week. Its failure should serve as a warning sign to other borrowers.