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The accusations leveled at Saudi Arabia over the disappearance and alleged murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi deserved more than the blip in Saudi trading we saw this week. There are sound, financial reasons why investors should be wary of investing in the country, no matter the size of its oil reserves.

China may have returned to the dollar bond market at a difficult point last week, but the sovereign still has a way to go before its notes become a real benchmark for the country’s debt issuers.

CYBG’s move to an internal ratings based (IRB) approach highlights how the UK’s largest lenders enjoy a substantial competitive benefit over the challengers.

The Republic of Turkey has set price guidance on a new bond issue that equates to 50bp back of its curve. That is a big, sour number for Turkey to have to offer investors, but its goal at this point must be to reopen the capital markets for its banks and corporates. To do that, Turkey's new bond needs to perform.

The UK government might seem to have little clue about where the the City of London will drum up business after the country leaves the EU in March but the City, and notably the London Stock Exchange, has always been more global than European in nature. For better or worse, it will likely come to rely on this more in the months and years to come.

Italy’s deficit expanding budget plans — and their incompatibility with the European Commission’s wishes — may be one of the biggest talking points in the capital markets, but Spain also intends to loosen its deficit in the coming years. While fiscal stimulus after years of austerity should be welcome — so long as it’s spent on growth boosting policies rather than handouts — Europe’s lawmakers at the national and supranational level must really be lambasted for their timing.

The Bank of England will steer banks and insurers to think seriously about climate change. This is great news in itself. But what will count is how far the Bank is willing to push them.

Kommuninvest has hit its lowest BondMarker score of the year so far with a trade that drew an average rating of 6.53 from voters. The $1bn November 2021 on October 2, the only benchmark priced in the week commencing October 1, scored particularly lowly for pricing, on 6.06.

A compelling recent example of the EIB’s role as a “crowding-in” bank is its support for the Althelia Sustainable Ocean Fund (SOF), the first close of which was announced in September.

Despite a flurry of announcements by business leaders that they were abandoning their visits to a Saudi conference amid claims of the torture and murder of a journalist, IMF boss Christine Lagarde said she would go to Riyadh to “speak my mind”.

The terrible earthquake and tsunami that hit Indonesia’s Sulawesi island last month has served as a wake-up call for the country’s Ministry of Finance, which is now looking at issuing catastrophe bonds.

Standard Chartered’s RMB internationalisation index hit a nearly two-year high, State Street entered the RMB qualified foreign institutional with a splash, and index provider IHS Markit partnered with a Chinese clearinghouse for a new set of bond indices.