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China launches onshore trading for Thai baht, NPC chairman says Hong Kong remains important to China’s effort to promote the renminbi, and China Construction Bank opens a new branch in Auckland.

China agreed to $12.8bn of deals with the UK during the British prime minister’s state visit, RMB returns as the fifth most used global payments currency, and Aberdeen Asset Management grabs Rmb5.3bn ($842.8m) new renminbi qualified foreign institutional investor (RQFII) quotas.

The cryptocurrency world exploded in popularity, appeal and market capitalisation over the course of 2017. Exchanges struggled to develop products to cater to the huge swell of speculative demand. They’re learning quickly that the market wasn’t ready.

After months of sensational growth, bitcoin has, at last, faltered. An increasingly hostile regulatory environment has caused its price, which nudged $20,000 in December, to collapse to around $9,000.

The Wellcome Trust charity is a fine institution. The medical research it has funded will benefit the world for many years. This week it helped fund that work by selling a £750m 100 year bond. The investors who bought it probably have a warm glow inside knowing they have helped the cause. But is it responsible to buy bonds that will redeem in 2118?

How seriously should one take the so-called ‘Freudian slip’? Being a man with little time for psychology — and having a mother that could best be described as ‘sturdy’ — I’ve never put much stock in the ideas of that bewhiskered Austrian. But I did have to wonder this week when I poked my nose into a lunch organised by the Hong Kong stock exchange.

The inaction and silence from the UK government on Brexit means that the City should be focused on finding a mutually beneficial way to do business with the EU, rather than waiting for the government to take the lead.

Countries that have not implemented MiFID II into their national frameworks have tilted the playing field, and it ought to be fixed. But ESMA is damned whatever it does.

As Jamie Dimon signs on for another five years at the top of JP Morgan, what’s the secret sauce at the world’s top investment bank?

Asia’s capital markets have started the year with a bang, but a market this good can’t last forever. The steady supply of new deals coming out at increasingly tight levels is a sign of clear frothiness in the market. Just take a look at the investor enthusiasm for low-rated Indonesian deals for an example of how bullish investors have become when they should be thinking twice.

A recent syndication for Omani borrower Bank Sohar made market observers take notice, thanks to the presence of Axis Bank at the top group, reflecting Indian banks’ rising eagerness to provide liquidity for foreign currency deals. Yet the country rarely features in the roadshow schedule for fundraisings — an oversight that banks should rapidly correct.

GlobalCapital is pleased to announce the nominees for this year’s Americas Derivatives Awards.