Free content

One of the most promising vehicles for moving the financial system on to a greener path – risk management – is gathering momentum.

In this round-up, an ex-IMF economist says China needs an independent central bank, the People’s Bank of China considers changing the RMB trading band, and trade between China and Africa surges in the first half of the year.

Last week saw the climax of the European bank reporting season, and it was a mixed bag. Some results were good, others less so, but taking a longer term perspective, it might be the rise of the Japanese megabanks that stands out most sharply.

Bank of China and China Construction Bank have picked new chairmen, BOC’s asset management arm received its first batch of qualified foreign institutional investor (QFII) quotas, and the Ministry of Finance published new guidelines to restrict foreign investments by state-owned enterprises.

The scores are in. The BondMarker voters have delivered their verdict on Greece's long-awaited return to capital markets and on FMS Wertmanagement's five year dollar benchmark.

If you’re a bank chief executive under pressure from shareholders this is the playbook: first, lower expectations and provision everything; second, raise some capital and set out a path to future success. Only then do you try to make some actual money.

There’s plenty of arguing about Brexit, but in finance, euro clearing stands out as a particularly bitter regulatory fight. At issue is London’s place as the host of euro trading — and it’s going to go down to the wire.

It’s just too bad that not everyone has the social smarts and wherewithal of a well-educated person like me. Because, as I heard on my latest visit to Captain’s Bar, one unfortunate friend recently suffered a social flub which left her speechless.

Asian issuers are racing against the clock to push out new bonds, taking advantage of abundant liquidity and historically low yields. But with summer fast approaching, issuers — particularly high yield debut names — should go back to basics.

In the latest Clawback, columnist Philippe Espinasse dissects the IPO approval and rejection process in Hong Kong, as the city’s licensed bankers play musical chairs.

The European Central Bank’s decision to curtail wind down entities' access to repo liquidity materially increases the risk of a covered bond maturity extension or default, and is not consistent with its mission as lender of last resort or its previously benign approach to the asset class.

Cryptocurrencies are making inroads into traditional capital markets territory, and there is certainly money to be made, but, as Tuesday’s hard fork in Bitcoin shows, the market has a long way to go before it is sufficiently stable to be anything more than a curiosity.