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Largely spared from the ravages of the financial crisis, the CLO market is taking advantage of rampant investor demand for floating rate assets. With senior secured corporate debt as its collateral, the CLO market is pitching itself to a whole new breed of investor. By Sam Kerr.

The equity capital market, foundation of the economy, has changed little for 20 years. It remains able to transfer huge quantities of risk at lightning speed — though it is also buffeted by investor stampedes. But as Jon Hay reports, forces are moving in the market that could bring radical change.

The European high yield bond market is suffering at the hands of an ultra-competitive leveraged loan market that, driven by central bank cash, is offering borrowers exceptional terms. It will be different when central bank special measures end. Until then, high yield investors will have to be patient, and avoid becoming desperate and making mistakes. Michael Turner reports.

Conditions for issuers in the European leveraged finance market have arguably never been better, but the story has a lot more to it than cyclical conditions and a reach for yield, writes Nick Jacob. Secular trends have reshaped the market, dissolving the barriers between bonds and loans and between the US and Europe, and created an unprecedented menu of options for issuers.

Asian equity capital markets are maturing, slowly but surely. Institutional investment is growing and capital pools are getting deeper. However, change cannot come quickly enough for ECM bankers in the region, who hope that an improving 2017 will make up for a miserable 2016. Adrian Murdoch reports.

The Asian loan market hasn’t exactly been a hotbed of inventiveness, but it’s still seen some changes. Domestic markets, particularly China, have become vastly more active, while the balance of power in the market has shifted towards local lenders. All, however, are struggling in a world of low margins and low volumes. Adrian Murdoch reports.

Europe’s corporate bond market has been shaped in the past year, for better or worse, by the European Central Bank’s unprecedented corporate bond buying programme. But as Michael Turner reports, market participants are deeply divided about what may lie ahead as the end of central bank largesse draws near.

As ultra-competitive and marginally profitable as ever, syndicated loans must combat encroaching capital market rivals while praying for an M&A boom to mask dwindling overall volumes and generate lucrative ancillary business. In the longer term, vanilla lending looks ripe for digitalisation, but emerging market corporates and structured financings offer the prospect of a higher-margin future, reports Julian Lewis.

Once a staple of public sector borrower funding, the Swiss franc bond market has morphed into a smaller, credit-driven sector under the twin pressures of negative rates and evaporated arbitrage. Corporates are the stars of the Swissie 2.0 era, with emerging markets names and more junior debt providing further routes to the yield investors crave, reports Julian Lewis.

From high volume markets such as Australian and Hong Kong dollars, to exotic and frontier currencies such as Dominican pesos, Mongolian tughriks and West African francs, niche currency bonds have carved out an important role in capital markets, writes Silas Brown.

The actions of central banks and regulators have put the medium term note market under intense pressure but, with the flexibility that has always characterised the product, MTNs are still providing value to borrowers and investors. By Lewis McLellan.

Although volumes of debt outstanding have remained stable, the international commercial paper market has changed in every other dimension in recent years. Reflecting negative euro rates, the positive €/$ basis swap and US money market reforms, ECP has been reinvented as a primarily dollar product, led by European SSAs, with a growing US corporate presence. By Julian Lewis.