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Market participants were unimpressed by the European Union's effort at the long end, but the week's other benchmarks fared better.

As we bankers know, issuers in Asia can be a strange lot. But my friends' recent run-in with one particular family-owned business in southeast Asia had me in stitches.

To many, the 85% collapse in the share price of China Huishan Dairy Holdings Co on March 24 came as a complete surprise. With now all of the company’s non-executive directors having tendered their resignations (in the process also effectively wiping out Huishan’s audit committee), the company’s key treasury executive still missing, and the controlling shareholder seemingly heading for the exit amid talk of margin calls, the milk producer’s short stint as a public company increasingly looks like a horror story, writes Clawback.

Fears of Marine Le Pen winning this year’s French presidential election may have receded but investors should be hoping that her loss will be to frontrunner Emmanuel Macron — and not to former favourite François Fillon.

European policymakers are now waking up to the need for a European solution to non-performing loans, prompted by a push from the European Banking Authority to create a European-wide state-backed asset management company. But the right time for this solution was half a decade ago.

The Treasury of South Africa has taken to Twitter to save its investment grade status. But adopting a Donald Trump approach to global communication, while passing responsibility for its credit rating to its citizens, does nothing to help South Africa’s credibility.

Politics, once again, grabbed the headlines, but it’s been a bad week for at least two bankers. In case you are as sick as we are of politics then, here's the people news first.

The Shanghai free-trade zone offers a side door into China’s A-share market for international companies, but the arduous process means so far it has received little attention. But with regulators planning to make the process easier, international companies should start paying attention.

More details emerge on the seven new free trade zones (FTZs), State Administration of Foreign Exchange (Safe) releases more foreign investment quotas, and China responds to US executive orders on trade ahead of Xi Jinping’s meeting with Donald Trump on Thursday.

Renminbi’s share of international payments rises slightly in February, Liaoning free trade zone (FTZ) allows foreign investors to build renminbi pool, and the Chinese president Xi Jinping to meet with his US counterpart for the first time. Plus a recap of this week’s coverage.

Donald Trump’s presidency may be the most unknown commodity to hit markets since ancient alchemists started hawking something called 'bronze' to befuddled cavemen, but his stone-age political manoeuvring has smoothed the future path of public sector borrowing.

The brace of deals printed last week proved evenly matched under the scrutiny of the GC BondMarker voters.