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Poland may have won the race to bring the first ever sovereign green bond. But it was not the one investors were looking for — instead, France’s upcoming green benchmark will be the real milestone.

I think the French got it right when they recently decided that employees should be able to ignore work emails after hours.

India’s IPO market shone last year with volumes reaching the highest level since 2011. And bankers are optimistic of a similar performance in the New Year too. But while there is a lot to be positive about, there is also plenty that can hold the ECM market back.

After a slow start to 2016, emerging market debt enjoyed one of the biggest rallies in recent memory. The hunt for yield drove billions of dollars into the asset class and issuers were quick to take advantage of the booming bull market. But the election of Donald Trump as US President in November put a stop to the good times and brought back uncertainty and volatility.

Thirty-first of December was not only the last day of a decidedly subdued year, but also the deadline by which Credit Suisse bankers in London were allegedly asked to return the mobile phones issued to them by their employer. This is only the latest nail in the coffin of a profession once seen more as a lifestyle, but which has now become (almost) like any other, writes our columnist Clawback.

The Basel Committee has agreed to delay a decision on the most controversial aspect of its new capital rules. It promises to catch up ‘in the near future’. But two years into the process, a conclusion looks no closer than at the start.

If Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) is able to wrangle a recapitalisation that looks more like a bail-out than a bail-in, it will set a precedent for Europe's other weakest banks.

With yields set to rise and spreads likely to widen, covered bond issuers should waste no time in getting ahead on 2017’s funding plans and doing the more difficult trades first.

It was a record breaking year for investment grade corporate bond issuance in 2016, both in overall volumes and individual deal sizes. Not only was a diverse base of issuers able to access the euro market, many were also able to do so in size and at attractive prices, in large part due to the ECB and its accommodative policies, with investors comfortable buying multi-tranche jumbo deals from both domestic and US borrowers.

As a year where political upsets became the norm drew to a close, GlobalCapital picks the standout trades from a turbulent 2016.

In November GlobalCapital polled loan market participants for the 14th Syndicated Loan, Leveraged Finance and Private Placement Awards. The nominations are listed below in alphabetical order. We will reveal the winners at the awards dinner, to be held on February 8, 2017 at the Guildhall in London.

Welcome back and Happy New Year. While we were on a break, China revised its official trade-weighted currency basket, added two new RMB qualified foreign institutional investors (RQFII) and set stricter rules for the individual quota of foreign exchange (FX) purchases that reset on January 1.