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The covered bond market experienced a surge in supply this week, confounding expectations, and illustrating how important it is for issuers to seize unusual funding opportunities.

The Basel Committee has had a charming festive tradition in recent years, dropping a major update to bank capital regulation in the week before Christmas. Big banks should expect a festive regulatory treat this year too.

South Africa is having rating trouble, and it looks serious. Since Friday, it is teetering on the edge of investment grade at both Standard & Poor’s and Fitch, a big problem for a country with a lot of infrastructure to build. But South Africa’s woes don't go too deep, and the country's growth could bounce back quickly.

A group of companies has committed to the Science Based Targets Initiative drive to reduce their carbon emissions at the kind of fast pace required to make a real difference to global warming. Initiatives like these are valuable, and begging to be supported by capital markets investors.

New rules on Indian offshore borrowings have dismayed local bankers as it bans them from participating in offshore deals for non-bank financial corporations and firms that support infrastructure — the bread and butter of their loans business. But the changes are not a bad thing and will shake Indian lenders out of their complacency.

For the third part of our annual awards, we cover Best Local Currency Bond, Best Securitization, Best High Yield Bond, Best Investment Grade Corporate Bond, Best Financial Bond, Best Sovereign Bond, Best Local Currency Bond House and Best G3 Bond House.

The loan market will gather in London on Wednesday, December 9, for the Loan Syndicate Manager’s Forum's charity carol service.

The Ranger was relentless in hounding busy bankers last week - no matter what activities they were already engaged in.

In the second part of our 2015 awards, we present the winners for Best Equity-Linked Deal, Best IPO, Best Follow-on/ABB and Best Equity House.

In the first instalment of our 2015 awards, we present the winners for Best Project Financing, Best Leveraged Financing, Best Investment Grade Loan and Best Loans House.

With central bankers, it is all in the nuance. “Do what we must” sounds an awful lot like “whatever it takes”, but as of Thursday it means a very different thing.

India’s securities regulator finally gave the thumbs up to the listing of its two stock exchanges this week, a project that has been in the works since the turn of the century. The move is a huge milestone, and market watchers hope it will give the bourses more clout to stay on top of their game, writes John Loh.