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Although I don’t have much to do most days and life is one long holiday, I was still quite chuffed to leave Hong Kong’s stale air behind as I took off for a long awaited trip to New Zealand with the missus.

The financial world was keenly awaiting news of the European Central Bank’s bond buying programme as GlobalCapital Asia went to press on Thursday evening. But whether or not the outcome is enough to assuage markets, Asia’s bankers are not expecting it to have the same impact on the region as US quantitative easing did. Many think the effects will be confined to some unwelcome but short term volatility, write GlobalCapital Asia reporters.

European participants in the capital markets are waiting, with bated breath, for Thursday’s European Central Bank meeting and the expected announcement of quantitative easing, as well as the outcome of Greece’s Parliamentary elections on Sunday. But an interesting dynamic has set in around what were once thought to be two of the most important events of the start of 2015: no one seems to care much about either anymore.

With even French president Francois Hollande saying earlier this week that the European Central Bank will announce sovereign quantitative easing on Thursday, there can be little doubt that ECB boss Mario Draghi is fitting the latest rocket into his bazooka as we write. Hollande may have had to embarrassingly backtrack since — with his office saying he was only talking hypothetically — but one can be certain that the flip flop is more down to a breach of etiquette, rather than an error.

The European Commission wants credit ratings left out of financial regulation — a great move, if it can find something good to replace them. But it’s making the right decision for the wrong reason.

Turkey’s central bank has had to fight hard to win respect as an institution independent of political pressure. With the country on firmer economic footing the central bank took its chance to cut rates — which will have delighted Turkey’s president. But the bank’s still shaky credibility and Turkey’s vulnerability to capital market vagary means there is more at stake.

China’s ECM market had a tough start to the week, after measures by the regulator to clamp down on excessive margin lending by brokerages took their toll on stock markets, with equities plunging the most in years. But investors that fell victim to this volatility should take it in their stride. The China Securities Regulatory Commission’s stringent approach is smart — and bodes well for stronger markets in the longer term.

Confusion hit Blog Towers late last week after a press release arrived in our inbox about Macquarie arranging financing for LDC to buy the NEC Group from Birmingham City Council.

When a loans banker starts talking about comedy nights lingering in the memory either for being really great or really terrible, GlobalCapital has grown used to the name Reginald D Hunter following soon afterwards. So it was with some trepidation last week that Loan Ranger witnessed a re-opening of that old can of worms.

Asiamoney is pleased to announce the winners of the 2014 Australia Awards. After suggestions by bankers from global and domestic institutions, we weighed the most impressive deals and banks in the market last year. The results are listed below, and full write-ups of the winners will be published online and in print in late February.

Kommuninvest swam against the tide this week, issuing its first Canadian dollar public bond, as its supranational, sovereign and agency peers flocked to the Kangaroo market.

Perhaps it was stimulus envy — years of taking a back seat in the popular mind to the central banks of the US, the European Union, Japan and the UK.