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Santander raised €7.5bn of new equity capital last week — an important deal under any circumstances. But most significantly, the deal was done as an accelerated bookbuild or block trade — something that had never been attempted on this scale outside the US. Equity bankers were impressed — and other issuers will be emboldened by Santander’s example.

Ukraine needs to restructure its hard currency sovereign debt, and it needs to do it now.

CEEMEA sovereigns have not paid attention in class. The lesson EM issuers should have learned, especially in 2014, is that the future, even the near future, is unpredictable. Several CEEMEA sovereigns having announced deals early this year, but the great majority have chosen to wait until after the ECJ’s decision on Wednesday about the legalities of sovereign quantitative easing. They should have funded while the going was good.

Green bond sceptics have so far been proved right in their dire predictions for the take-up of this type of funding in Asia. But some important initiatives, combined with growing investor interest, mean that 2015 will be the year when Asia finally gets to grips with the green bond movement.

Last week was not a good one for humour, but one that began nonetheless with the customary jokes on Monday morning about how 2015 has already ruined the Christmas buzz – be it through unsettled markets or just the piles of admin ready and waiting for everyone’s return.

Although the region witnessed the world's largest ever IPO in 2014, it was bond issues that dominated the roster of notable capital markets transactions in Asia ex-Japan. After considering a bumper selection of awards pitches from firms across the region, Asiamoney has picked its standout transactions across ECM, DCM and syndicated loans. Our thanks to all those firms that took the time to pitch. Full write-ups of each award will be published in the next Asiamoney supplement in late February.

2014 has come and gone, with a fairly honourable tally for Asia’s busy ECM desks. According to Dealogic, last year's ECM volume on Asia ex-Japan exchanges, and excluding China’s A-share markets, was just under $135bn, more than in each of 2013 and 2012. That good news, however, is worth viewing in the context of a few less positive facts, writes Philippe Espinasse.

As the first overseas renminbi hub outside Hong Kong, there were high hopes for Taiwan when it got its official RMB clearing bank in December 2012. But although its local RMB market has gained ground through its RMB deposit base and the expansion of the Formosa bond sector, Taiwan is falling behind as attention spreads to the emerging hubs elsewhere. More regulatory hurdles need to be removed for RMB internationalisation to take off in 2015.

The European FIG market got off on the right foot this week, with issuers learning from mistakes made toward the end of 2014 and offering larger premiums to cash-rich and yield-strapped investors that want to put their money to work before yield targets get even harder to hit responsibly.

Late on Wednesday morning, masked men with guns stormed an editorial meeting at the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical paper, killing 12. That was four hours before GlobalCapital held its own weekly editorial meeting. We had never been so keenly aware of our luck: to be able to do our jobs freely and debate openly, without having to fear for our safety.

The Asian corporate bond market’s usual new year exuberance is nowhere to be seen in 2015, as growing macro concerns and a depressed Chinese property sector force issuers on to the sidelines. But bankers are not fretting yet, even though activity is likely to remain subdued, writes Rev Hui.

Myanmar has moved a step closer to launching its own equity market, signing a joint venture agreement in late December to establish the Yangon Stock Exchange, nearly three years after talks began to set it up. Plenty of scepticism remains about how quickly issuers will start to list, but when they do hit the market, interest from investors is expected to be so strong that there are already fears of unrealistic valuations arising, writes Rashmi Kumar.