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All eyes are on Chinese real estate developers this week as the bond market braces itself for the sector's first offshore bond default, write Rev Hui and Shruti Chaturvedi.

If one of my recent visits to the American Club is anything to go by, young bankers are just so het up about everything these days.

The Asian Development Bank’s Credit Guarantee & Investment Facility (CGIF) is aiming to break further ground in 2015, after enjoying its busiest year yet in 2014. Initiatives include promoting green and project bonds, said CEO Kiyoshi Nishimura, as well as moving into new geographies, writes Christina Khouri.

To some credit traders it has been known affectionately as the most hated rally in history, but the inexorable rise of financial assets in the aftermath of the credit crunch has recently hit an impasse – and 2015 has begun with successive days of weakness. Even if they are starting to feel discomfort, market participants should celebrate a timely health check.

On December 30, when most investors were on holiday, Credit Suisse changed the terms of its existing covered bonds from a hard to a soft bullet maturity with the approval of just a few investors. Other issuers looking to change the terms of existing deals should be more upfront about liability management exercises that could put investors at a disadvantage.

It has barely started, but the new year is already gearing up to be a challenging one for Asian high yield corporates thanks to a high profile default by China’s Kaisa Group Holding and the looming prospect of rate rises. With local markets looking tougher, it’s time for issuers to start broadening their investor base and consider 144A deals.

I don't mean to sound like a Grinch, but Christmas, with all its singing and shopping and TaiTai insisting on bringing the in-laws along to the golf can mean that it seems less like the season of goodwill and more like the season of when-will-it-be-over?

Dollar issuance from sovereign, supranational and agency borrowers is set to be a big theme next year as a negative euro/dollar basis swap, plus low rates in euros, encourages euro-funders to look across the Atlantic. But market participants should be prepared for a rough ride in a market which will remain vulnerable to volatility.

Even if you’ve never sailed a boat through a storm, avoiding a potential one is the obvious choice. But investors in the European bond markets have been sailing into storms they knew were coming all year.

In a bid to support the weakened rouble, the Central Bank of Russia surprised the market on Monday night, hiking its main policy rate by 650bp to 17%. But the move has failed and has only served to demonstrate that even Russia’s hardiest investors have finally given up.

China Petrochemical Development Corp (CPDC) issued a convertible bond last week that was backed by not one but two SBLCs — allowing the company to join a very small list of issuers that have used unusual structures this year to pull off successful deals. The success of transactions with new features this year shows Asia needs more innovation if it wants to develop its equity-linked market

Lest anyone has lost sight of the fact that this time of year is not only a mad scramble to get deals signed before the window of opportunity frosts over, the Loan Syndicate Managers’ Forum reminded us last week that there are more dignifying causes to get behind. And that these causes come with mince pies.