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“What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” wrote William Shakespeare.

It’s no secret that Russia right now is not great for business. Tough sanctions and terrifying fines have led many banks to conclude that it is not worth keeping expensive bankers covering clients which will not be doing deals until Putin or the West back down.

When warning your bondholders isn’t enough to alert them to a risk, what else can be done?

You know the festive season has arrived when every single conversation you hear in the Hong Kong Club is about the Maldives or some other exclusive beach paradise.

In the final part of our 2014 awards, we present our picks for Best M&A Deal, Best M&A Adviser and Best Investment Bank.

There have been no new issues yet this week from CEEMEA or LatAM and several EM bond desks say they have shut down for the year.

Greece’s yield curve inverted on Tuesday, and its comeback five year bond reached its highest yield since it was priced back in April. All of this seems to have been because the country’s prime minister called a snap presidential election. But it is hard to fathom why this should suddenly concern investors holding Greek debt that matures in 2016 and beyond, considering the election was going to happen in a couple of months anyway.

The recent debut sukuk by the International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm) has rightly been hailed as a breakthrough for the Islamic finance market. Questions about the small order book are misplaced – the deal was a remarkable result.

Moody’s argued on Tuesday that compensation at global investment banks was a credit negative for the banks’ bondholders. But the agency focuses on the wrong parts of the debate over pay. Poor compensation structures can surely make a bank riskier, but it is how banks pay, not when or what they pay which matters most.

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.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) took plenty of plaudits last week, with a unique triple currency additional tier one (AT1) transaction that included a record-breaking offshore renminbi tranche. While some say that the trade was a testament to the depth of the CNH market, that is an argument too far. This was anything but a conventional trade.

In the second part of our 2014 awards, we present the winners for Best Equity-Linked Deal, Best IPO, Best Follow-on/ABB and Best Equity House.