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It is funny to meet the younger generation of the Street’s finest because while they might look all ballsy on the outside, on the inside they’re just plain wimps.

Surprise, surprise. The launch of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect scheme, which had been in the works for months, has recently been delayed. The Through Train has been derailed.

Cassa del Trentino has showed one of the major advantages of nurturing a medium term note programme by nipping in to take advantage of a one day rally in Italian government bonds to save precious basis points on its funding costs. As a small, infrequent issuer, the borrower showed some of its peers what can be achieved by taking the MTN route.

The Bank of England's unveiling of plans to look into providing Shariah liquidity facilities for UK Islamic banks was one of the highlights at last week’s World Islamic Economic Forum in Dubai. It’s a great idea, but there’s just one problem – this should have been done ages ago.

There’s a distressing tendency among equity analysts to underplay investment banking, especially when it comes to once proud universal banks like Barclays and RBS. CEOs play up their retail banking credentials, but the investment banks will have the last laugh.

The Asian bond market got a rare slice of diversification away from Chinese credits recently, when Tata Motors issued a $750m dual trancher that was easily covered by a $4.5bn order book. It is certainly encouraging to see Indian corporates getting such a hot reception, but others will need to take a more calculated approach to offshore financing.

What is it they say about good intentions? Royal Bank of Scotland invited Loan Ranger and colleagues to evening drinks last week with hopes of talking about its new streamlined strategy. But only a couple of beers in and the room was instead awash with debate.

We all know Hong Kong is one of the most expensive cities in the world. It makes us almost prouder to live here because it says, without the need to be explicitly vulgar, “we can afford it” and therefore “we are very rich”. I often congratulate myself on life’s achievements as I look down from the lofty heights of the Peak.

The CEEMEA bond market is packed full of new issues as a least nine new issuers are confirmed as being on the road marketing new deals.

By asking insurance companies how their business models are exposed to climate change, the Bank of England has made a big advance in the world’s response. Governments may drag their feet, but at last the world’s financial architecture is beginning to realise the reality of global warming.

Europe’s banks misvalued their assets by €47.5bn. That is the verdict of the European Central Bank, after its examination of eurozone bank balance sheets. The scale and quality of the exercise has been impressive, and the market seems to like it. But is it just a big nothing?

Singapore this month took what it must hope is a big step forward in livening up its ECM market by overhauling the Companies Act. The move is certainly positive, but the city-state is mistaken if it thinks allowing dual-class structures will be the answer to its troubles. They are far more deeply rooted than that.