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Nordea’s five year deal this week has revealed a change in buy-side attitudes. A book of €3bn showed that many more investors than previously thought are willing to snap up deals from the highest quality names, despite the paltry yields on offer.

The UK remains divided between lovers and haters of Margaret Thatcher, its transformative 1980s prime minister. How should financial specialists feel? Many revere her — and the lightly regulated, debt-fuelled markets that her government made possible are still in place. But it may still to be too early to tell whether they will prove to have been good for Europe’s health.

By seven votes to six, Portugal’s constitutional court has blown the country’s bail-out plan out of the water. Its verdict that the public sector must not be treated more harshly than the private when it comes to cuts puts a hole in the 2013 budget and makes it harder for Troika-imposed targets to be met. It might be unpalatable, but more flexibility is needed unless the eurozone wants another political vacuum on its hands.

The political unrest between North and South Korea has caused bond prices to widen, and may cause the South Korea sovereign and Daegu Bank to sit on their impending deals until the environment improves.

Top 3 Southeast Asia DCM Transactions - 2013 YTD

Standard Chartered’s Yung Tan head of Northeast Asia and Greater China high yield product group, left this week, marking the latest move from the bank’s capital markets team in 2013.

Lending by banks to emerging markets fell sharply last year; Western banks continue to deleverage, a private debt fund manager said

The city state has opened for offshore renminbi business, and should focus on what it does best, using its wealth management advantages to jumpstart dim sum bond activity.

—David Wakeling, derivatives and structured finance partner at Allen & Overy in London, on why capital controls in Cyprus are the main source of concern among clients.

Bank Vontobel announced that it would launch its electronic structured product platform in Singapore as part of its effort to expand its structured product business outside of Switzerland and Germany.

Leaders in European organizations need to stop managing people like they did during the crisis or risk de-motivating their staff, an expert says

Emerging markets economies are recovering at a gradual pace, with China leading the way, a new indicator gauging growth in 16 countries shows