Issues

The public sector bond market digested more than $900bn of benchmark syndications in the first 10 months of 2025, close to the amount raised the previous year. New issue premiums varied by currency, with the biggest annual change in the euro market, writes Sarah Ainsworth

US tariffs, greater sovereign borrowing needs and political upheaval proved no barrier to SSA issuers raising a large amount of funding in 2025, and getting it done early, writes Addison Gong. But those challenges were just a taster for what lies in store for 2026 when the market is likely to become even more crowded

The CEEMEA primary bond market in 2025 shattered the record for bond issuance by some distance. Investors flocked to buy ahead of US interest rate cuts, meaning the market was open to just about every issuer. It is hard to find too many deals that were not a success, making this the pick of a very large crop

Investment grade companies demonstrated just how much liquidity was sloshing around in the euro, dollar, sterling and Swiss franc markets with a string of large deals. But these bonds did not just stand out for the amount issued. Rather, they showed that there is not always a trade-off to be made between size and price

With a relentless flow of cash into credit markets this year, almost every borrower could be said to have done well. But some issuers stood out for their ability to establish new footholds in certain markets that have since paved the way for peers

The sovereign, supranational and agency bond market in 2025 featured a number of innovative debuts, bringing new issuers to this most venerable of asset classes. Meanwhile, some of its biggest names priced stellar deals, breaking records and pioneering new formats even in volatile markets

The most senior debt capital markets bankers across the Street appear to be an optimistic bunch heading into 2026. In GlobalCapital’s survey of the heads of DCM, Ralph Sinclair discovers upbeat expectations for volumes, pay and hiring and asks how tech is reforming the business

The Australian dollar bond market’s growth has propelled it to be the third most important funding currency for some international bond issuers. Its ability to offer investor diversification and arbitrage funding is attracting an increasing number of issuers from spread-conscious SSAs to banks and companies seeking strategic capital, write Sarah Ainsworth and Atanas Dinov

Banks are engaging in increasing amounts of M&A. UniCredit’s pursuit of Commerzbank is the biggest long-running saga in the sector, but elsewhere banks are picking each other off and adding to their portfolios with regulation, falling interest rates and EU efforts to deliver a single market the main drivers, writes Arthur Bautzer

Artificial intelligence is everywhere — but what is it doing? Capital market specialists think about it constantly, even if only because they are told to, with feelings ranging from delight to horror. Market participants are exploring myriad ways both to use AI, writes Jon Hay, and neutralise its risks

EU politicians talk enthusiastically about making the bloc more competitive, but so far, its capital markets have struggled to match the efficiency of the US. Whether it can meet the booming demand for data centres will be a defining test of its ambitions, write George Smith, Chadwick Van Estrop and Thomas Hopkins

Technologists have convinced the European Central Bank and most financial firms that the bond market needs blockchain. Exactly what for is harder to define. Still more difficult is actually introducing it — although as Jon Hay reports, many believe the moment has come