GlobalCapital is delighted to announce the winners of its Bond Awards for 2017. The results were revealed at a gala dinner at London's Globe Theatre on May 23. Thank you to everyone who supported the event by attending and voting in the polls that decided who were the best and brightest in bonds over the last 12 months.

Japanese investors are snapping up Russian rouble MTNs and Uridashi in their search for higher yields, with SSAs the beneficiaries.

Moon Jae-in’s victory in South Korea’s general election on Tuesday has some SSA issuers relishing the chance to finally print deals in won. Sharon Kimathi reports.

The MTN market is expecting a pick up in issuance in the second half of 2017, after a sluggish start to the year, as many public sector issuers race through their programmes via the public markets in the first few months.

Morten Skaaning has returned to Danske Bank’s debt capital markets syndication desk after spending nearly three years at Arbejdernes Landsbank.

The Bank of England has released a set of principles, laying out new standards of practice for UK money markets.

French issuers are still cautious about taking part in the private placement market despite centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron's topping of the first round of voting in the French presidential election on Sunday.

Uncertainty over upcoming European elections could make short term debt investors “run to the sidelines”, said a commercial paper banker.

A surge in demand for Russian rouble paper could have been brought to a premature end by a US missile attack on Syria on April 7, but market participants are confident that issuance will continue.

The direction of the European Central Bank’s monetary policy is still keeping investors awake at night, as an announcement on Thursday by the bank’s president did little to avert concerns about rate hikes at the short end.

Eurofima sold its first socially responsible investment (SRI) note on March 30, raising $100m with a 10 year MTN. Michele Montefiori, head of capital markets at Eurofima, is keen to follow up with a green bond.

US money market fund investors are applying a more bullish approach, with $20bn of cash returning into prime and alternative money funds from government funds since November 2016, according to Fitch.