Northeast Asia

Beset by low interest margins and a falling population, Japanese banks have looked abroad for juicier returns and have matched this with overseas funding. As Jasper Cox reports, it is a strategy that has made them vulnerable on either side of the balance sheet.

It has been a momentous year in the yen market. Having long been seen as a very traditional and conservative part of the financial world, Japan has been embracing change.

Société Générale became the first foreign bank to sell a Taiwanese dollar-denominated green bond on Tuesday, giving a fillip to the island state’s nascent green market.

A number of Chinese issuers have revealed their offshore bond plans just ahead of a week-long holiday in the Mainland, as the sovereign too plots its return.

Yancoal Australia has passed a listing hearing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and is preparing for the launch of its IPO this month.

Minsheng Financial Leasing has boosted its three year borrowing to $510m after attracting 12 participants during syndication.

Origin Markets, a primary capital markets fintech start-up, is pushing into the Asia Pacific market and has poached a fellow fintech’s head of sales & strategic partnerships in Hong Kong to expand its footprint.

GDP has bounced back in Japan, but the country faces some stubborn problems, some long-standing — such as low inflation, consumption tax rollout and an ageing population — and some new, including an increasingly protectionist US. Philip Moore reports.

The Japanese issuer base for socially responsible investments (SRI) is growing steadily, with some borrowers adding social and sustainability bonds to the already busy green bond market. On the buy-side, an investor base well versed over many years in SRI is also taking to the asset class.

From Tokyo to Osaka, from Kyoto to Sapporo, Japan is going green. Or at least, its bonds are. After issuing just one green bond in 2014, Japan has made itself home to repeat issuers of socially responsible investments and sowed the seeds for environmentally conscious funds. But as the country continues to turn its attention to environmental, social and governance issues, it still faces an uphill battle of education and reforms to build a sustainable bond market. Morgan Davis reports.

Japan’s investors are hungry for yield. The likes of the Government Pension Investment Fund and the country’s regional banks, are going farther afield and widening their scope to include emerging markets as they hunt for returns. Jonathan Breen reports.

Mongolia’s Khan Bank has signed a $120m term loan, the largest in its history.