A booming 2025 investment grade corporate bond market in Europe set a high bar as investors brace to pay higher premiums and shift to the belly of the curve in 2026. Meanwhile, capex, M&A and Reverse Yankees look set to keep the pipeline full, write Diana Bui and Frank Jackman

The European FIG market rode through 2025 on high demand for credit, providing bank issuers, large and small, with extremely advantageous funding conditions. Although investors have also benefitted from strong secondary market performance, as Atanas Dinov reports, that equilibrium may change in 2026, with anticipation mounting that spreads will widen

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

Sustainable finance specialists are waiting eagerly to see the precise details of the European Union's Taxonomy of Sustainable Economic Activities, the next draft of which will be revealed on Monday.

The World Bank and Assicurazioni Generali are each giving the insurance-linked securities (ILS) they issue a sustainability label, as the market attempts to burnish its credentials for investors concerned with environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria. Both issuers are imitating conventional green bond programmes by focusing on direct use of proceeds, but there are also debates around issues such as freed-up insurance capital and what governments do with funds released from catastrophe bonds.

Christine Lagarde has praised Europe’s achievement in developing the climate finance market, which she said was now dominated by paper in euros.

Credit Suisse has hired a head of environmental, social and governance equity research for Asia Pacific, a newly created position at the bank.

Investors who have been longing for the EU Taxonomy of Sustainable Economic Activities to tell them what is green are now realising that its arrival could make life tricky. From the end of next year, they will have to start reporting how sustainable all their portfolios are. It could prove an enormous headache. But a tiny company has developed a tool it claims can cut out a lot of the worries investors face in working out how to comply.

A lack of data and a broad range of frameworks for identifying environmental, social, and governance (ESG) assets are significant hurdles standing in the way of ESG becoming a more robust asset class unto itself, said speakers at SFVegas 2020 on Sunday, urging advocates to harmonize their definitions and strategies for investing.

Debt financing to become more sophisticated as the race to build data centres across Europe heats up

JP Morgan sole bookrunner on first jumbo block in a month

This week Tom Hall and Thomas Hopkins discuss how Enpal's return heated up the ABS market and take the CLO equity market's temperature

Company's relationship banks provided the funding

UK chancellor got the big things right in the Budget but made damaging unforced errors

Emerging markets are particularly vulnerable to protests led by disgruntled youth

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

December is a strange time to be in the capital markets. Embrace it

This week a managing director deals with the awkwardness of their boss finding out they had been in contention for a job at another firm

First deal of its kind more than 1.5 times subscribed

Deal complexity, new issuer premium sees trade start more than 100bp wide of last WBS

Gym franchise wants to refinance paper issued in 2022