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

Russian IPOs have long been beset by the political turmoil that surrounds their country’s relationship with the US. Many a deal has been sunk by US-Russia tension, particularly when sanctions are imposed by the former.

Is finance about to break out of the cocoon in which it has pupated for decades, and become a completely different life form?

The European Commission signalled this week that it would extend regulation into many more aspects of sustainable finance, driving an agenda that could change the role of capital markets in society. But although responsible investing experts welcomed it, the complex package of at least 30 measures is likely to provoke a wide variety of reactions, from enthusiastic support to complaints that it is too slow and unambitious, to outright opposition. Jon Hay reports.

How to respond to climate change and environmental sustainability were “of central importance” in the European Central Bank’s review of its monetary policy framework, the ECB said on Thursday as it published the results of the long-awaited review. It has designed a detailed roadmap for incorporating climate considerations across its monetary policy activities, including corporate bond purchases — but environmentalists are likely to be disappointed with the slow pace of reform.

HSBC Asset Management has created a new sustainability office as part of a refresh of its responsible investment team after the departure of Melissa McDonald, head of responsible investment.

The European Commission launched on Tuesday a second big wave of regulation that will soon be controlling more aspects of sustainable finance more tightly. There is a tendency to think anything with the word “sustainable” attached to it is good. But capital markets specialists must ask themselves: will the regulations be helpful?

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