With Latin America bond issuance smashing through its previous record, market participants think the peak has passed. A market tipped to turn tougher is the reason, which will make 2026 a year when issuers and bankers will have to earn every basis point, writes George Collard, with volumes expected to stay high

Falling interest rates, returning inflows and a wave of pandemic-era redemptions mean CEEMEA bond market participants have high expectations for 2026. This optimism comes after a record-breaking year for issuance — and by quite some margin — meaning that 2025 will be a tough act to follow, writes George Collard

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

DBS Bank is aiming to reduce its thermal coal exposure to zero by 2039, joining a group of global investors and banks that have made similar commitments to tackle climate change.

The European Commission is set to put forward a new solution to the intense battle over the EU's sustainable finance Taxonomy, between green finance supporters and EU member states that want to safeguard their plans to use gas, GlobalCapital has learned. This would appear to involve leaving gas out of the sustainable category of the Taxonomy, as environmentalists have demanded, and making a "separate legislative proposal" to deal with gas and nuclear power.

Several European banks’ noses were put out of joint this week by research from Jefferies, which suggested a very different ranking of banks’ ESG characteristics from that investors usually get from rating providers. The study argued commercial ESG ratings on banks are not fit for purpose.

SGS, the Swiss corporate testing and verification company, came out aggressively for its debut Eurobond on Wednesday, and was rewarded with a spread flat to fair value.

ESG ratings are starting to appear in term sheets for high grade corporate bond issuers, regardless of whether or not the deal is a themed issuance. This is a sensible move and ought to have a positive impact on the curve for the issuer.

A slew of mandates hit Europe’s high grade corporate bond market on Monday, with issuers increasingly adding their ESG ratings to investor communications that cover their whole enterprise, even if the deal being marketed is not a designated socially responsible investment.

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