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A sudden dip in the volume of €STR transactions and the number of banks submitting data has led to market participants voicing concerns about the rate.

Singapore fintech BondEvalue launched BondbloX Bond Exchange this week, which claims to be the first blockchain-based exchange in the world, with the maiden trade executed on a bond from commodities giant Olam.

As investment bankers got used to working from home in the first half of the year, many more whistleblowing cases were opened by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority. Meanwhile, challenges around monitoring staff and forging a bank’s internal culture have not gone away just because the workforce is outside of the office.

Deutsche Bank has had an impressive run in the European investment grade corporate bond market this year, leaping from sixth to second year-to-date. GlobalCapital spoke to Frazer Ross, Deutsche’s head of investment grade syndicate for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, to find out the reasons behind its success.

Société Générale and Natixis have purged their senior ranks following second-quarter losses and to prepare for strategic revamps, but David Rothnie thinks the future will remain challenging for both.

Citi has taken market share from other banks in the past year to become one of only four that account for 60% of all secondary market covered bond volume traded on Bloomberg so far this year, thanks to a combination of devoting balance sheet to trading and having the appetite to take risk.

ABN Amro plans to quit corporate banking outside Europe, except for clearing, and also exit trade and commodity finance in a shake-out of its corporate and investment banking activities.

A temporary forum created by the European Central Bank to discuss the proposed European Distribution of Debt Instruments (EDDI) project will hold its first meeting in September.

Nomura has ambitions to improve its covered bond market making presence, but it has a long way to go before getting close to the top, where Citi, Santander, and JP Morgan all occupy a clear lead, according to investors.

Anne Stevenson-Yang is a director and co-founder of J Capital Research, a New York firm and short seller that specialises in Chinese companies, as well as international companies looking to grow their business in China. GlobalCapital spoke to Stevenson-Yang about the dangers of trusting financial reporting from China, and steps stock exchanges could take to stifle the likelihood of fraud.

European banks will be subject to some of the Federal Reserve’s highest capital targets, after the US regulator switched to using stress test results as the main input for its requirements.

The convertible bond market has played a vital role during the Covid-19 global pandemic in funding corporates that were in urgent need of liquidity as the crisis took hold. Deals have performed for investors too, although they should be concerned about the potential for rising defaults.