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The weakness of communication along the capital markets chain is one reason why so little progress has been made on greening the economy.

The European Investment Bank is going through intense discussions — both internally and externally — about its plan to become the EU’s Climate Bank. NGOs are accusing it of “backtracking” and demanding it sets sustainability criteria for the companies and banks it works with, but the EIB insists it is listening to concerns and will reveal more of its plans later this year.

The Covid-19 outbreak has spurred at least one change for the better. Five banks have established dedicated ESG teams since the start of the pandemic to meet demand from clients committed to being more conscientious, writes David Rothnie.

The Black Lives Matter protests have propelled discussions about ethnic diversity in the UK’s financial sector, and companies are likely to face more pressure from employees, investors and the government.

The UK government and regulators are looking at ditching some of the specifics of EU financial regulation — encompassing banks, insurers and capital markets — as the country looks ahead to its post-Brexit future.

With Adam Bagshaw heading to HSBC, Deutsche Bank has turned to two of its senior investment bankers for Germany to take charge of corporate finance for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Adam Bagshaw, up until now a senior figure at Deutsche Bank, is joining HSBC to co-lead advisory and investment banking coverage.

The European Central Bank is now expected to find a means of meeting the request from Germany's Federal Constitutional Court (BVG) for proportionality assessments without curtailing its ability to expand its quantitative easing programmes.

The UK may be loosening social restrictions as the rate of coronavirus infections abates, but the Bank of England and the government cannot let up the fight against the economic and market impact of the virus.

Healthy financial systems should not rely on short sellers and journalists to expose accounting scandals at large, publicly listed companies. Regulators and auditors should have been the heroes of the Wirecard story but their inability to see what others saw plainly paints them as the villains in this edition of German corporate noir.

Alexander Karolev, head of CEEMEA bond syndicate at BNP Paribas, has left to take up the recently vacated head of CEEMEA debt capital markets syndicate position at JP Morgan.

Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, has hinted at a dramatic reversal of the central bank’s long-standing monetary policy strategy, with the idea that it would be better to reduce the stock of its asset purchases before raising interest rates.