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Lockdowns raised big questions about how capital markets operate. Trading floors — their beating heart — emptied even as the need for the financial blood they pump round the system rocketed. But markets thrived. Now Ralph Sinclair asks how the experience will change the future of work in capital markets.

John Hempton, the Australian short seller and self-styled eccentric, believes fraudulent companies will soon become evident in the corporate rubble left by the coronavirus pandemic. Hempton, who has bet against 1,100 companies over the course of his career, explained how his hedge fund Bronte Capital goes about finding rotten eggs in business and finance.

The UK cannot have unconditional, direct access to the EU’s financial markets when it fully leaves the bloc, according to a draft opinion set to be adopted on Friday by the European Parliament's committees for international trade and foreign affairs.

H4, a fintech firm which has received investment from JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Barclays and Linklaters, is giving capital market participants the chance to move document creation and storage into the 21st century, chief executive Joe Seifert tells GlobalCapital.

The green bond market lets investors scrutinise the way issuers use their money, promoting good behaviour. Now, the focus is turning to the middle men: the banks. It is a welcome iteration, given their importance in financing either a green or brown future, but we must push them further.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has launched the first systematic process by an issuer to formally integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into choosing its bookrunners. Senior funding officials and sustainability bankers have welcomed the initiative as an important evolution in the use of ESG in capital markets, write Burhan Khadbai and Jon Hay.

BNP Paribas has provided €40bn of loans to corporate clients in the eye of the Covid-19 storm, amid claims that rivals are retrenching. David Rothnie asks if balance sheet support will result in bigger corporate finance fees.

HSBC and Standard Chartered are facing a backlash from investors and politicians after publicly supporting China’s planned security law for Hong Kong.

The US Federal Reserve’s whatever-it-takes approach to stabilising markets has had an unintended victim: serious discussions about debt relief in the emerging markets.

Members of the European Parliament have agreed on a series of temporary changes to the EU’s bank capital framework, including the introduction of a prudential filter for sovereign bond exposures. They stopped short of adopting amendments that would restrict the payment of additional tier one (AT1) coupons.

The European Systemic Risk Board is recommending that financial institutions do not equity dividends at all this year, so that they maintain high levels of capital. It acknowledged the risk that some firms could otherwise be stigmatised if they decided to restrict distributions amid Covid-19.

Angus Whelchel, who was global head of private capital markets and a managing director at Barclays, has left the bank, according to market sources.