United States

Christopher Giancarlo, former chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), will return to the private sector in his first job since leaving the regulator.

OneConnect Financial Technology, a unit of Chinese conglomerate Ping An Group, hit the road on Tuesday to meet investors for its New York Stock Exchange IPO.

In this round-up, US president Donald Trump signed the Hong Kong Human Rights Act into law despite trade tension with China, the Ministry of Finance allocated Rmb1tr ($142.2bn) of special project bond quotas to local governments and the Chinese State Council has set its sights on financing infrastructure projects.

Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) published a report on Thursday making the case for institutional investment into UK social housing. The sector has come under pressure from falls in government funding and the increasing costs of developing new homes. Capital from the insurance sector could provide a valve, PIC claims.

The US corporate bond market had no high grade new issues in the run-up to the Thanksgiving holiday but the return of big ticket mergers and acquisitions has raised bankers spirits for 2020.

Surging equity markets and a spate of strong block sales have given equity investors a boost as they approach the end of the year.

HSBC’s anticipated cuts to its global banking and markets (GBM) division may make sense. But they will not be easy to pull off smoothly.

US regulators are taking slow steps towards accepting that climate change is a financial risk, but progress is being made. Appointments have been made to a CFTC committee created to better understand climate-related market risks and one of the members is Mindy Lubber, chief executive of sustainability organisation Ceres. She told GlobalCapital her organisation is working to prepare for a new, green-minded president.

A number of block trades were priced this week as the EMEA equity capital markets ground towards the end of the year. While some banks had expected the week to be busier, the last five days have proven the market is still well and truly open for new business.

In this round-up, US president Donald Trump threatened to raise tariffs again if a phase one deal is not reached, China is planning to set up a fund to promote its manufacturing industry and the US Senate passed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.

A shareholder group in Chinese education technology firm GSX Techedu have bagged $252m after selling a chunk of its US-listed stock.

Chinese company Genetron Holdings has filed initial IPO documents with the US regulator just days after getting a fresh injection of capital from a Vivo Capital-led private funding round.