Comment EM and The Cover

“I was confused before I went in, and even more confused when I came out,” was how one EM investor described meeting Etihad and its partners to discuss its now infamous structured notes.

You are looking to buy an item on Amazon. The first two reviews could not be more contrasting. One is a glowing five star rating. The other is a one star hatchet job. Which do you believe? This was akin to the situation facing investors considering Amazon’s new bond on Tuesday, with Moody’s opinion of the company four notches lower than that of S&P.

The eurozone has many structural flaws, inherent design failings that have been painfully exposed over the past decade. Some of these have been rectified and good progress has been made on a banking union, in particular. But the work is not complete and if there was an Achilles heel that threatened to scupper efforts to strengthen the currency bloc, it was the Italian banking system, writes Gavan Nolan.

If the tension in the European corporate bond market is often about how much paper can issuers persuade investors to take, this August the pull is the other way. Investors are thirsty, and issuers are withholding.

Anglian Water, priced a £250m eight year green bond on Monday. The size and tenor are unremarkable, and in a generation of sustainability and responsibility, a green bond should cause similarly few ripples. However, this was the first sterling-denominated green bond issued by a corporate borrower since 2015.

When one thinks of volatility, few asset classes stand out as much as cryptocurrencies. But the fledgling nature of these decentralised digital currencies has meant that interested derivatives users have had to navigate equally volatile attitudes from global regulators.

China made a clear step towards creating a financial super-regulator last week, when it created a new oversight commission within the central bank. The mega-merger of China’s many competing regulators is a good idea – but it is also fraught with risks.

The Saudi Aramco flotation will be one of the big ethical battles of next year in financial markets. Skirmishes have already begun, with the UK regulator’s bid to ease listing rules to attract Aramco and its like. UK investors should take a stand.

China’s renminbi internationalisation (RMBi) strategy has seen a clear shift from pushing for the currency’s usage abroad to bringing investors into the onshore market. It is time to take a more nuanced view of renminbi internationalisation.

What will happen to share prices and bond returns if the climate warms by 1.5°C, 2°C, 3°C? You don’t know, and neither does anyone else. But these scenarios are probable. It’s time we worked it out — and a decision before the G20 next weekend could make a huge difference.

It's been uncanny how all of Europe’s recently failing financial institutions have failed in just the right way to ensure the most favourable outcome for the competent authorities.

A year ago this week the credit markets were digesting the shock of a ‘leave’ vote in the Brexit referendum. What followed was a period of extreme volatility and it seemed that 2017 was set for more of the same, writes Gavan Nolan.