Comment EM and The Cover

The US stock market and the dollar have been falling since last week, as fears have grown that Donald Trump might win the US presidency in Tuesday's election.

Goldman is not the only US bank on the reputation radar this week. Wells Fargo’s sales scandal is a signal that, even in an industry as publicly loathed as banking (and we are well aware that the news media is another), reputation risk is to be taken seriously.

Loans and Schuldscheine have always sat side by side. With a similar lender base and documentation, the two seem almost interchangeable. This year banks have been capitalising on that similarity and driving issuance to new heights, but they should not get carried away — restructuring a Schuldschein is a lot more painful than with a loan.

Even if the European private placement market develops its own version of the USA’s NAIC ratings, that will not make tougher credits more digestible to institutional investors. But creating a Capital Markets Union that funds Europe’s growth has to channel funds to riskier borrowers, and for that, investors must do their own credit work.

Emaciated volumes in the loan and Euro PP markets mean they must buddy up to offer borrowers the best of both worlds.

Showing flexibility over Caixa Geral de Depósitos latest recapitalisation may not have been such a bad decision, but by using logic inconsistent with other cases the European Commission risks making its State aid rules appear arbitrary and meaningless.

Europe’s faltering on margin rules for uncleared swaps this year has, for some market participants, proved that the trans-Atlantic regulatory rollout has reached breaking point – a reckoning that, perversely, could buy the market some relief in the form of a slowdown in the regulatory pace.

EM bonds are the must-have item of 2016 — an oasis in a yield-less desert. Record investor inflows are fuelling rising asset prices. It will not last forever, so borrowers should take advantage.

Far from seeing Tullett Prebon’s voice-hybrid push as a last stand of the dinosaurs against robot supremacy, those firms going all-in on electronic trading would do well to re-examine their own longevity.

The era of monetary stimulus has become a parade of diminishing returns that cannot continue if health is to return to the global economy.

Please take a look at this year’s shortlists before casting your votes for The Cover Awards 2016.

Last month in New York, 175 countries signed the historic Paris agreement on climate change, with commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Asia, as the world’s biggest emitter, will be a key player in contributing to turn the accord’s goals into reality.