Just like the global financial crisis, Australia is emerging from Covid-19 more strongly than the rest of the developed world. Investment banks here have never been busier, raising huge sums of equity from one of the world’s largest asset pools. In the first of a two-part series on Australian investment banking, we look at the work that came out of a global pandemic.

Hedge funds have profited handsomely from the boom in equity capital markets, but retail buyers haven’t been completely excluded.

Online trade finance provider Stenn has raised several hundred million dollars during the past month and reckons it is well placed to help close the funding gap for manufacturers in developing economies.

If a sovereign wealth fund is a coat for a rainy day, then why is hardly anyone putting one on when it’s been pouring down since March?

International diversification counts for little in a pandemic, so shares in Sweden’s Handelsbanken have done better than most other lenders in Europe – but its loan book faces a stern test.

Mainland Chinese firms invested $72.2 billion in Africa between 2014 and 2018, much of it through the Belt and Road Initiative. Now that Covid-19 has struck, there is a growing sense of unease in Beijing over calls to write off debt to stressed African states.

African governments and SOEs owe China more than $150 billion and Covid-19 is limiting their ability to repay. Will this usher in debt-trap diplomacy or are Chinese lenders playing a longer game?

The European Central Bank's purchase of more than €35 billion of commercial paper since late March shows just how rocky the early stages of the Covid-19 crisis were for short-term funding.

Capital markets volumes show how well the industry has adapted since the coronavirus crisis began, but as economies emerge from lockdown, bankers and clients need to look much further ahead.

Capital markets bankers and their clients are finding that a lot can be done from home; as lockdowns ease, travel will matter more than offices.

Banks have to prepare for crises; if investors won’t make companies do the same, should someone else?

Virtual meetings have afforded women greater visibility during the Covid-19 crisis, but little to nothing has happened. Will things finally start to change in the financial sector?

Covid-19 has refocused attention on the urgent need to address long-term structural healthcare issues in Africa. Investors are now looking to put money to work in healthcare and banks are seeing an uptick in demand for project financing.

For wealthy clients, the Covid-19 crisis has afforded an opportunity to test the asset-allocation advice and lending capabilities of their wealth managers

Will it be back to business as usual as soon as lockdown restrictions are lifted?

If the people won’t come to the office post-lockdown, maybe the office must come to the people.

Companies never want to sell equity at rock bottom prices, but bank lenders will often only relax covenants and hold off seizing assets if new capital comes in below them. Enter private equity managers with dry powder, snapping up big preferred stock deals to help cash-strapped issuers bolster their capital structures.

Having raised liquidity in March, Latin American companies are now trying to assess the best way forward. Will they need new debt, fresh equity, or will the economy return sufficiently for them to simply repay?

Appetite for Special Purpose Acquisition Companies is growing as investors find comfort in their new structure. Market participants expect more to come this year along thematic lines, with the first ESG Spac launched in May.

There is a plausible recovery scenario that would enable Latin America to exit the crisis on a better path than it was on before.

Collapse in Brazilian equities places a question mark over recent growth in retail investment.

Fears that the Covid-19 virus might live on banknotes and coins has focused public attention on once esoteric experiments with central bank digital currency. The virus has also exposed the slow pace of emergency government support payments through the conventional banking system, so what once sounded futuristic may be coming soon. CBDC just got real.

After a slow start, the processing of CBILS loans has picked up. Now finally accredited, the specialist SME lender says much more needs to be done.

Central bank intervention has delayed the deluge of insolvency that Covid-19 lockdowns will cause, but it can only plug the dike for so long. Lenders face the grim prospect of deciding who to save and who to let go.

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority may struggle to show anything explicitly wrong in the awarding of recent equity mandates.

Supply chain disruption will create new challenges for transaction bankers and may lead to long-term changes in global trade patterns.

UK banks’ returns on equity will still be below pre-virus levels in 2025, while CET1 ratios across Europe could fall to 8%.

Foreign capital is flooding into Chinese bonds, but investors would be wise to scrutinize the myriad ways by which issuers can wriggle out of meeting their obligations. China’s bond markets are vibrant and attractive, but – all too often – unruly.

A shift away from cash due to the Covid-19 lockdowns should be a godsend for firms such as Revolut, N26, Monzo and Starling. But venture capital funds were already getting fed up with neobanks’ growth-first strategies before the coronavirus caused a slump in core payments revenues. Those with weaker equity backing may struggle to survive.

No developed market in the world has blue-chip banks paying higher dividends than those in Australia. It’s implausible to continue doing so during the coronavirus crisis – but banks fear a backlash from the income-loving retirees and retail folk who make up half their investor base.