Covid left Asia’s big markets closed to business travel, yet M&A is surging, with Australia and southeast Asia at the forefront of activity. China, where the focus is on local investments, is, however, bucking the trend.

Rabobank CEO Wiebe Draijer says that private finance must have a role in financing the transition to a more sustainable, equitable and healthy way of feeding the planet.

China’s president is a modern-day emperor who rules with an iron fist. His ‘common prosperity’ push promises better jobs and more equality, but it’s causing analysts to ask if the market is no longer investible and investors to fret and pull back – at a time when the country needs foreign capital more than ever.

Nazir Razak, who built CIMB from an obscure Malaysian merchant bank to a pan-regional universal player, is the youngest of five brothers. The eldest, Najib, was the prime minister who was convicted for his role in the 1MDB scandal. That pitted the two against one another. In the background of the brothers’ opposition was the legacy of their father.

The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) is one of the most closely watched developments in climate standards to have been announced at COP26. Although its launch was the culmination of an ambitious project, its work is only just beginning.

This year’s cash management survey sees banks looking beyond purely pandemic-related challenges to focus on sustainable finance and investment in technology.

Ricardo Lacerda launched a boutique investment bank in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Having finally succeeded in IPOing his firm at the third attempt, he now looks to navigate it through Brazil’s turbulent waters.

JPMorgan Chase can be a winner in global digital retail banking according to Sanoke Viswanathan, the bank’s head of international consumer growth. With European expansion starting in the UK under the Chase brand and growth in Latin America through a stake in Brazil’s C6, Viswanathan insists his firm is in this for the long haul.

Investors fear that many Asian governments aren’t doing enough to transition to net zero. They are therefore engaging with the region’s largest utilities hoping for better results. CLP may be an example for others to follow.

There has always been great overlap between Shariah-compliant finance and ESG principles. Malaysia is trying to harness the potential that arises from this confluence.

President Xi Jinping has set out ambitious plans to decarbonize China’s economy. But most companies and banks, hampered by a lack of top-down regulation, have little idea what ESG is, let alone how to measure and report it. It is a mess – and one that China needs to clear up fast.

Supervisors attending this year’s meeting of the Institute of International Finance were at pains to show they would not be rushing to impose capital penalties on banks based on climate stress tests. But the issue is at the heart of a debate over what the limits to regulatory scope should be.

Asian high yield has always been dominated by Chinese real estate, so the Evergrande crisis has shut down the market for new issuance. Is this the chance for non-Chinese issuers to step up?

Bank of America’s Abyd Karmali is on the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures. He spoke to Euromoney ahead of the nature-based COP15 and climate-based COP26 conferences about what is at stake.

Credit Suisse’s chief sustainability officer is no ESG ideologue. She is at heart a hard-nosed investment banker who sees a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to guide clients to a more sustainable future.

A year after launch, the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets is close to setting standards for a murky market. Board member Chris Leeds discusses the journey so far, the challenges ahead and the opportunities that standardization could create for banks.

Many parts of Africa present formidable obstacles to financial inclusion. Euromoney speaks to some of the pioneers that are using technology to bring far-flung populations into the financial system.

Derivatives could turbocharge environmental, social and governance markets, with a related boost to bank revenues. However, they could also make it harder to monitor exposure.

The world has been pressuring Brazil about the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest within its borders for decades. New ESG-style initiatives are being adopted by Brazilian banks and businesses, but it could be the climate impact closer to home that’s creating the impetus for real change.

Can multilateral development banks fight climate change while still promoting economic development in emerging markets? The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is the first to set out concrete plans on how to do this.

Neobanks are targeting less wealthy people in both developed and developing markets – a constituency that has traditionally been neglected by incumbent banks because of legacy costs. But it’s an increasingly political issue and where does this leave people who still need access to cash and branches?

Australia is not the first country that comes to mind with regards to climate action. But away from the political rhetoric, the exceptionally powerful superannuation funds and corporates are pushing change. The key is an acceptance that in Australia it’s all about transition.

Appetite for emerging market risk is much lower in the wake of Covid-19 than it was after the global financial crisis. This is the result of a mix of technical and fundamental factors, but it is primarily driven by the spectre of the emerging markets’ Achilles heel: inflation.

Covid-19-fuelled supply chain disruption is helping to funnel global real estate demand to residential, life sciences and logistics.

In May, Benjamin Diokno, governor of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), proudly announced the formation of a new ‘bad bank’ asset management company regime under the Financial Institutions Strategic Transfer Act - known by the bold and bracing acronym, FIST.

The worst pandemic in a century, an event which has changed our whole way of life, appears to have dealt only a glancing blow to global banking. Good risk management certainly played a role; but, crucially, government support bailed out customers before they impacted bank balance sheets. Is there bad news to come when those policies go back to normal?

One of the stars of Estonia’s post-Soviet generation, André Küüsvek, talks to Euromoney about escaping lockdown in Kazakhstan, expanding the NIB’s environmental remit and the risks posed by rising inequality.

Australia is an interesting market for those wondering how neobank models might evolve, as it has already experienced success, failure, and sale to the incumbents.

While big banks and institutional investors spent years trying to bend blockchain for use in traditional finance, they missed out on the boom in crypto prices and the income from decentralized finance. Now, alarmed by stretched valuations and zero yields in conventional markets, they just want in. The race is on to build a sturdy infrastructure to support the stream of old money into new digital assets that could become a flood.

High net-worth individuals once eschewed cryptocurrencies. When Covid hit, many learned to embrace them. They see the danger of endless QE and the returns to be generated in the world of decentralized finance.