Corporates borrowed their way through the crisis of 2020. What might happen next? Seven months after the first lockdowns began in Europe and the US, is coronavirus now priced into debt markets?

Banks in Europe face a bleak choice. They can redouble cost cutting and capture the move to digital. They can also top up capital with AT1s, for which there is still a bid. But as the acute phase of the crisis now approaches and loan losses rise, banks’ fabled capital strength faces a stern test

The transition from Libor is passing key tests as benchmark reform moves into its endgame. In October, the discounting rate for cleared interest rate derivatives was smoothly shifted to Sofr and Isda’s fall-back protocol was finally published. However, the Gordian knot of legacy loan contracts remains.

The social bond market has boomed as public-sector borrowers raise funding to mitigate the pandemic. Now they need to become long-term options for both banks and corporates.

The Dominican Republic’s banks, which were supported by a swift series of measures when Covid-19 struck, are now being asked to fund the government until fiscal reform can be enacted.

The Covid pandemic and racial injustice protests have thrust social investing into the spotlight this year. However, using this to achieve long-term change on the ground will be a tough job.

Within three years a quarter of Europe’s bank branches could be closed – more if the rising M&A wave strengthens. When banks shout about investing in digital for their customers, they want investors to hear they are cutting costs. In the rush to become tech companies could they lose what keeps customers loyal?

Politicians in the US and China warn of decoupling, but at a financial level the two countries are closer than ever. China needs US money and help to build its capital markets. US funds are snapping up mainland securities as they tap into the great investment opportunity of the 2020s. It’s a perfect match.

Banco Inter’s chief executive João Vitor Menin is a banking revolutionary. His vision of the bank’s future is a super app, supporting both e-commerce and financial services. He is refreshingly fearless about upsetting the established order.

Japanese conglomerates have woken up to the need to divest non-core assets; international private equity houses have plenty of dry powder with which to buy them. This happy alignment appears to have survived Covid-19, unlike other forms of cross-border M&A.

For an IPO alternative designed not to give a first-day pop, liquidity is the real measure of success.

As European bank consolidation finally gets under way, Euromoney looks at the financial firepower of the region’s top 20 players. Which banks are now best-placed to do the acquiring and which are at risk of being swallowed up? Mid-tier banks in southern Europe look especially vulnerable.

As Gulf banks grapple with squeezed margins, low interest rates and over-banking, Egypt offers the opposite: high interest rates, low lending penetration and a largely unbanked population. It is no surprise that domestic and regional buyers are now circling.

As Spain prepares to digest the €17 billion merger of CaixaBank and Bankia, Andalucían lender Unicaja has revived merger talks with rival Liberbank as it faces a threat to its regional dominance. While its community roots are an advantage, it also needs an answer to the calls for change

In stark contrast to previous periods of crisis, Brazil’s private-sector banks have been growing market share this year as the public banks have retrenched. This should translate to a busy deal pipeline as they look to refinance.

Credit Suisse has hired several big guns in the battle for the banking market in Brazil. Chief among them is Ilan Goldfajn, ex president of the central bank of Brazil.

Private banks are having a good pandemic, streaming Covid-themed webinars to high net-worth clients. Now they’re competing with each other to hire the biggest names in US politics to explain to wealthy investors what Trump or Biden will do.

In 1994, Aditya Puri left Citibank to launch a new institution in a rapidly changing India. As he prepares to retire after 26 years, HDFC Bank stands apart as the strongest and most successful private-sector bank in the country.

The country is enjoying a record year in equity capital raising, built on rights issues by Reliance Industries and the country’s top banks. Behind the numbers, however, there are signs that the leaders will get stronger, while those behind may struggle.

Edelweiss has grown over 25 years into an independent and successful diversified financial services group, but it needs capital. Its decision to sell a controlling stake in its wealth management business spotlights the institution and the potential of the sector.

The bank’s new Development Finance Institution could move the needle in helping developing economies meet the UN’s sustainable development goals. Euromoney talks to managing director Faheen Allibhoy and chair of the governing board Daniel Zelikow.

Baoshang’s failure in August marked the first collapse of a Chinese bank in 22 years. As bank runs rise, trust firms run into trouble and more struggling lenders are merged, experts are asking: how bad is China’s financial crisis?

The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency had already set itself ambitious goals even before Covid-19 hit the world. Its new head argues that the pandemic makes its mission all the more relevant.

How can quantitative easing best alleviate the financial fallout from Covid-19? Unconventional monetary policies make investors in emerging markets uncomfortable – especially in Latin America. Little wonder that central banks are treading a cautious path.

Covid-19 may be the moment sovereign wealth funds were made for: a shocking disruption to national economies that calls for a stable, patiently invested buffer. Funds have reacted in different ways, but they’re all bigger, shrewder and hopefully smarter than they were during the GFC.

The firm didn’t foresee the coronavirus crisis when it decided to pivot its investment bank more explicitly towards clients than ever before. But as so often, its timing could not have been better

It was not the only bank that came into the Covid crisis with a strong balance sheet, but, as in 2008, the bank has shown that its diverse businesses provide plentiful earnings to take big reserves, even while it keeps financing large corporates and small businesses alike. Deposits have flooded in, technology investments have proved their worth and it is winning more business from mid-cap clients inside and outside the US – and it coped with the temporary absence of a legendary chief executive.

Singapore’s state-owned investment company entered the pandemic in good shape. Covid-19 brought new challenges in which it has emerged as a double-barreled weapon against uncertainty. The fund’s chief investment strategist explains what makes Singapore’s intriguing sovereign wealth vehicle tick.

The lifeline that Berlin promised Germany’s businesses earlier this year was so large it made other corporate rescues in Europe look tame. In its determination to protect companies and jobs Berlin is stirring new debate, at home and abroad, about its growing role as an industrial decision maker and even shareholder. Can the country use its financial muscle to relaunch its own sputtering economic model?

Joseph Poon is group head of DBS Private Bank, one of Asia’s leading wealth managers. But the event that drives him today, informing his values and his views on investing and risk management, was stepping aboard a rickety raft in 1976 to flee an impoverished and divided Vietnam.