June 2020

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.

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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?

June 2020

The saga of ESG data looks promising, but the questions about its usefulness for investors drag on.

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.

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

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.

The May IPO of video conferencing platform Pexip was an all-round virtual success.

How banks could benefit from social distancing.

Who cares about yet more IPOs?

Will forcing all foreign firms to comply with US audit standards be the straw that breaks the camel’s back in Beijing?

A new law prohibiting the return of banks to their former owners will unlock international funding for Ukraine. But is it really the game changer some are claiming?

BlackRock’s contract with the Federal Reserve to support the corporate bond market leaves the world’s biggest asset manager with no room for governance error.

China has moved closer to approving its first onshore real estate investment trusts. When tax and gearing issues are overcome, the market could overtake the US to be the world’s largest, bankers say.

Amid the wild price swings and surging volumes in bond and equity markets that characterized the first phase of the pandemic, traders just about coped while working from home. Even as some return to the office, technology must cope with the new ways of working.

As credit losses hit banks hard over the next three quarters, one large failure could spark a systemic crisis. Consolidation is the only way out.

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

Covid-19 may accelerate larger wealth managers’ global ambitions.

Investors looking to profit from – and hedge against – credit deterioration due to Covid-19 will need to pick their spots when fighting the Federal Reserve.

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?

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.

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.

JPMorgan is in discussion with more global banks, corporates and third-party service providers to join its Interbank Information Network.

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.