Italian companies are poised to issue bonds quickly as growing investor confidence creates significant opportunities to access the market, writes Andrea Soro, RBS Country Executive, Italy.

As economic headwinds increase across Asia, darker clouds could be about to descend on the region’s corporate credit markets thanks to increased pressure on balance sheets. However, on a relative-value basis, Asia still looks attractive.

Allowing China’s financial institutions to establish wholesale branches in the UK is a major step in cementing London’s pre-eminent role in global finance. It holds out the promise of greater investment flows into Britain’s recovering economy, while making it easier for British companies to export to China, writes Janet Ming, Head of RBS China desk in London.

South Africa has, on the face of it, huge strengths: commodities, rule of law, strong institutions and consumption prospects, a social contract – aided by decent incomes per capita – and a sophisticated financial system, among other factors. But it’s failing in five key areas.

It’s unclear whether a negative deposit rate – as mooted by ECB officials in recent weeks – would trigger corporates to invest excess cash or, given risk aversion and the deficit of demand, continue to hoard cash, say analysts.

Rising interest rates, wider credit spreads and higher yields on risk assets are some of the potential impacts on global markets when Quantitative Easing starts coming to an end, writes Eu-Jin Ang, Senior Director, Corporate Advisory, RBS.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s election campaign highlighted a lack of focus on the longer-term issues facing Germany, says academic Horst Opaschowski.

China’s leaders are likely to disappoint those hoping for sweeping economic reforms at the next big meeting of Chinese leaders - the third plenum of the 18th Communist Party congress.

P2P lending is coming of age, thanks to pent-up demand for credit, new technology and new innovative providers in the market, but the jury is out on whether the sector can become a long-term viable alternative to traditional bank finance.

The revised approach to the regulation of banks’ trading books – focusing on capturing deep losses during systemic crises and a tougher approach to internal-risk modeling – will limit lucrative arbitrage and trading opportunities.

Malaysia is at growing risk of an economic bubble that could come to a sticky end as China, its largest trading partner, rebalances its economy away from a commodity-intensive investment-led growth model, analysts warn.

The European high-yield bond market has enjoyed stellar growth since 2009. Its value has risen from EUR50 billion to EUR300 billion*. We believe it has the potential to expand by half as much again to EUR450 billion in the next five years, writes Kevin Connell, Managing Director High Yield Markets, Merijn Nederveen, Managing Director, Corporate Advisory and Usman Qureshi, Corporate Advisory at RBS.

The new flexible liquidity rules will prove key to realizing Bank of England governor Mark Carney’s bold ambition to further entrench London’s status as a global financial hub while addressing the challenge of rising interest rates and a collateral shortage.

The Chinese government says it wants to transform its asset management companies – established to take on growing bad debts in the banking system – into commercially driven enterprises. In reality, a lack of transparency on portfolio loans means analysts are none the wiser as to the scale of the problem and the resolution process for legacy loans.

The UK Treasury’s courtship of Chinese banks highlights, in part, London’s relatively flexible regulatory regime for foreign banks – in contrast to the Fed. It also opens up a broader debate about subsidiarization and global banking models, more generally, amid regulatory turf wars.

Just months after the prospect of Federal Reserve tapering raised questions about the ability of some emerging market (EM) reserve managers to shore up their currencies value in the face of a resurgent dollar, stockpiles are on the rise again.

Don’t believe the doom-mongers – US political risk is not the same as US credit risk, thanks to a plethora of positive market technicals and the international monetary architecture.

Over the past few years international investors shunned Europe as its economies and banks struggled to reform. But things are changing. The bond markets could benefit.

There has been an inverse correlation between the US dollar and gold price, which, combined with the fact US equities are starting to look rich, suggests the commodity could rise to August highs.

Efforts to create a single European resolution mechanism to bail out or wind down troubled eurozone banks are bogged down in uncertainty and political wrangling, throwing the banking union project into doubt, according to experts.

An important milestone for the industry and for everyone making payments in euros across the region is about to be reached: Steve Everett, Global Head, Cash Management and Tino Kam, SEPA Product Executive explore how the long-held vision of a Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) will become a practical reality at last.

The cascade of banking reforms landed in the wake of the financial crash is offering savvy companies a real edge over rivals.

Demand for sub-Saharan African (SSA) assets is increasing as anticipation continues to build towards the region’s future growth potential, in particular a nascent rebalancing away from resource-dependency towards a consumer market.

The yen has long been seen as one of the principal safe-haven currencies, and in a world where US politicians flirt with dollar default, some view it as the world’s premier safe haven.

As the global economy recovers, banks’ dependence on short-term wholesale funding, and repo in particular, could rise to levels that pose a danger to the financial system, especially if asset bubbles begin to build again.

Europe’s economy is enjoying its first meaningful recovery since 2008 but it is a slow, stuttering comeback. To secure and accelerate the turnaround, policymakers should focus on how to increase lending to the real economy and fill the funding gap left by the continent’s shrinking banks.

Thailand is at growing risk of another debt crisis because of an unsustainable consumption-led credit boom, which has seen lending surge by more than 50% in six years.

After another annus horribilis for Europe in 2012, there has been a gradual but steady improvement in market sentiment this year. Although the growth outlook still looks weak, there has at least been some respite from the relentless worry about debt default and euro break-up.

The Shanghai free-trade zone (FTZ), China’s grand experiment with liberalizing interest rates and opening its capital account, has only a short window of opportunity to convince the markets that the Communist Party is serious about reform.

When the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) created footnote 88 in the final US rules governing swap execution facilities (SEFs) – requiring all multi-lateral trading facilities to register as SEFs whether they trade regulated swaps or not – the prospect it would be closed on the day of the registration deadline was probably not on the agenda.