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Incensed by their failure to reform, Brics policymakers have established a flawed rival to the World Bank and IMF. Rhetoric aside, the west dismisses emerging-market dissent over the broken financial architecture at its peril.

With a seemingly bottomless pool of cheap bank funding readily available, companies in emerging Europe have tended to shun the international bond markets. A recent spurt of debut deals, however, has prompted speculation that the long-awaited shift might finally be under way.

Two bold moves by Borsa Istanbul indicate that the exchange is seeking to take advantage of the Turkish economy’s new found confidence. Both focus on its understanding that Turkey needs to facilitate markets and expertise to leverage economic growth. The first is the creation of a partnership with the US stock exchange operator Nasdaq OMX. The second is the launch of a private market for unlisted companies.

US indicators are slowly improving, but Euromoney’s country-risk experts are still not as confident in its creditworthiness compared with the rating agencies. The question is why?

There’s a new buzzword from Ankara to Istanbul in Turkey’s financial markets: sustainability. Not of the environmental kind, but borne of a desire to keep the positive developments of the country’s economy, and its banks, flowing.

The increasing investment by short-term funds in longer-term assets is a liquidity mismatch that is attracting growing regulatory attention. This comes as little surprise given the damage wreaked by just such strategies at the beginning of the financial crisis in 2007.

Regulators have been strident, if rather late, in their concern over the risk that short-term retail money now represents in today’s high yield corporate bond market. So when retail funds began to sell off in late July many braced for the worst. But by the end of August it was as if nothing had happened. The bond market’s ability to adapt may be greater than Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen believes.

Despite Phones 4U, high-yield investors should keep calm and carry on.

There’s an intense debate going on at many of the big banks over how they should engage with shareholder activists as potential drivers of M&A to release corporate value. More firmly established in the US, activists may yet have a growing role to play in Europe.

The M&A market has caught fire with a series of jumbo corporate deals. Bidders claim that these are compelling strategic transactions that will create long-term value. But the real reason may be fear that shareholders are now focused on weak revenue prospects. Buying earnings is a way for companies to prevent share prices that low policy rates have inflated from falling back to earth. But confidence is still surprisingly fragile. A couple more big deal failures could slam the M&A market back into the freezer and take the equity markets with it.

Debt capital markets bankers have so far watched the boom in M&A activity with a mixture of envy and anticipation. But they’re increasingly confident that a buyer-led bond boom is on the way.

Unless there is an accelerated plan for full political and fiscal union, the next eurozone crisis could prove existential.