China’s onshore bond market took another great leap forward in the first half of 2020 regulators simplified rules and endorsed debt capital issuance as a response to the Covid-19 crisis. Onshore renminbi bond sales jumped to a record in the first six months of the year, fuelled by easier monetary policy and a spike in corporate borrowing to weather the effects of the coronavirus outbreak. International issuers and investors are benefiting, too. Overseas issuers have sold over US$5.6bn of P

China’s onshore bond market took another great leap forward in the first half of 2020 regulators simplified rules and endorsed debt capital issuance as a response to the Covid-19 crisis. Onshore renminbi bond sales jumped to a record in the first six months of the year, fuelled by easier monetary policy and a spike in corporate borrowing to weather the effects of the coronavirus outbreak. International issuers and investors are benefiting, too. Overseas issuers have sold over US$5.6bn of P

Food delivery companies in China are giving doctors free rides. Distilleries in India are making hand sanitiser. Banks in Hong Kong are allowing customers to pause loan repayments. Across Asia Pacific, businesses are re-tooling their operations to meet new needs arising from the Covid-19 pandemic, closing the gap between business and social responsibility. Capital markets, too, are showing their ability to support the response to the crisis through the issuance of social bonds, which finance pos

Far from American shores, US dollar bond records are tumbling in the often-overlooked pockets of South-East Asia. According to Refinitiv data, companies and governments in the 10 ASEAN countries sold US$42.1bn of bonds in G3 currencies in the first half of 2020, more than double the same period last year. That is a stark contrast with the bigger Chinese market, where G3 bond sales are down 26% on 2019. South-East Asia’s bond rush accelerated in the second quarter, jumping to US$28.1bn from