Given its reputation, it’s not surprising that Argentina’s bonds are pricing in a high chance of default in coming years. It’s a little harder to understand why the country’s creditors are enabling this.

The dinosaurs of the banking world have recognised the threat from crypto. While there is no simple choice yet for fast and cheap cross-border payments, near instant domestic payments are the new reality.

Banque du Caire was on the cusp of completing a $500 million listing in London and Cairo last year when Covid hit. Its chairman Tarek Fayed meets Euromoney to talk about investing in people and digital – and why he still wants to complete a slimmed-down stock sale when conditions allow.

The chief executive of a leading mid-market London broker reckons there are more funding opportunities than ever for small and medium-sized UK firms, in spite of the pandemic. But she still wants changes to London’s listing rules.

Mid-market specialist DC Advisory has come a long way since its days as a unit of Close Brothers. UK chief executive Richard Madden reckons its acquisition by Daiwa and subsequent build-out of a more coherent international franchise has stood it in good stead.

Laos has twice postponed a bond that it badly needs to issue. A small country with few financing options, hit by Covid, downgraded and in debt to China – its problems are not unique.

For years, trade finance and cross-border payments have looked ripe for disruption by distributed-ledger technologies. Asia provides some firm examples of breakthroughs, but – in the second of a two-part series – Euromoney asks whether trade finance will always be just that little bit too complicated for the blockchain?

It’s an asset class that took years to establish itself in China and Asia. But investors are turning their attention to an asset class that promises chunky returns without the risk borne by primary buyout funds.

Previously known as reverse factoring, sustainable supply-chain finance is one of the products currently generating the most interest among both banks and their corporate clients.

Fourth-quarter numbers from Asia’s biggest trade finance banks suggest that business in the region has bounced back rapidly. Corporates have changed their approach to their manufacturing bases and supply chains, and have accelerated their use of technology. In the first of a two-part series, Euromoney finds there are lessons here for the rest of the world when the pandemic eventually eases.