The ECB’s recent decision to reduce haircuts on funding collateral comprising asset-backed securities should be a boon for the moribund European securitization industry, but its real target is the continent’s small and medium-sized company sector, which has struggled to secure bank support since the financial crisis.

The Brics economies are all experiencing difficult growing pains, but India is probably most at risk of being left behind, afflicted by slowing growth and a raft of legacy structural problems it failed to tackle in the good times.

Award-winning Canadian journalist and commentator Andrew Coyne, who has followed Mark Carney’s career closely and interviewed him several times, shares his thoughts on what you should know about the new Bank of England governor.

A faster way to pay suppliers marks a new era for international trade as it helps companies unlock working capital and improve cash flow. Bank Payment Obligations (BPOs) are one tool among many though, so companies should think carefully about when to use them.

Turkey has transformed, in a matter of a few weeks, from the poster child of emerging market excellence to a volatile economy, with an uncertain macroeconomic and political backdrop, that threatens to reprice the sovereign risk premium. The truth lies somewhere in between.

A scarcity of loans is undermining new issuance of collateralized loan obligations. Managers are trying to squeeze extra life out of existing issues, reinvesting capital years after the reinvestment period has ended. It can be good news for investors if it helps avoid a default, but can also lead to delays in repayment.

As heavy outflows, product withdrawals and confusion over pricing vex the ETF industry, BlackRock softens its claim that investor demand had made ETFs the ‘true market’. It’s unclear whether the problems are a blip or a more serious threat to the products.

Video commentary by Tino Kam, SEPA product executive at RBS

The UK government is hoping investor appetite for renewables and conventional power generation will grow after unveiling the long-awaited update of its Electricity Market Reforms (EMR). Richard Saint, Managing Director, Corporate Advisory and Sue Milton, Senior Director, Energy Structured Finance at RBS, explain.

The ruling party is likely to secure a resounding victory in the parliamentary elections, in part thanks to a lack of viable contenders, analysts say, boosting the Abenomics agenda. Nevertheless, growth-expectations remain mixed.

The veracity of official data from China has long been questioned due to inconsistencies, missing key indicators or massaging of the numbers for political reasons. Now the stakes seem higher: the rise in the shadow banking system and question marks over the accuracy of economic and industry data add to fears that calculating systemic leverage in China’s economy is mission impossible.

The first renminbi (RMB) swap line between China and a G7 central bank – a three-year agreement with the Bank of England (BofE) – is a safety net that will boost the confidence of UK banks to become more actively involved in RMB transactions.

A cyclical correction or a structural shift? Gold’s aggressive recent sell-off has revived the debate about whether the commodity is a legitimate hedge against Armageddon financial forces, while the jury is out on whether fundamental or technical forces are driving the bullion’s price.

While emerging market equities have been taking a battering, their diminutive near-relative frontier market equities have been holding up rather well, seemingly immune to the headwinds buffeting the interconnected jigsaw that makes up the global equities market.

The rapid, seemingly uncontrolled, expansion of China’s shadow banking sector is under intense scrutiny because of the risks it poses to the banking system, and the economy itself, but also because the sector is largely unregulated. Urgent steps are needed to beef up regulatory vigilance as China seeks to engineer a contraction of credit to levered sectors.

Foreign firms with ambitions in China need a smarter strategy to crack the country as the old certainties of double-digit growth, untrammelled markets and low-cost production are replaced by a more complex growth picture, says Ben Simpfendorfer, founder of Silk Road Associates.

The appreciation of China’s renminbi in the face of deteriorating economic fundamentals and global disinflation represents a new normal in China’s political economy, but opinion is split about whether the currency is overvalued.

Fears are growing that a concentration of bad debt in China’s informal lending or shadow financial sector, is a ticking time-bomb that might not only weigh on economic growth and stoke inflation but could cause a far more damaging banking crisis.