A diversified payment rights securitisation for ZAO Raiffeisenbank reopened this important source of funding in Russia for the first time since the financial crisis, but joint lead manager WestLB will not be around to manage follow-up deals.

Citi’s debt capital markets team switched nimbly between reopening Russian markets when risk appetite was high and placing Gulf state sukuk when investors searched for safety.

Credit Suisse's Madrid-based FIG team's input into Bank Zachodni's all-share merger with KBC's Kredyt Bank has allowed Santander to build the market presence it wanted in Poland without putting the squeeze on its capital ratio.

After deciding that a pure high-yield deal was prohibitively expensive for UK leisure company Center Parcs, RBS helped investors get comfortable with a whole business securitisation structure that other banks were giving a wide berth.

Thus far, 2012 has witnessed a marked trend of corporates eschewing bank lending and turning instead to the debt capital markets. By acting quickly, the DCM team at SGCIB has put itself at the forefront of many of these deals.

After a desperate 2011, 2012 got off to a flying start in the sovereign, supranational and agency arena, with successful issues being placed left, right and centre, most notably in euros and sterling. All of this has meant a busy couple of months of HSBC's debt capital markets team.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia's €1.5bn five-year issue was the third and comfortably the most successful Australian transaction since the country passed supportive legislation for covered bonds in late 2011. Joint bookrunner on the deal, BNP Paribas, put its success down to timing and the choice of currency.

When China's biggest bank, ICBC, launched its first dollar bond issue, it offered investors a rare opportunity of direct exposure to the mainland banking system. There was no shortage of interest. Along with UBS and ICBC's own investment arm, Barclays Capital landed the role of global co-ordinator, helping BarCap cement its Asian standing.

Issuing in Europe in 2011 has been a hazardous task, but Com Hem's highly leveraged buyout bridge underwritten by joint mandated lead arranger Goldman Sachs managed to defy the odds, thanks in no small part to the diverse elements of the deal.

As investors flock to the perceived safer ground of corporates at the expense of sovereigns or financials, RBS has been busy successfully utilising the private placement markets in a $1bn deal for caterer Compass Group and the Swiss franc issuance market for utility provider GTS Suez.