The European Central Bank has been buying the debt as part of its asset repurchase program. Hungary and France’s central banks have each created funds dedicated to ecological investments. The Bank for International Settlements started an open-ended fund for central bank investments in green bonds last month.

Gold has always been used to measure the value of currencies and commodities. In euros, gold reached an all-time high in early September. More and more investors fear an economic downturn, but bonds have become a costly haven due to negative interest rates. On 4th January 1999 one euro bought 128mg of gold. Now it buys only 23mg.

Chief among their woes is the spectre of persistently low interest rates in the eurozone. In September, Mario Draghi, the outgoing president of the European Central Bank, cut its key deposit rate to minus 0.5 per cent, putting further pressure on banks’ net interest income. Markets expect rates to stay there or fall further after Christine Lagarde takes over.

"All Facebook would have to do would be to decide to use more or fewer dollars or euros to affect the exchange rate and thus have a direct impact on trade, industry and nations," French Economy Minister Le Maire said he was not opposed to the creation of a digital currency, which France could develop "in a European framework."

After adopting a greener focus for its $1.8 billion investment portfolio a few years ago, the City of Copenhagen is now stepping up its search for sustainable assets. Eric Garcetti, the mayor of Los Angeles, says Copenhagen’s investment strategy is one for other cities to follow. “I have already had conversations with sovereign wealth funds.”

Over the past six months, money market funds attracted $322 billion of inflows, the largest flight to safe assets since the second half of 2008. Just in the seven-day period ending Oct. 9, investors continued to exit equity funds globally, with outflows reaching $9.8 billion. By contrast, bond funds enjoyed $11.1 billion of inflows.

A growing number of German banks are passing on negative interest rates to their retail customers as the costs become too high to bear on their own. Berliner Volksbank, the country’s second-largest cooperative lender, started to apply a minus 0.5% rate on deposits exceeding 100,000 euros.

With rates now well below zero, even Denmark’s $440 billion pension system says the environment has become so punishing that it may be time for a change in European rules. The warning comes as pension firms across Europe struggle to generate the returns they need to cover their growing obligations.

As big funds from G-7 nations muscle in on the higher-risk territory in a desperate search for yield, many Australian funds are tapping ever more exotic ways to service their clients. “Bonds are outrageously expensive, and even if you were to buy them and hold on, who’s going to buy them off you?” said CIO of Australia’s top-performing retirement fund.

Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc. and other financial partners that signed on to help build and maintain the Libra payments network are reconsidering their involvement following a backlash from U.S. and European government officials, according to people familiar with the matter. Major defections could imperil Libra.

One of the country’s biggest banking groups just changed the rules of the game. Until Friday, only people with roughly $1 million in surplus cash at their banks were facing a negative rate. Now, the threshold has been reduced to just over $100,000, with no guarantee it won’t go lower. Other banks have hinted they’ll follow.

Part of the reason they did so well was that virtually all asset classes in their portfolios rose in value. At ATP and PFA, which oversee a combined $230 billion from their headquarters in Denmark, the worry is that the near lock-step movement of bonds and stocks will make it hard to limit losses through diversification, once markets turn.