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.

At $121 billion, worldwide green bond sales this year are already 57% higher than at this point in 2018. Sweden’s longest-dated issue currently in existence is a 3.5% bond repayable in 2039 that yields about zero. Sweden should expand its horizons by offering investors the longest-dated green bond ever seen.

Australian pension funds are taking on more foreign-currency risk as they strive to preserve returns in a low interest-rate environment. 72% of the surveyed super funds plan to increase their share of offshore investments over the next two years. They favour unlisted assets such as private debt, private equity, infrastructure, real estate.

Never before have interest rates in the world’s biggest covered-bond market been this low. And rarely has investor demand for the debt been so high. Pacific Investment Management Co. is among investors embracing Danish mortgage-backed covered bonds, even as negative interest rates mean investors face built-in losses on some bonds.

Finance Minister Olaf Scholz says he’ll look into whether it’s possible to prevent German banks from charging most retail-banking clients for deposits, after such a measure was proposed by the leader of Bavaria. Lenders have rejected the idea, saying bans don’t ultimately help clients and could even destabilize financial markets.

It’s really unusual and really distorting the global financial system. Negative rates are like a parallel universe where everything you’ve ever learned about finance and human behaviour is turned upside down. Expected erosion of savings could actually make households more conservative, pulling back on consumption both today and in the future.

In total, SNCF Réseau has so far raised €5.4 billion in green bonds, nearly doubling the figure this year, now ranks seventh in the global green bond issuance market. According to rating agency Moody's, issuers brought $66.6 billion of green bonds to market globally the second quarter of 2019, up 47% on an annualized basis compared to 2018.

The Bank of England governor, Mark Carney has challenged the dollar’s position as the world’s reserve currency, arguing that it could be replaced by a global digital alternative. He said a new digital currency backed by a large group of nations would unlock dollar funds that governments currently hoard as an insurance policy in uncertain times.

In Scandinavia sub-zero rates have been the norm longer than most other places. So far banks haven’t passed negative rates on to private customer. Key investors may not accept that approach much longer. Sampo Oyj, the Finnish holding company that owns about 20% of Nordea Bank Abp, says it is high time attitudes change on the subject.

Gold, once mocked for its lack of yield, offers something the growing pile of negative-yielding bonds doesn’t, inflation protection. As holders of promissory notes watch the real value of their savings drain away amid central bankers’ efforts to kick-start growth, the allure of one of the oldest investment assets has become ever stronger.

It makes sense that green bonds are meant for green companies. But there aren’t that many of them — not enough to meet the rising demand from investors who want their money to have a positive impact on the environment. So what if some of that money went to finance green activities by less-than-green firms.