Just hours after stepping off his flight from Sydney to London on November 9, Citigroup’s Alex Hayes-Griffin was pricing a €750 million covered bond for National Australia Bank. It was a good first impression from the banker who only that morning had been named head of European crossborder debt capital markets. It was also a good example of why the US bank has created the position.

Borrowers from outside Europe have secured a record amount of money through euro-denominated bonds so far in 2015 - €184.4 billion as of November 18, the highest value since data firm Dealogic started tracking transactions in 1995.