Americas

Former Colombian president and one time market darling Álvaro Uribe’s cherry-picked candidate won the first round of the presidential election on Sunday, giving investors some relief amid tough markets.

Colombia’s inter-parliamentary Public Credit Commission on Tuesday approved a sovereign guarantee to Empresa Metro de Bogotá, the company managing the proposed construction of the city’s first subway line, opening the possibility of a bond issue.

Toronto Dominion Bank issued the only two covered bond benchmarks in what was otherwise a desolate week for the FIG sector. Despite exceptionally volatile market conditions, the euro and sterling transactions went well leading a syndicate banker to conclude that TD "owns" the covered bond market.

US corporate bond bankers are hoping for a rebound in supply in June, after the high grade new issue market limped to the end of May.

Goldman Sachs and three other major banks have signed up to the project to build a joint electronic bookbuilding system for the US investment grade market, joining Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citi, and JP Morgan and giving the new platform a strong shot at total market dominance. Goldman’s merchant banking arm sold Ipreo, the main rival to the new project, last week.

Cryptocurrencies had an incredible run last year, but for them to really hit the mainstream, their advocates should study the sort of old money institutions many of them oppose: central banks.

The US Federal Reserve Board has put forward a sweeping set of proposals to soften restrictions on proprietary trading under the Volcker rule, in a move that could free up banks to pursue more transactions related to underwriting and market making.

GDS Holdings added some much-needed diversity to Asia’s equity-linked market with its first print in the format on Thursday, which proved a hit with investors.

Chiles’s largest utility by installed capacity and number of clients is looking to become the first Latin American investment-grade company to tap dollar markets since May 3, after announcing investor meetings ahead of a proposed SEC-registered benchmark.

Toronto Dominion took advantage of a brief respite from volatility in the European government bond market to issue a €1bn seven year transaction on Wednesday.

Turkish assets have performed this week after a long period of weakness with two emerging markets portfolio managers saying that the worst of the volatility in the lira exchange rate may have passed.

Colombia’s inter-parliamentary Public Credit Commission on Tuesday approved a sovereign guarantee to Empresa Metro de Bogotá, the company managing the proposed construction of the city’s first subway line, opening the possibility of a bond issue.