Americas

Berenberg has strengthened its US-focused team, hiring a new chief economist to focus on the region.

Latin American supranational Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) priced a Sfr200m ($203m) eight year bond on Monday with its lowest coupon ever on an international bond deal.

Three of the UK’s biggest banks raised $5bn in senior and sub notes across the curve in the dollar market on Monday, while ING Bank still managed to beat them all in terms of size.

Colombian state oil company Ecopetrol has hired María Fernanda Suárez Londoño, a former head of the country’s public credit unit, as corporate vice-president of finance and strategy.

Markit has launched an FX trade confirmation service that it hopes will mitigate operation risk and allow counterparties to manage trade lifecycle events more efficiently.

Beneath listless summertime stock market trading, options markets continue to signal increasing worry.

Citigroup has hired Stephen Roti to head its global corporate equity derivatives team.

Poseidon Containers, the Greek shipping company, has suspended its plan to list on the New York Stock Exchange, blaming unfavourable market conditions.

ING Bank launched a dual tranche benchmark in dollars on Monday morning, as the currency continues to provide a funding outlet for European banks.

Brazil’s rapidly falling currency may be a symptom of ever increasing economic pain in Latin America’s largest economy, but it is lending a helping hand to the country’s exporters — in particular food company BR Foods (BRF).

Iochpe Maxion, the Brazilian group that makes more vehicle wheels than any other company in the world via its Maxion Wheels division, said on Friday that it is considering turning to cross-border bond markets for financing.

Last month we noted that market-based measures of implied volatility had fallen considerably as Chinese indexes stabilised, developed market equities moved toward recent highs and commodity selloffs were contained. Two weeks later, we find that volatility risk premiums have fallen further in most cases, as traders price in less risk during a seasonally quiet period.