Banks

The World Bank has printed the longest ever bond with a coupon linked to the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (Sofr), edging the market towards settling the debate about how to calculate coupons based on the benchmark rate.

The new UK government’s cavalier approach to Brexit has had a brutal impact on the value of sterling, making it less likely that UK banks will want to pay back the principal on some of their foreign currency additional tier ones (AT1s), writes Tyler Davies.

The European Investment Bank set two records in the sterling bond market this week. The supranational issued the largest ever single tranche socially responsible bond in sterling across any sector, which took supranational and agency supply in the currency to an all-time annual high — even though it’s only August.

Rating: B2/B/B+

Renaissance Capital has hired Funeka Beja-Maseko as a retail analyst at director level, and Andrew Nkumbula as a vice-president for investment banking. Both are based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The head of equity capital markets for the German speaking region at Bank of America Merrill Lynch has left the bank and retired after more than two decades in the investment banking industry.

Andrew McNaught will lead BNP Paribas’ UK advisory team from the end of the month, as the French bank plans to develop its corporate operations in the country “further, faster”.

Southern California Edison has priced a $1.2bn dual tranche corporate bond offering after its credit ratings were placed on a firmer footing in the wake of a wildfire risk mitigation law.

A loan backing Rank Group’s £115.3m acquisition of Stride Gaming is expected to come to the market before the end of August.

The focus was on costs in the second quarter results of BNP Paribas and Société Générale’s investment banks, announced this week. BNP Paribas managed to keep a lid on expenses and could boast of "positive jaws", but SG took on a big charge from its restructuring.

Barclays said on Thursday that it will redeem three of its additional tier one (AT1) bonds in September, though a weaker pound means that paying the debt back will eat into its common equity tier one ratio.

Lloyds Banking Group has returned to the Aussie dollar market for the first time since May 2018, offering investors the chance to invest in two tranches of senior debt at the operating company level. The issuer follows a wave of European and UK financial institutions making their way down under.