Barclays

Bank restructurings come in two flavours — the kind where the business stays pretty much the same, and the kind where it doesn’t. 2015 was the year of the latter, as new chief executives, new business models and a pervasive sense of existential doubt hung over investment banking. Owen Sanderson reports

It’s been a tough eight years for banks — and for bankers — and the perception of finance as a career has changed in the public mind. But banks aren’t losing out in the race to hire young bright graduates, as much as the career expectations of those graduates are changing. Banks need to keep up with the times if they want to compete, writes Graham Bippart.

The European corporate bond market is preparing for another dose of quantitative easing this year and with the US Federal Reserve having finally pressed the rate button, Ross Lancaster explores what the side effects of central bank policy divergence will be.

While the last few years have been all about the European high yield bond market rapidly developing into a dependable financing source for private equity sponsors, 2015 saw the loan market fight back. But as Max Bower and Victor Jimenez point out, it has done so at a time when LBO sponsors face increasing competition from IPOs and trade buyers.

IPO, rights issue and equity-linked volume were all down in 2015, so the fact that block trades maintained their 2014 level of issuance made them the stand-out business of the year in equity capital markets. Now stocks participants are asking themselves if they can keep up the pace. Olivier Holmey reports.

The sterling market enjoyed a second record breaking day in a row on Wednesday as FMS Wertmanagement printed its largest ever deal in the currency — and sterling investors were impatient for an upcoming World Bank deal.

The US is top of every European banking chief executive’s to-do list for 2016, as they race to comply with new regulations that will define the future of their international ambitions. Consolidation beckons, writes David Rothnie.

After the second half of last year proved a real headache for primary issuance, participants in the European IPO market are readying themselves to brave markets that could be just as choppy in the first half of 2016. As Olivier Holmey reports, some of 2015’s innovations are likely to become widespread.

Sharjah has become the first CEEMEA issuer to brave the bond markets this year, mandating six banks for a Reg S-only dollar sukuk roadshow and defying sceptics who said earlier this week that Middle East issuance would be postponed as geopolitical tensions in the region escalated.

Barclays has printed one of the largest dollar senior trades from a European bank in recent memory, as it and Santander UK took home $5bn of holding company debt between them on Tuesday.

UK banks have wasted no time in plundering a deep dollar market for holding company senior debt this week, while euro investors have been restricted to a variety show of covered bonds.

Malaysian low cost carrier AirAsia is set to make its first outing to the international bond market having mandated three banks to arrange a series of fixed income meetings.