Europe

Spain’s head funding of funding and debt management has been appointed as the new chairman of the EU's Economic and Financial Committee’s Sub-Committee on European Union Sovereign Debt Markets (ESDM).

The survey for GlobalCapital's Covered Bond Awards 2019 is due to close on January 16. You don't need to be a subscriber to vote.

This week's funding scorecard looks at the progress European sovereigns have made in their funding programmes at the start of August.

Profits at Natixis’s corporate and investment bank fell sharply in the second quarter after provisions for credit losses tripled, it showed in results released after market close on Thursday. The bank was also keen to display its sustainable finance initiatives.

Global equity indices plummeted on Friday morning after US president Donald Trump announced that the US would tax $300bn of Chinese goods in a fresh round off tariffs.

In an otherwise barren summer week for equity block trades in Europe, UBS led the sale on Thursday night of R1.4bn ($95.4m) of stock in Mondi, the Anglo-South African paper and packaging company, on behalf of a group of shareholders left out of a recent reorganisation of Mondi’s listing.

The London Stock Exchange Group’s purchase of market data and infrastructure firm Refinitiv for around $27bn will help it make a push in data, as well as allow it to expand its index business in fixed income, the stock exchange provider believes.

BNP Paribas hires UK advisory head — Créd Ag’s credit unit chief moves to markets role — AIIB hires ICBC loan syndicator.

Capital market participants with an interest in UK social housing are paying close attention to new UK prime minister Boris Johnson’s appointments to his cabinet and inner circle, to try to gain a sense of his attitude towards housing.

Barclays performed better than its peers in fixed income, currencies and commodities over the first half of the year, helping it beat consensus estimates when it reported results on Thursday. The slide in sterling and a one-off gain from the IPO of Tradeweb flattered the results in its home currency.

Refinitiv bondholders will likely not receive the full sum of the make-whole premiums that apply to the bonds if London Stock Exchange Group refinances all of them before their call date. An equity claw clause will allow Refinitiv to refinance 40% of the bonds at a cheaper 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.