Europe

BBVA has hired a former MTN banker at Santander as a director in its liability management team.

Covered bond spreads are expected to widen if the European Central Bank increases its deposit rate from minus 0.4% to 0% across its whole portfolio. But some market participants think the ECB will adopt a tiered approach to the €2tr of excess liquidity held on deposit, which should not greatly affect covered bond spreads.

Nexi, the Italian payments company, has fallen by almost 8% on its first day of trading after its Milan IPO last week. High volume selling at the beginning of the day has hurt the stock.

Turkey is butting heads with Nato over the purchase of a Russian missile system, with the diplomatic tensions weighing on the nation’s currency and asset prices. This is despite the improving economic data offering signs that the country may be leaving recession.

Another day, another Santander call option. The bank revealed this week that it will call its 6.375% $1.5bn additional tier one perpetual note. In February it became the first bank ever to extend the life of an AT1, but its move this week gave market participants better insight into how it is likely to treat call decisions.

Metalloinvest, the Russian steel maker, has signed a sustainability-linked bilateral credit line with ING. It is one of the first sustainability-linked loans for a Russian borrower and comes as ING continues its drive to expand in this area.

UniCredit has settled with US authorities and agreed to pay about $1.3bn for breaking US sanctions, but the Italian bank said this amount was fully covered by provisions.

Andy Green, chairman of IG Group, the online derivatives trading provider, is to stand down later this year.

Estimated losses in the transition to a low carbon economy could top $20tr, according to a speech delivered on Monday by the Bank of England’s Sarah Breeden. The warning was delivered as the UK’s Prudential Regulation Authority published a new supervisory statement on plans to enhance banks’ and insurers’ management of risks from climate change.

Over €6bn of new IPO paper was priced in Europe last week, the best single week of issuance in over four years.

Last week's brief quieter spell for investment grade corporate bond issuance in Europe continued this week, with little appearing on screens. What did appear, however, tantalised many investors. On Monday, Sika, the Swiss chemicals and building materials company, managed to slash its pricing while achieving plenty of oversubscription on its first ever bond issue in euros, as it financed its planned acquisition of Parex Group.

Yellow Cake, a London-listed company operating in the uranium sector, completed a £25.9m share sale on Friday to continue funding uranium purchases from Kazakh uranium producer Kazatomprom.