Europe

NatWest Markets has made some hires in strategy across emerging markets, rates and foreign exchange.

Credit Suisse has appointed Julian Corner as head of advanced execution services for EMEA, effective immediately, according to an internal memo.

Lars Jebjerg, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Danish Ship Finance, which is marketing its inaugural covered bond, talks to GlobalCapital about the bank’s distinctive business model, which has delivered stability amid the notorious volatility in underlying assets, which has sunk many lenders.

Another piece of the jigsaw of greener financial markets was inserted on Tuesday last week, though hardly anyone noticed. Under the EU’s new Investment Firms Regulation, asset managers and investment banks will have to disclose their environmental, social and governance risks, including from stranded assets, and how they vote in shareholder meetings. The requirements are quite radical and amount to insisting that all firms practice ESG investing.

Amid the blizzard of legislation going through Brussels in the dying days of the present Commission and Parliament’s mandate, little attention was paid last week to the new rules governing how investment managers and investment banks are supervised. But they have big implications, including bringing investment banks such as Barclays and Goldman Sachs under the European Central Bank.

Vodafone brought to market on Tuesday its second mandatorily convertible bond that comes with language indicating Vodafone will buy the shares back — a second attempt to achieve the corporate financing holy grail of 100% equity credit without diluting shareholders.

JC Flowers sold an overnight sale of Dutch commercial bank NIBC on Tuesday evening with a cornerstone investor backing the deal.

The Bank of England is rebooting a crisis-era tool for its banks. Firms will be able to use its liquidity facility in euros (LiFE) from next week, as central banks seek to avert a liquidity crunch in a no-deal Brexit scenario.

L-Bank on Tuesday became the first SSA issuer to sell a Sofr-linked floating rate note with Reg S only documentation. The $500m no-grow deal had over $600m of orders, with $125m of those coming from the leads — which said any stock they were left with would be useful for providing paper to investors looking to test their Sofr systems in the coming weeks and months.

Greece received a huge reception for its first 10 year benchmark in almost a decade on Tuesday, taking advantage of a double upgrade by Moody’s last Friday and strong market conditions.

The European Investment Bank and FMS Wertmanagement sold well oversubscribed issues in the sterling SSA market on Tuesday before an expected quieter period for new issues in the currency next week as parliament votes on prime minister Theresa May’s revised Brexit deal.

Sell-side sources are hoping that Iberian ECM can return to its golden age with sellers prepping more issuance after two deals hit screens in the last week.