Europe

The large British banks have just completed one of the most complex structural reforms they’ve ever undertaken, severing their UK retail businesses from their wholesale operations to meet ringfence regulations. The sheer disruption of the changes has led competitors to scent blood, while the UK banks have been anxious to reassure their clients that nothing will change.

The banking industry has largely backed efforts to use sustainable financing to cut capital charges through a ‘green supporting factor’. But regulators may use the stick, as well as the carrot, through temporary capital add-ons for dirty lending — something the financial industry is unlikely to welcome.

There is something strange about allowing banks to use ordinary senior debt to count towards their minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL).

Emerging market currencies and bond yields were battered this week as old school contagion — the like of which has been absent for many years — infected the market as the Turkish lira crashed. But there is hope that a bounce back for many of these countries could be imminent, as it was after the 2013 taper tantrum. Francesca Young reports.

Banks with major exposures to Turkey were getting hammered after a loss of financial market confidence pushed the country towards a crisis at the beginning of the week. But analysts suggest that any fears of contagion into the European banking sector are overdone.

UK and Irish building materials group Grafton has raised €160m in a dual tranche US private placement (US PP) transaction.

Private equity firms have bolstered their high yield footprint in European and Nordic issuance, but yield spreads are also running up, according to SEB this week.

Concerns over the upcoming budget from Italy’s populist government — as well as the months’ long economic crisis in Turkey — took its toll on government bond yields in the eurozone periphery this week. But a hunt for safe assets among investors did play into the hands of top tier credits.

Within a fortnight, the Republic of Turkey is planning to announce “additional sources of financing” to fill a $2.5bn gap in its 2018 external bond funding plans, Berat Albayrak, the country's finance minister, said on an investor conference call on Thursday afternoon. Albayrak also said Turkey is not in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and ruled out capital controls.

Covered bond primary activity is expected to pick up from as early as next week with a couple of German issuers understood to be monitoring the market. FIG activity is predicted to ratchet up again the following week as borrowers move in advance of potentially negative rating news.

The UK government has said that it will provide full access to documents required to carry out an investigation into the supervision of the Co-operative Bank between 2008 and 2013, following criticism of the review’s protocol from the UK Treasury Select Committee.

The cost of buying credit default swaps on Turkish five year government debt has stopped its upward trajectory and eased lower, even as the country’s standoff with the US continues.