Europe

Yorkshire Building Society announced a roadshow for a senior €500m no-grow trade on Monday, as Nationwide Building Society plans to take a much larger sum of senior notes out of the market.

Italian equity capital markets players are waiting for clarity on the country's political future after Sunday's election gave the whip hand to the populist Five Star Movement and the anti-immigration Northern League.

The better-than-expected performance of the Northern League and the Five Star Movement in Sunday’s Italian election provoked alarm but not panic in the FIG market. Issuance from the country is likely to slow down as politicians try to form an administration.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has promoted Craig Coben, its global head of equity capital markets, to vice-chairman of global capital markets. The role takes him out of day-to-day business management and allows him to focus purely on clients.

Georgia Capital, the investment arm of Bank of Georgia Group (BGEO), had the sole attention of EM investors on Monday with a new six year note.

Hiscox is gearing up to sell short five year funding in the sterling market this week, as new issue conditions have become increasingly volatile across currencies.

The EU institutions are not likely to introduce lower bank capital requirements for green assets, judging by the response of politicians and lawmakers so far.

On Friday, Unilever Spreads released guidance for its €4.6bn equivalent loan to fund its acquisition by KKR. French telecoms infrastructure group Circet also launched a smaller deal, a €570m loan package for its buyout by Advent. But investor demand isn't satisfied yet, say some market participants.

The European Commission's College of Commissioners is expected to vote on the long-expected pan-European covered bond directive soon and the final paper is due around mid-March. Though it is likely that reforms will be needed, these are not expected to present a major challenge said bankers closely involved with the process.

On Thursday, Prologis, the US-based warehouse Reit group, became the first issuer from its sector to issue a green bond, when it sold a €300m 10 year deal.

Econocom, the Belgian provider of digital business-to-business services, shook off fears over stockmarket volatility to issue a €200m convertible bond on Thursday.

This week's scorecard looks at the progress Nordic agencies have made in their funding programmes.