Europe

Aareal Bank turned to the dollar market on Wednesday to issue a $625m three year Pfandbrief to fund its dollar assets, thereby avoiding the need to swap proceeds back to euros.

Credit Mutuel CIC showed that demand for duration is still strong, as it drew €2.2bn of interest for a €1.25bn covered bond that it launched on Wednesday on the eve of the European Central Bank’s policy meeting.

Nationwide Building Society is offering more of its highly performing Core Capital Deferred Shares (CCDS), a rare instrument it pioneered back in 2013.

US private equity firm Carlyle agreed to buy Prima Solutions on Wednesday, deploying its Europe-focused technology fund to so. European market participants say this could be the start of US sponsors growing more active in Europe.

France, Tennet, NWB and Berlin Hyp are among the green and social bond issuers acclaimed in GlobalCapital's Sustainable and Responsible Capital Markets Awards 2017, which were announced on Tuesday in Amsterdam.

Tuesday’s £250m seven year bond issue from French oil company Total looked like a straightforward small benchmark sterling deal for a regular issuer. However, the marketing process for the deal marked a change from the normal approach and it is something investors are keen to see more of.

Yorkshire Building Society (YBS) opened books on new tier two in the sterling market on Wednesday, as it considered whether difficulties in the process of changing to a new way of modelling for risk could leave it short of its minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL).

Crédit Agricole CIB, the investment banking arm of the larger French bank, has hired a market veteran from Société Générale as global head of debt capital markets solutions and advisory.

Predictions of a very busy September by bankers during the summer have so far proved accurate. This week, after the US public holiday on Monday, there have been a rush of block trades and three more IPOs launched.

Niche players see MiFID II's research rules as an opportunity to win market share.

Two more borrowers added on Tuesday to the almost €3bn of new high yield bonds already being marketed in Europe this week. But just as the market is set to surpass last year's volumes, investors have started to voice concern over low coupon levels.

After the US public holiday on Monday restricted trading, the equity block trades market in EMEA reopened spectacularly this week, with a rush of large deals from across the region.