Europe

Royal Bank of Scotland was marketing a new additional tier one instrument on Wednesday, while Standard Chartered was also looking to take advantage of more attractive spreads across the asset class.

Akbank will widen the margin on its loan by 25bp if the bank is downgraded, a condition the bank’s relationship lenders called for after Turkey’s attempted coup on July 15. But two lenders said the step-up should be bigger.

JP Morgan has hired a new head of European loan trading in London, poaching the banker from Credit Suisse.

European equity capital markets remain muted ahead of what many participants expect to be an extremely busy autumn window. Yet in London, there is one live deal of substantial size progressing steadily towards completion.

The Canton of Ticino tapped a Sfr120m ($122.8m) 0.4% June 2044 bond on Wednesday for Sfr50m. The issuer took advantage of the absence of Swiss government bond auctions this August and a tighter pricing environment since the UK's Brexit vote.

Two weeks into August and the anticipated summer slowdown is still not that slow, with big name borrowers continuing to test both the investment grade and high yield bond market, as well as bringing leveraged loans.

CEEMEA primary markets have finally become a victim of the summer heat but there’s no snoozing on the beach for syndicate bankers. Planning for the second half of the year has already started in earnest.

With new issue premiums set to rise and spreads prone to soften, the covered bond market could be set for a repeat of last year’s spread widening. But this time supply is more limited, and any move wider won't last.

Shares in Melrose Industries, the UK investment firm, began trading ex-rights on Tuesday ahead of its £1.6bn ($2.08bn) rights issue on the London Stock Exchange.

Since the August 4 announcement that the Bank of England will purchase corporate bonds again, much chin stroking has occurred about the differences between the Bank’s approach and that of the European Central Bank. In at least one respect, though, the BoE's scheme seems superior.

FMS Wertmanagement mandated banks for a dollar benchmark on Tuesday as Asian Development Bank sold a dual tranche dollar green bond, amid a topsy-turvy time for US Treasury yields.

The London Metals Exchange plans to offer a range of exchange traded and centrally cleared precious metal products, starting with gold and silver spot and futures contracts.