Europe

In the third systems failure in three months, derivatives trading on the primary Russian exchange Moskovskaya Birzha (MOEX) was halted for half an hour on Wednesday before service resumed.

The Bank of Scotland has become the first bank to not win approval to switch some of its covered bonds from a hard to a soft bullet repayment.

It has been a busy week for Markit’s expansion plans, with the company agreeing to buy CoreOne Technologies and launching an FX trade confirmation service.

The Dutch mortgage market, one of the largest in Europe, could be poised for radical transformation that stands to change the way loans are originated and funded. Bill Thornhill reports.

A report by Scope Ratings argues that the German corporate Schuldschein market is more heavily populated with high yield issuers than has previously been acknowledged.

There aren’t many corporate insolvencies that would make a good movie. But any scriptwriters out there wanting to emulate the success of the Enron film should read our coverage of Afren this week.

Stadshypotek became the second Swedish bank this year to issue a sterling floating rate covered bond, pricing its deal in line with Canadian issuers.

Changing the selection rules for the CDX HY index, which references the debt of US high yield companies, should make it more useful for investors as a hedge against cash bonds. But the even better news is that Markit and CDS market makers seem to have learned from the experience of last year's changes to Europe's equivalent, the iTraxx Crossover.

Analysts expect Russian borrowers’ foreign currency debt redemptions to put pressure on the rouble, despite the central bank’s efforts to downplay the effect.

BNP Paribas responded to investor demand for dollar paper with a $1.5bn additional tier one (AT1) this week, just two months after making its euro debut.

Back in 2010, Brazil’s finance minister Guido Mantega warned that the world was in the midst of a “currency war” in the wake of US quantitative easing. The term is now back in vogue after China made the shock decision to devalue its currency.

The AT1 market has come of age. In just over two years there is no longer a need for arduous investor education and perfect markets to sell the riskiest bank debt on offer.