Europe

Credit investors are pleased with how banks performed in the EU stress test, though the sector lost more capital on average than it did in the previous exercise in 2018. The market was even sanguine about Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, which will be able to stick to its ‘fallback’ plan despite losing all its capital under the adverse scenario.

Barclays has proven the financial institutions bond market is still open for business in early August, after attracting strong demand on Monday for a large euro senior deal.

Eurizon, the asset management business owned by Intesa Sanpaolo, has hired Federica Calvetti from Deutsche Bank to lead its ESG and strategic activism team in Milan.

Bank of America has hired Uday Malhotra back from Goldman Sachs as head of leveraged finance origination in EMEA in London, while Eddie Martin, a managing director in the division, is relocating to the US.

TechnipFMC, the French-US energy technologies group, executed on Thursday night its second block sale of shares in Technip Energies, the engineering and construction subsidiary it span off in February. Despite the holiday season, the parent achieved a fractionally higher price than in the last trade and a significantly tighter discount.

It is difficult these days, if not impossible, to find a bank that does not have an official policy or target to boost diversity and inclusion. By pushing them out of their comfort zones, could the pandemic help finally turn these aspirations into reality?

German filter maker Mann+Hummel has closed its innovative Schuldschein, which had both green and sustainability-linked components, at €150m-equivalent in dollars and euros.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena’s capital instruments are at risk of being zeroed after UniCredit announced this week that it could buy the state-owned Italian lender on extremely favourable terms. Market participants are more optimistic on Monte’s senior debt, which would rally strongly if included in a merger.

Andrea Orcel is looking to clinch a deal for Unicredit to acquire parts of stricken Italian lender Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) in the early part of September after revealing it was negotiating with the Italian government.

Investment banks are broadening the search for talent and tweaking their recruitment message to attract and retain the bankers of the future, as working conditions and corporate culture emerge as hot topics after a difficult period for staff in the industry.

The big public sector borrowers are watching out for two obstacles as they prepare for a crowded autumn funding season: guidance from the ECB and the US Federal Reserve on tapering their bond buying programmes, and the return of the Next Generation EU debt issuance programme.

The US Federal Reserve signalled on Wednesday that a tapering of its support the economy may not be too far away. Market participants across both emerging and developed markets, however, appeared unruffled by the announcement.