Europe

In a move that is expected to bolster the market for green covered bonds, the final text of the European Commission’s draft Taxonomy of Sustainable Economic Activities has been revised to accommodate current best practice and include buildings that rank nationally within the top 15% most energy-efficient.

The European Union on Monday announced the mandate for its final Support to Mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE) transaction of the first quarter, which will raise up to €13bn across the two tranches.

An imminent bond issue from Turkey is looking unlikely, investors say, after the abrupt sacking on Saturday of Naci Ağbal, governor of the central bank, just a day after he had raised interest rates by 200bp. Both hard and local currency bonds have sold off and market participants fear a balance of payments crisis.

Trustpilot, the online review site listing in London, has grown the size of its IPO to meet strong demand for the offering and to give deal-hungry investors a better chance of getting some shares in the listing.

Swedish banks will have to maintain a countercyclical capital buffer worth 2% of their risk-weighted assets during normal times, according to new guidance from the nation’s Financial Supervisory Authority this week.

Shares in London’s listed airlines pulled back on Monday morning after UK transport minister Grant Shapps said on Sunday it was “too early to tell” whether holidays abroad would be allowed once lockdown restrictions end, raising fears of another false dawn for the industry and a fresh round of emergency capital raising.

Supermarket Income Reit, the London-listed real estate investment trust focused on properties let to supermarkets, is gearing up for another buying spree of new assets, having raised £153m of equity from investors.

The UK Debt Management Office on Monday chose the banks to lead the sale of its second sukuk via syndication. Like the sovereign’s debut sukuk in 2014, none of the UK’s Islamic banks are included on the mandate.

A leaked letter from the European Parliament, seen by GlobalCapital, shows the Parliament has joined in the debate about the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, which has been watered down to make life easier for institutional investors. The Parliament is calling for the rules to be strengthened, to help savers know which investments are green and ensure compliance does not become just a “tick box exercise”.

In a move expected to add pressure to the already suffering long dated Treasury market, the Federal Reserve confirmed on Friday that US banks will once more have to include Treasury holdings in their leverage ratios from next month.

A wave of central bank rate hikes across emerging markets over the last week, particularly in CEEMEA, has stimulated investor confidence amid a volatile period in global markets. The recent rise in US Treasury yields had threatened to pull money away from EM, with a further risk of weakening local currencies.

Vaccine optimism and the end of Brexit has meant that the UK has enjoyed its best ever start to a year in the equity capital markets.