Italy

First it was a pair of car finance issuers. Then came a pair of utilities. And on Tuesday it was a pair of telecoms companies that came to the corporate bond market. But the latest couple really got investors revved up with more than €16.5bn of orders placed.

The European Central Bank is giving Banca Carige yet more time to boost its capital. If the lender cannot turn itself around, authorities will regret dithering while the private sector walked away.

The European Central Bank has seized control of Banca Carige after a majority of board members resigned. The new administrators include the old CEO and chair, originally proposed by the Malacalza family, as well as a lawyer with experience of merging financial entities.

Italian government bond yields hit multi-month lows following an agreement with the European Commission over the country's 2019 budget deficit target on Wednesday, ending a long and drawn out stand-off that had spooked BTP investors.

Italian energy company Enel failed to notify investors it would call its 6.5% hybrid corporate bonds by the date required, due to a “procedural issue.” The company still intends to offer noteholders the opportunity to redeem the notes at par via a tender offer, but it may find few takers.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena is planning to wait until next year to meet a European Commission requirement to issue a tier two bond, beyond the original deadline.

News that the European Central Bank was "reflecting" on reinstating its Targeted Longer-Term Refinancing Operations for a third time (TLTRO III) sent a cheer through the financial institutions bond market this week. Banking commentators had been expecting some sort of extension for the cheap liquidity programme, now they see it as all but inevitable, writes Tyler Davies.

The European Central Bank set the alarm bells ringing for a fresh bout of volatility in the Italian government bond market on Thursday as it outlined its strategy for the reinvestments of its maturing bonds under the Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP). Burhan Khadbai reports.

France looks set to be in breach of European Union budget rules after president Emmanuel Macron promised a set of concessionary measures in an effort to quell the violent protests of the last few weeks. While, by the absolute letter of the law, France’s breach will not be as bad as Italy’s, such a situation will hardly do much to stem the rise of populism or boost the credibility of the EU.

Italian equity capital markets (ECMs) have endured a less than stellar year with investors spooked by the country’s political ructions. But despite the outlook suggesting more of the same, as the country thrashes out a budget deal with the European Union, there are opportunities for Italian IPOs in 2019.

Italy is planning to syndicate bonds in the long end of the curve next year through inflation-linked and conventional formats.

Due to the lack of new issuance for over a week in the European corporate bond markets, the vote of no confidence in UK prime minister Theresa May was the talk of both the buy and sell sides on Wednesday morning. But there has been little effect on the market itself so far where political developments in other European states are more of a concern.