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If UBS’s reported exploration of a merger with Credit Suisse actually leads to a tie-up at some point, it would create a formidable European investment bank.

Despite the financing that two jumbo acquisitions revealed this week would require, loans bankers fear that with no end to the coronavirus pandemic in sight and entire industries reeling from the fallout of lockdown, their jobs will soon be on the line. Mariam Meskin and Mike Turner report.

Amy West has been named global head of a new sustainable finance and corporate transitions group at TD Securities, which becomes the latest bank to launch a new unit working in this area.

RBC Capital Markets’ expansion in European investment banking came in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. A decade on, the coronavirus pandemic has presented it with a very different set of challenges.

The European Central Bank said on Thursday that the economy was in a poor enough state to justify letting banks take advantage of a recent agreement on leverage ratio relief.

An accounting practice called badwill is central to debates about European bank M&A — but it probably should not be, as it leads to some confusing rhetoric.

Gonzalo García and Anthony Gutman have been named as co-heads of the investment banking division for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Goldman Sachs. They take on what is a new position.

More European banks may see benefits to merging with each other as the coronavirus crisis damages profitability and the European Central Bank appears more positive on tie-ups. However, cross-border M&A is likely to remain difficult to execute.

The European Commission will meet with governments and industry this month to flesh out a plan for how to deal with a build-up of bad loans on bank balance sheets.

Voluntary efforts could bring about a global market in trading carbon offsets, even before there is a statutory basis for this, according to the leader of a new taskforce launched by Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of England.

Hugh Hendry, the outspoken founder of former macro hedge fund Eclectica Asset Management, told GlobalCapital he sees no evidence for the re-emergence of global macro as a broad and viable investment strategy. Were volatility to rise again, Hendry says he may well get back into the financial fray but the likelihood of that is vanishingly slim.

Michael Corbat is to retire from Citigroup in February, and Jane Fraser will step up as chief executive.