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The European Central Bank’s purchase programme will do little to aid agencies in raising cash in the commercial paper market, making little difference to rising borrowing costs and expanding programmes, according to Jérôme Margerin, head of short-term funding at ACOSS, one of Europe’s largest non-sovereign CP issuers.

Banks providing reserve-based lending facilities to oil exploration companies are looking to sell these loans, usually held and refinanced as ultra-secure relationship products, at bargain basement prices.

The treasurer of Helsinki-based Nordic Investment Bank, is leaving the supranational to join an investment bank in Copenhagen.

Analysts have praised UniCredit for taking a conservative approach to dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, after the Italian bank said on Wednesday that it would be making higher loan losses provisions in the first quarter than had been expected by the market.

One of the co-heads of the London Group of Tradition, the interdealer broker that is one of the largest in the over-the-counter derivatives market, is leaving the firm.

Supervisors are encouraging financial institutions to use all of their capital and liquidity buffers as necessary during the coronavirus crisis, signalling that lenders will be given a "significant" amount of time to restore their regulatory ratios to adequate levels.

The UK government has filled one of the last gaps in its offer of financial help to companies struggling with effects of the coronavirus, by removing the cap of £500m revenue, which had barred many medium-sized companies from accessing government loans — raising the possibility that high yield bond issuers could tap loans for a variety of purposes.

UBS has made Paul Mahony head of corporate debt capital markets and derivatives for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, following on from Barry Donlon’s appointment as head of DCM for the region.

The European Central Bank is encouraging investment banks to keep up their market making activities during the coronavirus pandemic by offering them temporary relief on their capital requirements for market risk.

Governments in developed countries have rushed to introduce measures to support companies, large and small, battling with the effects of coronavirus lockdowns. But they are all doing it differently, throwing a spotlight on the relationships between public and private sectors in each country and inviting the question: which is the gold standard? Jon Hay, Silas Brown and Mariam Meskin report.

Banks and other private creditors are under pressure to follow the lead of the Group of 20 nations and suspend debt service payments by the poorest countries, as lobby groups urged world leaders to go further and cancel outstanding loans. Phil Thornton reports.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is looking at redeploying assets held by advanced economies to help developing ones, its head said on Thursday. But she admitted the Fund’s shareholders had failed to agree on a deal to issue billions of new capital. Phil Thornton reports.