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UBS has made several senior staff in Spain redundant, including Madrid-based DCM managing director Daniel Vazquez Villanueva, GlobalCapital understands. The cuts came as part of a general redundancy round last year, but revenues from the region have been hurt by a hard stop in business from Santander after it decided not to hire former UBS investment banking boss Andrea Orcel as chief executive.

A lack of credible internal candidates and a desire for stability across its divisions led UBS to cast the net wider to find a successor to chief executive Sergio Ermotti. It has appointed ING CEO Ralph Hamers.

Dubai Islamic Bank is embarking on a roadshow having mandated nine banks for a long five year or seven year dollar benchmark sukuk.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has sent a team to Lebanon to provide technical advice to the country. Analysts have said this could be the first step towards the country seeking a financing package. But expectation that it will default on its March 2020 Eurobond is growing.

Alain Gallois will become Natixis’s global head of investment banking, replacing Mohamed Kallala. The latter is heading over to run global markets, with that role’s incumbent, Luc François, leaving the bank.

JP Morgan has promoted a whole new layer of leadership in its investment bank, reaching down to debt capital markets, equity capital markets and M&A. At the top of the tree, Carlos Hernandez has moved from being head of global investment banking to executive chair and has appointed new co-heads of global investment banking.

HSBC will not be making cuts to its equity capital markets or its equity trading capabilities after announcing the results of a strategic review on Tuesday. The bank will be reducing headcount in sales and research, but said that its execution ability in ECM will not be affected in any way.

Intesa Sanpaolo caught the market by surprise when it launched a takeover bid for UBI Banca on Monday night. The announcement sent credit and equity valuations surging higher, with investors pinning their hopes on consolidation in the Italian banking sector.

Riyad Bank has tightened price guidance on its 10 year non-call five tier two bond, with order books at over $4.8bn for the note.

Gazprom has released initial price guidance for a 10 year dollar benchmark at 3.625% area. A US investor said the deal was a “buy”.

The Islamic Development Bank is returning to the international sukuk market for a five year Reg S dollar benchmark.

HSBC’s new strategic plan involves numerous changes to its investment banking division, including shifting resources to Asia and the Middle East, reducing the scale of many operations in the European markets business, and combining product functions with commercial banking.