North America

Jingdong Hua has seen his fair share of crises. In Africa when the Rwandan genocide happened, in the Philippines when the Asian tsunami hit, in New York City when the twin towers fell on 9/11, he now finds himself in Washington, DC at one of the key institutions the world is desperately looking to to lead it out of the coronavirus crisis.

Lloyds Bank decided to tender some of its covered bonds in three major currencies this week in what it called a “prudent approach” towards its liquidity base. The move could prompt more issuance in the asset class this year in an effort to refinance some of the tendered securities, but it could also decrease liquidity at the short end of the curve, given the cheaper refinancing alternatives open to banks.

Barclays has made Paul Leech and Todd Sandoz interim co-heads of global equities, after Fater Belbachir was hired by Citi.

In this special round-up on China’s annual Two Sessions parliamentary meeting, the government does not set a growth target for 2020 but raises the budget deficit to at least 3.6% of GDP. It also plans to issue Rmb1tr ($140bn) of special ‘anti-pandemic’ treasury bonds.

After nearly two months of persuasion, Mexican petrochemicals company Grupo Idesa received the approval of its bondholders to push out some $300m of international bonds by six years and give major relief to its liquidity situation.

Safety measures to respond to the coronavirus threat are forcing a rethink of office space at financial firms. And in the long-term, banks are set to reconsider their physical footprint and how much work can be carried out remotely, according to managers and experts.

European banks are expected to hit the dollar market in force over the coming weeks as they look to take advantage of an extended rally in spreads.

Pfizer was at its opportunistic best this week as it issued $4bn of notes that included the lowest ever coupon on a corporate five year bond.

Citi picks Nick Darrant as syndicate head — And it sets up new sustainability and science units — JP Morgan reveals next layer of DCM, ECM and M&A bosses

A supranational and a Nordic bank paid rare visits to the Swiss franc market this week. The North American Development Bank (NADB) printed its first deal in two years — its second green bond — while Nordea returned after a five year absence.

Dollars was the favoured currency for public sector borrowers for the second week running this week, giving attractive funding conditions for euro borrowers amid strong investor demand, particularly in the 10 year part of the curve.

Isaac Deutsch, who led Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation's Americas specialized finance division between 2012 and 2018 before becoming the firm's deputy Americas CEO, is said to have departed from the bank earlier this week.