North America

Danske Bank offered its senior non-preferred bond to dollar investors on Wednesday, after UniCredit raised $3bn in the format the day before.

UniCredit came to the dollar market on Tuesday, looking to sell a public senior non-preferred bond after its large private placement a few months ago. The bank was thought to be offering a large premium.

A benign start to the year for major equity indices could be just the comfort blocks bankers need to price deals before corporate blackouts begin.

Euro covered bonds issued by ANZ New Zealand, Caffil and National Bank of Canada on Tuesday provided “the least worst option” in a spread widening environment, said bankers.

Credit default swaps (CDS) are a complicated product. But the past year has presented a few examples of market participants resorting to ‘creative’ tactics to optimise payouts. If the market fails to respond to concerns around the viability of CDS, the product may have to be rethought.

The unexpected decision by Jim Yong Kim to stand down as World Bank president three years ahead of schedule will raise worries in the development community that Donald Trump will use the opportunity to select a political appointee. By Phil Thornton

A funding official at a Canadian public sector borrower is switching to another SSA in the country.

Chris Concannon, Cboe Global Markets' COO and president, will leave the exchange group next week to join electronic trading platform MarketAxess in the same roles.

Danske Bank is looking to issue a senior non-preferred bond, giving primary market investors a chance to judge the institution after developments in a money laundering scandal have raised the prospect of it receiving a large fine from US authorities. Danske follows BNP Paribas, which paid up to print a new deal on Thursday.

In this round-up, US and China agreed to hold trade talks in Beijing early next week, the central bank loosened the definition of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors (Nafmii) appointed a new party chief.

Companies usually park their reserves of cash in staid, low-yielding liquid assets. But asset managers are trying to persuade them to invest some of that money differently, in a way that could help them live up to their environmental commitments.

Berkshire Hathaway was one of five issuers to brave choppy conditions on Thursday and open the dollar market with the first trades of 2019.