North America

Stanley Fischer has resigned as second in command at the US Federal Reserve, leaving four of the seven seats on the Fed governors' board vacant.

Oleg Melentyev has joined Bank of America Merrill Lynch as head of leveraged finance strategy in New York, after four years in the same position at Deutsche Bank.

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) on Wednesday announced a spate of changes to its senior management, all due to be enacted in October, including the replacement of veteran president of ICE Futures Europe David Peniket with Stuart Williams.

US private equity firm Carlyle agreed to buy Prima Solutions on Wednesday, deploying its Europe-focused technology fund to so. European market participants say this could be the start of US sponsors growing more active in Europe.

Red chip property developer Joy City has hit the Panda bond market for the first time, raising Rmb1bn ($153.1m) from a three year bond on September 5. Although the deal was small in size, it caught the attention of some Bond Connect investors thanks to the issuer’s reputation.

Two more borrowers added on Tuesday to the almost €3bn of new high yield bonds already being marketed in Europe this week. But just as the market is set to surpass last year's volumes, investors have started to voice concern over low coupon levels.

The European high yield bond market returned from its summer break to €2.8bn of new bond offerings this week, including a sub-benchmark sized note from Delaware’s Kronos International on Monday.

Chinese biotech firm Zai Lab has launched bookbuilding for a $105.9m IPO of American Depository Shares (ADS), and is counting on US investors favouring start-ups to support the deal.

Zai Lab is set to kick off roadshows on Tuesday for its $150m IPO on the Nasdaq, according to a banker leading the transaction.

A record-breaking month of high-grade dollar bond supply fizzled out as Hurricane Harvey, North Korea and the holiday season kept a firm lid on issuance.

Best, a logistics firm backed by Alibaba, started pre-marketing its $1bn IPO on the New York Stock Exchange this week, as a clutch of Chinese issuers also filed listing applications in the US.

ING has reshuffled its line-up of syndicated finance bankers, creating a new European regional head role while relocating its global head from London.