North America

Bank of Montreal (BMO) has opened books for its third covered bond benchmark of the year but its first in dollars in four years. The deal follows a string of successful transactions in the US currency issued by BMO’s Canadian peers at progressively tighter spreads and in larger sizes.

The news that the US is to receive a Rmb250bn investment quota has been greeted as a welcome, if long overdue, development. Plans are also underway to set up a renminbi clearing system in the US, but the challenge will be convincing the country’s corporates to use the currency.

A trio of issuers have lined up short end dollar deals for pricing on Wednesday. Some bankers said the focus on threes and fives was in response to poor US jobs data last week, although that view was not universal.

OpenDoor Trading has joined forces with Broadway Technology to speed up development of its trading platform for the US Treasury bond market.

The state of Illinois sank deeper into trouble over a budget impasse this week, with Moody's cutting the US state's credit rating while a key financial market figure told lawmakers that a proposed derivatives tax would only worsen problems rather than help solve them.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange is stepping up plans to expand outside of the US by opening its first international business development office in London in July.

Power plants developer ContourGlobal is sounding investors for its first euro-denominated bond, just one week after Moody’s withdrew its rating due to a lack of information.

Markit, the financial information services firm, has hired an experienced banker to head up index research and development in New York.

GlobalCapital is delighted to announce the winners of its Americas Derivatives Awards for 2016. The results were revealed at a gala dinner at New York’s Metropolitan Club on June 2. Thank you to everyone who supported the event by attending and for taking part in the pitches that decided who were the best and brightest in US, Canadian and Latin American derivatives over the last 12 months.

Aetna proved the resilience of the dollar market by printing a $13bn M&A trade with no new issue premium on Thursday, coming just days after the busiest ever month for US high grade bond issuance in May.

US insurer AIG, one of the major players in the subprime mortgage crisis, was welcomed back to the euro bond market this week for the first time since its rescue.

The US private placement market has hosted a few whopper deals from European issuers this year, but overall dealflow has been underwhelming. Meanwhile, the Schuldschein market has had its second busiest quarter ever and has already led bankers to raise their full year volume predictions. Rob Cooke and Elly Whittaker report.