North America

2015 will be remembered as a year when volatility returned to financial markets. With strong technical buffers to the trading range of US and European equity markets going into 2016, short volatility strategies look set to be compelling money earners in the year ahead, writes Andrew Barber.

The US corporate bond market had a fine Tuesday in its first week back from Christmas holidays, printing five deals totalling $8.775bn. However, momentum proved short-lived as volatility brought issuance to a shuddering halt.

The US is top of every European banking chief executive’s to-do list for 2016, as they race to comply with new regulations that will define the future of their international ambitions. Consolidation beckons, writes David Rothnie.

UK banks have wasted no time in plundering a deep dollar market for holding company senior debt this week, while euro investors have been restricted to a variety show of covered bonds.

BGC Brokers, the interdealer broker, is making a push into the competitive world of over-the-counter derivatives portfolio compression and has already taken out over €800bn notional of swaptions.

European high yield specialists hope the continent's market can repeat in 2016 its sharp outperformance compared with the US market last year — but history suggests that the two markets tend not to diverge for long.

Options traders took Monday's oil volatility seriously, sending prices for near-dated contracts to some of the highest levels of recent months.

The Toronto-Dominion Bank priced a €1bn five year covered bond on Tuesday, with the issuer able to tighten pricing from initial price thoughts on the back of strong demand for the non-ECB eligible paper.

GlobalCapital’s Toby Fildes interviewed the heads of debt capital markets at 20 of the top 25 banks in late November and December, to ask their views on how the market will evolve in 2016. Here are their thoughts. Information design Jon Hay, Sam Medway

Credit Suisse and UBS dominated Dealogic’s European FIG bookrunner rankings for 2015, helped by their issuer parents cranking up their issuance of holdco and capital instruments.

The GlobalCapital editorial team has picked what it believes to be the standout bond issues of 2015 across the financial institutions, public sector, emerging markets and corporate bond markets. We selected the trades that we think will be remembered for their success in challenging conditions, for making the best use of the demand available to them, or for having made a longer lasting impact, such as the re-opening of a market. The FIG Deals of the Year 2015 winners are presented here.

Qihoo 360 Technology is raising a $3.4bn equivalent renminbi loan to back its delisting from the New York Stock Exchange, picking China Merchants Bank to supply the funds.