North America

McDonald's led a headlong rush by high grade US dollar debt issuers to grab investors’ attention before the year-end shutdown and a likely interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve.

Puerto Rico’s development bank made a $354m debt payment this week, narrowly staving off default.

The Province of British Columbia (BC) has mandated Bank of China and HSBC as joint leads for its debut Panda bond, Mike de Jong, BC’s Minister of Finance, told GlobalRMB. The deal is expected to launch in January and will be the first Panda from a sovereign credit.

Standard Chartered (StanChart) has cut its Americas and Europe RMB solutions teams in recent months, according to a source. The bank has recently begun a global restructuring process.

A debt capital markets banker at Morgan Stanley has left to join Mizuho International, GlobalCapital understands.

Export Development Canada (EDC) printed its long awaited green bond on Tuesday. While it did not move on pricing, bankers on the deal said it was a strong trade for a sub-benchmark size.

Ball Corp, the US metal packaging manufacturer, wants to issue its first euro bond as part of a €1.5bn-equivalent deal to support the purchase of UK can maker Rexam.

Intercontinental Exchange will introduce 81 energy futures and options contracts in December through its US and European exchanges.

Chinese authorities are expected to allow the renminbi to depreciate following the decision on the IMF Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket, though there is a debate about how severe that fall will be. Either way, it is likely a hike in rates by the Federal Reserves (Fed) could hold more sway on the RMB's future than SDR inclusion.

The Province of British Columbia (BC) has moved one step closer to selling a Panda bond after it secured a quota of Rmb6bn ($973m) to issue renminbi-denominated notes in China’s interbank market.

Solvay, the Belgian chemical company, enjoyed the benefit of the European corporate bond market's blistering return to form this week, when it raised €3.25bn of hybrid and senior debt for its acquisition of Cytec Industries.

Lloyds Banking Group printed a 30 year tier two deal as a flurry of FIG borrowers dominated the dollar market ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.