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When TD Securities was appointed as the 22nd primary dealer in the US in February 2014, it represented an important landmark in the evolution of TD Securities’ global capital market franchise, underscoring its long-term commitment to the world’s largest and most liquid fixed income market. John Moore, head of US and international fixed income, says that the firm’s increasingly prominent position in the US capital market builds on the fast-growing footprint of its parent, Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD Bank) across the US banking sector.

After a strong start to the year, liability management activity came to a halt following the ECB’s announcement of its corporate sector purchase programme, prompting questions as to how this latest stimulus package will affect the market. Despite the slowdown, however, there is reason to believe an uptick in activity is on the horizon, according to UniCredit’s Liability Management team.

Issuers and investors have had to get used to an environment of heavily negative swap spreads in the US market during the last six months. Swap spreads have come back from the tightest levels seen before Christmas, however intraday volatility and big swings in the shape of the swap spread curve continue to provide a challenging backdrop for SSA issuers and investors to navigate

The recent performance of the province of British Columbia’s economy provides a compelling lesson in the long-term benefits of diversification. At a time when the Canadian economy has been negatively impacted by weakness in commodity prices, BC has established itself at the top of the country’s provincial growth rankings

The past few years have seen substantial activity in Germany’s Schuldschein market. With bond markets roiled by volatility and negative yields, many investors — including an increasing number of international players — are seeing Schuldscheine as an attractive alternative, and 2016 looks set to be one of the market’s biggest years yet, says Rudolf Bayer¬, Managing Director, and Jörg Stührwohldt, Managing Director, at UniCredit.

The sterling SSA primary bond market is set to have a record breaking first quarter in terms of issuance volumes, which currently stand at £12.25bn. There have been a number of notable deals from inaugural issuers and those returning to the market after a long break, but also regular issuers have achieved much bigger volumes. From the demand side, the breadth of participation has also been apparent, with the three big investor bases — central banks, bank treasuries and UK real money — all participating in good size. We look into the reasons why and whether it will continue.

Act now before the nuisance becomes a real headache!

Commerzbank’s Michael Weigerding looks at trends in the covered bonds market for the year ahead

Even by the standards of today’s fast-changing regulatory environment, the new OTC variation margin requirements due to be introduced from March 2017 pose a major challenge to sell-side and buy-side alike. Asset managers will face major operational burdens and risks as they prepare to comply; the scale of which may not yet be fully appreciated.

What should you be asking?

Commerzbank Corporates & Markets examines the benefits of leasing in corporate finance

After surpassing several milestones in 2015, the covered bond market should be set for another record-breaking year in 2016. Bill Thornhill talks to Société Générale CIB’s head of covered bond origination, Ralf Grossmann, and the bank’s senior covered bond research analyst, Cristina Costa, about their predictions and recommendations for the forthcoming year.

Europe gains traction on domestic demand: we like risky assets and see limited euro downside

Commerzbank Corporates and Markets reviews European IPO activity

Since the 2008 financial crisis, for a number of years subdued activity in IPOs was believed to be the norm on Italian exchanges. Yet since 2014, political and economic trends are changing the script — prompting a boom in Italian IPO activity, according to Stefania Godoli, global head of equity capital markets at UniCredit.

Commerzbank Corporates & Markets outline the current attraction of the High Yield Bond Market

The growth of corporate issuance in the green bond market is a compelling trend in modern capital markets. While this growth will continue, market entrants must pay heed to the market’s unique demands, say Antonio Keglevich, head of green bond origination, and Robert Vielhaber, green bond analyst at UniCredit

Last week we highlighted the positive performance of the mining sector with the Euromoney Global Mining Index returning +8.55% in October. Certainly not a bad start to the fourth quarter. Platinum producer Lonmin, who has been in the Euromoney Global Mining Index since 1985, topped the companies’ performance league table. That could be a bit misleading.

Commerzbank Corporates & Markets examines the international attractions of Germany’s private placement solution

The Euro corporate hybrid bond market has evolved exceptionally well since 2013, reaching a total market size of circa €85bn as of today, having become a well accepted, fairly standardised source of funding for many corporates. Featuring debt and equity characteristics alike, hybrids offer accounting, rating as well as tax benefits and create economic value for issuers. For investors, hybrids offer a welcome opportunity to diversify their investment portfolio and increase average return, but inherent risk should be eyed carefully.

For the OTC derivatives industry, joining forces is the only way to prepare for a rising tide of regulation. Only a combined industry initiative can drive the transformation in fluidity that will be needed when new regulations place collateral at the centre of every OTC derivatives trade. Unprecedented regulation is leading to unprecedented collaboration.

The Euromoney Smaller European Companies Index Series currently comprises 1350 companies across 16 European countries.

The Euromoney EMIX Europe Index currently comprises 637 companies across 16 European countries, including the largest 350 stocks and the most liquid 35% of the smaller company universe.

How collateral’s rise will profoundly impact markets

The number of onshore corporate defaults in China during 2015 has already exceeded the total for last year. The recent trend has broken the myth of the “automatic bailout” in China’s onshore market which had led some investors to ignore credit fundamentals in the expectation that all debts would ultimately be underwritten by the state.