Switzerland

In this round-up, Chinese regulators have further delayed any expansion of the qualified domestic institutional investor, Vanguard has completed its transition to a FTSE index that includes A-shares, and Malaysia’s new payment system adds support for RMB debt securities. Plus, a recap of GlobalRMB’s coverage this week.

The distinction of being the widest constituent in the Markit iTraxx Europe is clearly one that most companies would prefer not to have. Yet Glencore has held this dubious honour since before the last index roll in March. It had a challenger in fellow miner Anglo American, but Anglo’s downgrade to junk and consequent removal from the investment grade index left the field open to the Swiss firm.

National Australia Bank and Credit Suisse have both received the approval of investors to change terms of their existing covered bonds.

Adienne Pharma & Biotech, the Swiss pharmaceutical company specialising in treatments for orphan diseases, has announced its intention to float on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

China National Chemical Corp’s $12.7bn acquisition loan for Syngenta drew commitments from some 17 lenders, with the deal closing well oversubscribed, said bankers close to the matter.

Rating: Baa3/BBB-

More than $1.5bn worth of block trades completed within the space of three days this week showed that the summer break in European equity capital markets is well and truly over. The deals included two big Swedish sell-downs by EQT worth more than $500m, and a Sfr539m sale of Straumann Group shares.

The Financial Stability Board has singled out removing barriers to over-the-counter derivatives reporting as a priority for G20 leaders ahead of their summit in Hangzhou this weekend.

Swiss based commodity trader Ecom Agroindustrial will reach out to new, as well as existing, lenders in its $500m loan refinancing.

Following an internal restructuring, Credit Suisse has asked covered bond holders for their consent to amend the definition of an issuer event of default (EoD).

UBS this week priced a 10 year senior unsecured bond from its holding company that was described as an "absolute blowout", and which has improved prospects for tier two issuance.

Blockchain initiatives in financial markets came to the fore this week, with a group of banks teaming up to apply the technology to making payments and settling transactions, while a survey of 25 financial exchanges found that most of them are testing distributed ledger technology.