Switzerland

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) advised the Swiss National Bank (SNB) to adjust its policies away from foreign currency interventions and towards even deeper negative interest rates on Monday.

UBS is seeking the agreement of investors to change the maturity structure of two hard bullet covered bonds to soft bullets with a 12 month extension.

Pfandbriefbank Schweizerischer Hypothekarinstitute placed on Tuesday a dual tranche deal in Swiss francs. The shorter tranche was fashioned into a 12 year clip to entice investors looking for positive yield.

UBS is seeking the agreement of investors to change the maturity structure of two hard bullet covered bonds to soft bullets with a 12 month extension.

CME Group rolled out a suite of weekly expiring, S&P index-based options on futures this week, while European rival exchange Eurex introduced trading of weekly expiring equity option contracts onto its exchange that reference SMI, Switzerland’s blue chip stock market index.

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.