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Intesa Sanpaolo caught the market by surprise when it launched a takeover bid for UBI Banca on Monday night. The announcement sent credit and equity valuations surging higher, with investors pinning their hopes on consolidation in the Italian banking sector.

HSBC’s new strategic plan involves numerous changes to its investment banking division, including shifting resources to Asia and the Middle East, reducing the scale of many operations in the European markets business, and combining product functions with commercial banking.

Royal Bank of Scotland — or NatWest Group, as it plans to rebrand itself later this year — is set to cut back risk-weighted assets in the investment bank, particularly in rates. The bank also committed to stricter lending and underwriting criteria for fossil fuel companies.

One of the most prominent debt bankers at HSBC has left the firm, as the reorganisation of senior management under interim CEO Noel Quinn continues.

Barclays posted another strong set of returns from the corporate and investment bank (CIB) on Thursday, but the disclosure that UK regulators are investigating chief executive Jes Staley’s relationship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was described as a “red flag”.

EU member states plan to agree on a common candidate to succeed the UK’s Suma Chakrabarti as president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development after his term ends in May. France, Italy and Poland have each put a name forward.

Negotiations may involve a degree of posturing, but as demonstrated with the plan to demand “permanent equivalence” with the EU over financial regulation, it is not clear what future the UK government wants for one of its most important industries.

Nabil Lahham has joined HSBC to head up advisory and corporate finance coverage for the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey. He was most recently at Perella Weinberg Partners.

Investec has furthered its push in corporate finance with five new hires. It continues to win new UK broking mandates.

Sustainable finance players are enthusiastic about regulation, which they expect to bring clarity and order to the market. It may — though when the new EU rules are implemented they are likely to irk participants more than they expect. But what would be really effective are direct actions that bypass finance.

Credit Suisse’s outgoing chief executive Tidjane Thiam thought he could win the power struggle against chairman Urs Rohner but he overlooked the real power broker — Severin Schwan.

Natixis, one of the investment banks that has gone furthest to prioritise greener financing, had to ramp up its provisions for credit loss from US natural gas producers in the fourth quarter, pointing to “structural transformation” in the sector. But it told GlobalCapital that it still saw opportunity in the industry.