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The European Commission on Tuesday gave the derivatives clearing industry a lifeline by granting an 18 month equivalence decision that will allow European firms to keep using UK central counterparties.

The European Central Bank (ECB) could be considering merging the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP) and its longstanding Asset Purchase Programme (APP). If it does, this would amount to the bank discarding its self-imposed limits on quantitative easing.

If the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) and Euronext strike a deal over Borsa Italiana, a leading player in European government bond trading will change hands. Euronext may turn to the bonds and equity markets to finance the acquisition.

Agora, the end-to-end debt capital markets platform being developed by bond market veteran Charlie Berman, has closed a second funding round with support from new investors including David E. Rutter, the founder and chief executive of R3, the company behind the Corda blockchain system on which Agora will operate.

Argentina’s recently restructured international bond curve looks further than ever from the 10% yield target that the finance minister had set. New currency controls aimed at halting the decline in international reserves have had a catastrophic impact on both corporate and sovereign bond markets, and are likely to spell major trouble in the long term, analysts say.

If UBS’s reported exploration of a merger with Credit Suisse actually leads to a tie-up at some point, it would create a formidable European investment bank.

Despite the financing that two jumbo acquisitions revealed this week would require, loans bankers fear that with no end to the coronavirus pandemic in sight and entire industries reeling from the fallout of lockdown, their jobs will soon be on the line. Mariam Meskin and Mike Turner report.

Amy West has been named global head of a new sustainable finance and corporate transitions group at TD Securities, which becomes the latest bank to launch a new unit working in this area.

RBC Capital Markets’ expansion in European investment banking came in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. A decade on, the coronavirus pandemic has presented it with a very different set of challenges.

The European Central Bank said on Thursday that the economy was in a poor enough state to justify letting banks take advantage of a recent agreement on leverage ratio relief.

An accounting practice called badwill is central to debates about European bank M&A — but it probably should not be, as it leads to some confusing rhetoric.

Gonzalo García and Anthony Gutman have been named as co-heads of the investment banking division for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Goldman Sachs. They take on what is a new position.