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Tatjana Greil Castro has been promoted to co-head of public markets at Muzinich an investor in corporate credit.

Bankia and CaixaBank have opened a new chapter in Spanish bank consolidation, having announced that they are undergoing preliminary discussions about a merger. Analysts welcomed the development and believe that it will mark an important test for consolidation in the Spanish banking sector.

Market observers believe that investors in open-ended debt funds need to be disincentivised more than they are at present from scrambling to liquidate their holdings in a market downturn.

HSBC might be in the middle of a big restructuring, but that isn’t stopping plans to develop mid-market M&A efforts in France, Germany and Asia as well as the UK, writes David Rothnie. The bank has also bolstered its teams covering specific sectors.

The top investment banks will achieve substantially higher returns on equity this year, predicts analytics firm Coalition, after revenues in fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) soared in the first half of the year.

HSBC has hired Jan Laubjerg for a new position as global head of natural resources.

City workers used to go to ubiquitous sandwich chain Pret A Manger because it was close to the office. Now, the UK government wants us to go to our offices because they’re near a Pret. Yes, the City’s retail and commercial property economies are in trouble, but cajoling people back to the office is not the answer.

Citigroup has beefed up its presence in France by hiring Robin Rousseau, Deutsche Bank’s head of M&A for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The offices of London’s top banks are unlikely to fill up in the coming weeks, as firms are adopting a gradualistic approach to returning staff to their pre-pandemic workplaces.

JP Morgan’s new Development Finance Institution (DFI) has been racking up its deal count during the coronavirus crisis. Its aim is to bring transparency and more investment to development finance in emerging markets, but some experts are doubtful about the project.

Nomura has cut jobs in its investment banking business in Europe over the summer, following losses in leveraged finance, as its new chief executive eyes up other regions for growth, writes David Rothnie.

Kim Balt, who led ING's equity syndicate desk for 18 years, has joined Avantium, a Dutch company that makes alternatives to plastics from plants.