UK

NatWest Markets, the investment bank owned by Royal Bank of Scotland, has launched its own environmental, social and governance deposit product, responding to a desire among companies, public bodies and investment firms to invest their cash ethically.

Crédit Agricole has nabbed one of HSBC’s former sustainability bond leads to work on its sustainable financing team in Asia.

Muenchener Hypothekenbank (MuHyp) was set to issue a $600m three year Reg S dollar Pfandbrief on Tuesday, at close to the tightest levels seen this year and with exceptionally strong demand. The stellar outcome encouraged Lloyds Bank to announce a follow-on deal of its own.

Investors in London have been considering the opportunity to invest in Uzbekistan this week, through a new closed-end fund, Oltin, the first internationally listed security giving investors exposure to the Central Asian republic.

The UK's Pension Insurance Corp has bought a £40m bond privately issued by Eildon Housing Association, a Scottish social housing provider.

Pension Insurance Corporation has announced plans to issue its first restricted tier one (RT1) instrument as it looks to fund the growth of its business. Analysts at CreditSights suggest the deal could be priced with a coupon of about 7%.

New issue premiums have been widening somewhat in Europe's corporate bond market in recent weeks, but Accent, a UK housing association, priced its debut bond at a level bankers said was tighter than where comparable issuers were trading.

Swiss Re is blaming weak investor demand for it postponing the £793m IPO of ReAssure, its UK closed book life insurance division.

The UK Debt Management Office (DMO) issued its 60th syndicated bond on Tuesday and signalled a “smooth” start to the second quarter of its 2019–20 financial year, as it printed an inflation-linked tap that was eight times oversubscribed.

Barclays’ ex-head of EMEA FIG syndicate John Wright has started a new job at Standard & Poor as financial institutions credit analyst.

In this round-up, US and China will resume trade talks next week, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley near 51% stakes in their Chinese joint ventures (JVs), and China’s foreign minister offered a strong-worded rebuttal to the UK’s stand on Hong Kong protests.

Lloyds made its first public sale of debt from its non-ringfenced bank on Thursday, pricing the senior bonds about 16bp tighter than similar instruments from the group’s holding company.