UK

A former interest rate derivatives trader at Royal Bank of Scotland, Neil Danziger, was fined £250,000 by the Financial Conduct Authority on Monday for allegedly trying to manipulate Libor.

Surprisingly, given the strength of the corporate bond market, no euro mandates or roadshows were announced on Monday other than Vonovia's €1bn deal, which was completed intraday. However, the sterling market has finally flickered into life.

Barclays and Lloyds were marketing new senior offerings from their holding companies on Monday, having each already printed two transactions in the first week of 2018.

The poll is open for GlobalCapital’s Equity Capital Markets Awards for 2017 and we invite market participants to have their say on the best performers of last year.

HM Treasury has appointed Charles Randell as the chair of the UK's Financial Conduct Authority and chair of the Payments Systems Regulator.

Arif Hussein, a former rates trader involved in the Libor rigging scandal at UBS, faced the Upper Tribunal this week to argue against his ban from working in the City, saying he had just been following orders. Following the UK’s introduction of the Senior Managers Regime in 2016, any similar scandal would play out very differently today.

The sterling covered bond market enjoyed a strong start to the year, with four issuers raising a collective £3.7bn. Barclays priced the first deal of the year, which also happened to be one of the longest and largest.

LBBW, Santander UK and Westpac all enjoyed fair demand for seven year covered bonds issued this week, suggesting good scope for further issuance in this tenor.

Xafinity, the UK actuarial services company, has completed its first capital increase since its £180m IPO on the London Stock Exchange in February 2017.

Westpac and Santander UK returned to the euro covered bond market on Thursday. Though early book momentum was marginally stronger in the Australian deal, the oversubscription ratios for both deals was rather low. Meanwhile, Stadshypotek showed that there is still good scope for further sterling covered bond supply.

Banks and other financial firms operate in complex lattices of regulation. But for any firm based in the UK and operating internationally, Brexit means they have no idea what regulations will apply, come March 2019. They cannot afford to do nothing, yet do not know what to plan for. As Nigel Owen reports, the response has been to plan for every scenario, including relocation from London.

The London Stock Exchange this week reaffirmed its commitment to open access under the second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, as major European exchanges and clearing houses (CCPs) were granted exemptions from the requirement until July 3 2020.