UK

BGL Group, the owner of UK price comparison website Comparethemarket.com, has cancelled its preparations to list on the London Stock Exchange, after agreeing to sell a minority stake to Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

The Bank of England has published its gender pay gap report, and has reiterated that it is doing everything it can to recruit senior female talent — but sources GlobalCapital spoke to said it isn’t hiring women that is the problem, but keeping them.

Increased UK borrowing needs could take the shine off an opportunity for SSA borrowers to take advantage of a potential drop in issuance by the European Investment Bank as the UK leaves the European Union, said bankers.

Direct Line Insurance is set to become the first insurer to sell a benchmark restricted tier one (RT1) deal in the sterling market. The UK insurer will use the proceeds from the transaction to buy back some of its older tier two notes and optimise its capital stack under Solvency II.

A former Bank of America Merrill Lynch trader has been fined £60,090 for manipulating the price of Dutch government bonds on the electronic platform BrokerTec — though the profit made on the trading was 'insignificant'.

The German Investment Funds Association (BVI) demanded the relocation of euro denominated interest rate swaps clearing from London to the EU 27 on Wednesday, citing regulatory concerns due to Brexit and lower costs for fund companies.

The long-awaited Shanghai-London Stock Connect is set for launch next year, a source at the London Stock Exchange has revealed.

Liberty Living, the UK student accommodation provider, built a strong order book for its debut bond on Tuesday. It raised £500m, split equally between seven and 12 year tranches.

Property developer Soho China has filed for a Rmb10bn ($1.5bn) medium term note programme with the National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors, in preparation for its debut deal in the Panda bond market.

China Resource Cement Holdings is making a return to Panda bonds more than a year after its debut in the Mainland’s onshore renminbi market.

Corporate bond issuers are using this week to prepare investors for the last window of issuance of 2017. Monday saw more issuers add their names to the roadshow schedule in Europe as TLG Immobilien used the quiet conditions to issue its debut bond.

Derivatives markets participants listening in to BBC Radio 4 on Monday morning would have been surprised by a voice that they are more accustomed to hearing in conference halls — that of Christopher Giancarlo, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.