UK

Markit, the financial information services firm, has agreed to buy Loan/SERV technology assets from the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) in a bid to expand its loan management services.

The UK Debt Management Office (DMO) has appointed a former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee to carry out a review into finding a new provider for end-of-day reference prices for Gilts and bills.

Standard Chartered Bank has made two promotions — crowning a new head of capital markets for Americas and Europe and a new head of European syndicate.

Lloyds and Société Générale both returned to the covered bond market to issue their first euro-denominated benchmarks of the year on Monday. The UK bank issued in much larger size with an order book that grew far more quickly than the book for SG’s deal.

Santander UK was set to print a solid sterling senior holdco debut on Friday, but different views of the appropriate spread between opco and holdco debt meant rival bankers couldn't agree on fair value for the deal.

One of BNP Paribas' most senior debt bankers, Tim Drayson, has left the firm.

Virgin Money has mandated leads for a new UK prime RMBS deal from its established Gosforth shelf, which will be issued in multiple currencies and will look to attract US investors with a 144A registration.

As news of the UK and US investigation into SSA market trading practices broke, the SSA market split over whether the banks at the heart of the probe would lose primary business.

Lloyds issued the first sterling covered bond of the year and was quickly followed by two overseas issuers who priced deals at successively wider levels.

Investigators are finally baring their teeth at the bond markets, after dozens of other post-crisis scandals, with a probe into the supranational and agency market that has engulfed four banks.

Standard Chartered has announced that the group’s deputy chief executive officer will retire from the role and step down from the board at the end of April.

Mounting pressure on UK chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne to preserve London’s place as a global financial centre may have played a part in the Financial Conduct Authority interim chief executive’s decision, announced on Thursday, to withdraw her application for the permanent position.