UK

Falling oil prices and China concerns sent credit spreads to the record wides of recent years this week as equity markets plummeted, with a credit index options expiry coming right at the sharp end of the spike and adding to the turmoil.

European stocks rose on Thursday, as European Central Bank president Mario Draghi offered a supportive, if vague, acknowledgment of the market’s struggles. But bankers said they would need several consecutive days of rising markets to regain confidence in this quarter’s prospects for primary issuance.

UK banks could look to stockpile their funding in 2016, as the country’s forthcoming EU membership referendum will cause capital markets to snarl up later in the year.

Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank Group, the UK mid-sized bank being spun off by National Australia Bank, had by day three of bookbuild received more than enough demand to place all of the shares in its London IPO.

Investors have taken up the vast majority of the shares offered by RPC Group, the plastic packaging maker, in a £233m rights issue it launched last month.

A corporate bond syndicate banker has been made redundant by Lloyds Bank.

Britain's banking market is a frenzy of new arrivals and challengers to the old order. The Bank of England even set up a New Banks Unit this week to welcome them all. But for most of history, the trend has run in the opposite direction.

Indian lender Yes Bank signed a memorandum of understanding with the London Stock Exchange (LSE) on Tuesday to develop bond and equity issuance that focus on green infrastructure finance.

Deutsche Bank is set to lose the head of its European investment grade credit trading business.

As part of plans to grow its derivatives business, Mizuho International has begun to clear euro and dollar interest rate trades through LCH.Clearnet’s SwapClear.

Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank Group, the UK mid-sized bank being spun off by National Australia Bank, has set the price range for its London IPO at a level that it hopes will prove compelling to investors in spite of market volatility.

Simon Allocca, head of loan markets at Lloyds Bank, is moving to a new job at the bank.