UK

The London Stock Exchange’s Order book for Retail Bonds — ORB — received lower issuance in 2015 than in 2014. The main reason was the strong return of banks to the lending field, supplemented by institutional direct lenders. But much made 2015 a year of advances and the mood was far from glum as seven ORB market participants came to the LSE to discuss a wide range of topics, including regulation, liquidity and defaults.

Ascential and Countryside Properties this week swelled the ranks of London’s declared IPO hopefuls, which already included CMC Markets and CYBG, as the UK ramps up to what is expected to be a busy IPO season.

CMC Markets, the financial spread betting firm founded by Peter Cruddas, has announced its long-expected intention to float in London.

Covered bonds issued this week from Lloyds and Bank of Nova Scotia were among the largest seen this year and attracted the biggest order books.

Nationwide Building

Law firm Dorsey & Whitney has hired a partner as part of its expansion in the private equity and acquisition finance sectors.

Standard Chartered has revealed the new management structure of its global capital markets team following a highly publicised restructuring last year. Leading the revamped capital markets unit is Henrik Raber, who told GlobalCapital Asia this week that he is confident the bank will be able to stand strong amid changes. Rev Hui reports.

The UK High Court has said that a former Deutsche Bank trader’s suit to claim crisis-era bonus payments “has no realistic prospect of success”.

CYBG, the UK mid-sized bank owned by National Australia Bank, will start building the book for its initial public offering in London next week.

This year’s first high profile IPO in Europe began today, when CMC Markets, the financial spread betting firm founded by Peter Cruddas, announced its long-expected intention to float in London.

One of the bond market's best known heads of treasury has stepped down and is heading to another financial institution, GlobalCapital understands.

Nationwide Building Society has continued its funding surge into 2016, offering sterling investors a rare chance to pick up long dated senior unsecured paper from a UK lender.