UK

Barclays began marketing a multi-tranche Samurai trade on Monday, as some FIG bankers claimed European banks were still baulking at the new issue premiums being offered by US visitors to the euro market.

Recent global volatility stemming from China’s stock market battles has prompted debate among credit traders about the potential impact of a US rate rise this month, and fears for the consequences should it be pushed back to a later date.

Sterling bonds are not always the most exciting market, but there is a new mini-boom going on that has no parallel in Europe.

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The pay gap between men and women working in the front office of investment banks is driven more by bonuses paid than the basic rate of pay, according to Emolument data. But some banks say that they are making strides in their efforts to increase the proportion of women in leadership positions.

Daiwa Capital Markets has hired a former head of sterling credit trading from Lloyds in a bid to increase the Japanese group’s presence in the currency.

The share price of Paris-listed Ingenico plummeted on Friday, even as the Cac 40 index rose, after it was reported that the firm was considering a merger with UK payment processing company Worldpay.

Lloyds Bank was at the head of a stack of FIG trades that hit the market on Tuesday, despite European stocks diving again on poor manufacturing data from China.

The UK Debt Management Office plans to reopen an ultra-long index-linker in the second half of September. The deal will be the sovereign’s third syndication of its financial year.

Dealers have cut their fixed income inventories by 75% since 2008, according to staff at the Bank of England, who questioned bond market liquidity in a timely blog post on Thursday.

The UK’s gargantuan £4.2bn infrastructure project, the Thames Tideway Tunnel, will delight institutional investors and bankers alike with as much as £2.8bn of rare inflation-linked bond issuance. Elly Whittaker reports.

Sanne, the corporate administration provider, spent £7m on transaction costs for its initial public offering in March, the firm said in its half year results.