UK

The market is poised for an overhaul of Europe’s securities rules, as part of the European Commission’s Capital Markets Union agenda. The UK has weighed in on the debate arguing for a stripped down process, a split prospectus, and no blackout period.

Lingering uncertainty over Greece put a curb on credit spread movement on Wednesday, as a Greek parliamentary vote on austerity reforms failed to materialise in time to affect the July index options expiry.

Three block trades took place on Tuesday night, as Europe’s equity capital markets appear to be returning to normality after the stress of the Greek debt negotiations of the past few weeks.

Lloyds returned to covered bonds on Wednesday for its annual benchmark in euros. At €1.5bn, the five year was one of the largest this year, and with a book of over €2.5bn, it was one of the most heavily oversubscribed. The strong result was a testimony to the generous new issue premium which catalysed switching interest and caused a healthy repricing of the curve.

US speciality chemical products holding company Platform will buy UK firm Alent for £1.35bn using a $1.9bn bridge loan from Credit Suisse.

UK banks will find it harder to game leverage ratios as regulators plan to introduce stricter disclosure rules than those in Europe.

After announcing its intention to repurchase all of its series 7 and series 8 2017 covered bonds, Northern Rock Asset Management (NRAM) has set the purchase price on the notes. It is hoping to reduce its liabilities and close its covered bond programme following a successful buyback in March.

Northern Rock Asset Management (NRAM) intends to buy back all of its covered bonds due 2017 which are validly tendered, and was due to set the purchase price on Friday afternoon.

The Bank of Scotland has issued a consent solicitation requesting a switch from hard bullet to 12 month extendable soft bullet maturities for seven of its benchmark deals.

All but one of Afren's directors resigned on Thursday, ahead of the firm’s annual general meeting, pre-empting what some shareholders had expected would be a bloodbath vote for any historical director seeking re-election.

Rating: A1/A/AA-

In this round-up, Singapore deposits fell in the first quarter this year, Taiwan RMB deposits rose to a new record, Bank of China joined the new gold benchmark, and the first overseas inverse ETF shorting A-shares entered the market.