UniCredit

European and US banks are facing pressure to become more diverse, for reasons of business and ethics. One senior investment banker at UniCredit, which has implemented a far-reaching initiative in the area, said that the logic is clear.

After two huge days of corporate bond issuance, Thursday was much quieter, with issues only from Vier Gas Transport and SBB Norden — not because the market was worse, but just because most of the issuers that wanted to come this week had crowded into the first two days.

Investment grade green loans have flourished this year, despite a decline in volumes in the wider loan market. Codification of green and sustainability linked financing by international loan trade associations has boosted environmental, social and governance (ESG) loan issuance in the developed markets, but the emerging markets have so far struggled to get going. Will that change as interest in green financing grows across CEEMEA?

Europe's corporate bond market opened emphatically for business on Tuesday, as seven issuers banished all memories of the summer holiday. Despite there being plenty of choice for investors, demand was high across the board. Multiple deals were two to three times oversubscribed, while the largest, a €3.5bn four trancher from Siemens, the machinery maker, was nearly 4.5 times covered.

Credit analysts at JP Morgan are urging investors to swap their euro bond holdings for similar deals in dollars, where they say there are ‘attractive opportunities to position for convergence’.

An impressive rally in Italian risk assets has been completely overturned this week, as Italy descended into political chaos. Some market participants now fear a repeat of last year, when Italian issuers were frozen out of debt and equity markets as the country’s government fought with the European Commission over its annual budget targets. Tyler Davies and Sam Kerr report.

With no major new issues in sight, the high yield bond market has been dominated by the news of troubled businesses struggling to come up with credible turnaround plans.

ZF Friedrichshafen is targeting the end of August to launch its grand return to the Schuldschein market, according to people with knowledge of the situation. The German car parts maker’s €2.2bn issue in November 2014 is the biggest deal the market has ever seen but a bigger deal may be on the way.

UniCredit has picked an internal candidate to be its global head of natural resources, choosing Eriks Atvars, currently global head of structured trade and export finance (STEF).

UniCredit has hired a new head of trading for sovereigns, supranationals and agencies to its European government bond trading desk in Milan.

Germany’s Dürr has signed a €750m sustainability-linked loan using blockchain technology, as the mechanical and plant engineering firm continues its push into sustainability refinancing that started with a green Schuldschein.

Fabrizio Saccomanni, chair of UniCredit, has died at the aged of 76.