United States

Banco Santander ratcheted in pricing on three tranches of non-preferred senior debt on Tuesday, raising $2.5bn in its first dollar-denominated deal in the format.

The first meeting between new US president Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping starting Thursday could prove fateful for the bilateral relationship and China's renminbi, with the outlook remaining cloudy on what the US president's next moves might be.

The former chief operating officer of the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC), Michael McClain, has joined the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) as general manager of equity clearing.

Andrew B. Busch has been named by US Commodity Trading Futures Commission (CFTC) acting chairman, Christopher Giancarlo, as the Commission's first chief market intelligence officer.

Nine mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners have invited lenders to join the international loan market debut of Ant Financial subsidiary, Alipay (Hong Kong) Holding. The money will partly be used to support Ant’s bid to acquire MoneyGram.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has settled a charge of spoofing in the US Treasury futures market with two Citigroup traders.

The dollar market for bank and financial issuance has recorded its first week of zero supply in 2017, but still smashed records for the busiest quarter of all time.

US aircraft component maker Rockwell Collins re-opened the dollar market with the biggest deal in its history and propelled high-grade issuance to its busiest first quarter on record.

With big, powerful rivals including the syndicated loan market, the European private placement or Euro PP market has its work cut out to establish itself as a genuine alternative for companies looking to raise debt. However, its flexibility and growing institutional investor base mean there are plenty of grounds for optimism. Philip Moore reports.

Those who work in the US private placement market, as it is often referred to, say this is a misnomer. They prefer ‘traditional’ or ‘global’ private placement market and, while the European challenge may be increasing, the numbers suggest they have a point. Richard Metcalf reports.

While the large US insurance companies remain the bedrock of the US private placement investor base, slim pickings elsewhere in the capital markets are pushing other kinds of investors to look at the product. But with demand for paper already far outweighing supply, market participants do not necessarily see this as a boon. Richard Metcalf reports.

The role of the US private placement market in infrastructure project finance has expanded in recent years as investors have become more accommodating, competing with traditional sources of project finance in an effort to place vast amounts of capital amid scarce supply and low rates. Richard Metcalf reports.